Author: Asuman Bisiika. PHOTO/FILE
On Friday April 5, I attended a students’ convention at Metropolitan International University in Kampala. I was in the good company of Maj Pollar Awich (director of external affairs at the NRM Secretariat and the Mr Sebola Solly, the political counsellor at the South African High Commission in Kampala.
The topic for discussion was “Repositioning Africa’s role in solving global conflicts”. Although I found the topic rather incongruent, Maj Awich and Mr Solly made good work of it. Maj Awich made an outline of international platforms in which Africa can and should position itself to participate in the resolution of global conflicts.
Mr Solly contextualised the topic by placing his country’s experiences in global affairs and conflicts. It was a nice day. Led by Dr Sofie Nakimbugwe, the organisers did a good job.
Without the public debates of the late 86s and early 90s, universities as spaces of social influence are now being replaced by music. It is now more likely to learn new ism words from musicians than from intellectual discourses. Any wonder that the leader of the biggest opposition political party is a musician?
The last public space in which university students expressed and manifested thought leadership was at the Inter University Human Rights Essay Competition organised by Foundation for Human Rights Initiatives led by Dr Livingstone Ssewanyana.
The quality of the questions from the students needed some tweaking. But I must single out Ms Vanessa Assio, a Law student whose confidence and the challenging questions she asked made her the darling of the panellists.
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And so we ask, what is Africa’s place in world politics? What should Africa do to be an equal partner or player in world politics?
The first task is for Africa to define itself and project that identity to the world. But in the circumstances where conquest is now out of the question, the African leadership will need to be focused and disciplined to project the African they want to be a serious player in world politics.
Africa still faces the challenge of leadership; which is holding it from projecting itself on the world stage. By leadership, we mean the management of state power. Take the case of Senegal.
Mr Macky Sall came to the Senegalese presidency riding on the crest of a wave of progressive liberalism and reform. He reduced the presidential term of office from seven to five years. He had a placid character and projected Senegal as ‘the god guy’ of West Africa. But when the time came for him to leave power, things just went the African way: in a typical African curse outrage, Mr Sall all of a sudden clumped down on the opposition and civil society and looked and acted like he was reluctant to leave office at the (constitutional) end of his term of office.
Then we have strong men of Africa. Add to that the military rulers of Niger, Mali and Bourkina Faso. With this kind of leadership, it is not unusual to find that the main interest of the government is regime survival.
As a continent, Africa has the biggest number of countries at the United Nations. How has the African leadership failed to push for a seat on the UN Security Council? Because most African leaders lack (even at municipal level) the legitimacy to project or even represent Africa.
Veterans like Yoweri Museveni of Uganda may be feared for their domineering attitudes. The Sahel-Maghreb African countries tend to project themselves as Arabs than Africans. And there…! In short, Africa’s relevance in world politics is very limited. To play in the league of world politics, Africa must first democratise (not autocratise).
Asuman Bisiika is the executive editor of the East African Flagpost.
