IRIN interview with OAU secretary-general

Amara Essy was appointed secretary-general of the Organisation of African Union (OAU) in July last year to oversee the body's crucial one-year transformation into the AU and the launching of the new organisation. OAU experts have now recommended that the transition period be extended - just two months ahead of the AU's scheduled launch in July. Essy told IRIN why the AU was critical to the continent's future development, and about the complexities and difficulties faced in the transition process. QUESTION: Why is the OAU recommending that the transition period to African Union be extended? ANSWER: To transform the OAU into the African Union is not a simple matter. I have tried to bring together all the brains of Africa to look and ponder over the African Union. What do we need to launch the African Union? We need the four main decision-making organs - the Assembly of the Union, the Executive Council, the Committee of Permanent Representatives and the Commission. When you have these organs, then you can launch the African Union. Now we have to look at a time frame on whether we need - and the heads of state will have to decide - on a kind of transitional period. We have to set a time frame. We have to know what we are going to do in the next two or three years. What are the urgent priority issues that have to be taken up? What is the medium- and long-term work that has to be carried out? So, we will have a timetable. We have to have a schedule, and then the heads of state will have a clear vision of what kind of transition period we are going to have, and then they will know the work that we will have to do. There is no postponement of the launching or the transformation. There is a difference between the launching of the Union and the transitional period that will make operational the African Union. We have 17 organs in the African Union that we have to establish. In the OAU there are only four organs. But in the African Union we will have 17 organs like, for example, the central bank of Africa. You cannot have it in one day or in one year. On top of that we need the resources to be operating these organs. These organs will cost money, because you need people to man these organs. There is a kind of ambiguity. The launching of the African Union is scheduled to take place in South Africa as the heads of state have decided. The various organs, the various bodies that have been put together - they can express their views, so we should not confuse between what is an advisory panel and what is the official organ. We are going to bring together the governors of the central banks of Africa to try to see what they can look at in the financial and monetary areas. Maybe one day in Africa you will have a single currency in the long term. So, when you talk of the European Union, they have taken more than 50 years to come where they are. And today, when you talk of the African Union, it cannot be done overnight. We can make sure we can have a strong union that can take up the destiny of the continent. Q: What are shortcomings of the OAU that prompted the decision to set up the AU? A; Well, I am not going to say that the OAU is worse than the United Nations. Everywhere where you have an agglomeration of human beings you have divisions, you have oppositions, you have antagonism. Yes, we have had a lot of problems in the OAU, but it is not different from other organisations. With my predecessor [Salim Ahmed Salim] there have been problems between the various collaborators. They have issued a private letter and made it public about their problems, but what I have tried to do is [to stress that] we cannot change somebody who is more than 40 years old... But what I said is that despite our differences, despite our divergent views and backgrounds, we have to work together. The important role that we have here is to be able to contribute to the African Union. For somebody who is an African, and African diplomat, I think it will be a self-satisfactory result to say that I have contributed. Well, those who were here in 1963 feel proud. They say: We are the ones who have created the OAU. The same kind of motivation will be there when they will be working for the African Union. So you cannot change people and mentalities overnight. I think everywhere it is the same. Q: How much in terms of finances does the AU need to function? A: I cannot tell you an exact figure. In fact, we have put together a working group that will deal with this. They are working on a strategy, a plan on how to mobilise resources. I think the African Union will not be able to depend only on the contributions of member states. It is not a secret for anybody, because for the time being we have more than $50 million dollars of arrears of contributions. So we have to find other sources in order to make this African Union function. And these are the financial experts. I cannot just give you a figure like that, because there are so many things involved in order to calculate the financial implications. It depends on how quickly we are able to establish the various organs, the structures. In finance, I think we have to be precise, and I don’t have the figure to give you here and now. Q: When would you personally like to see a female chairperson of the African Union? A: As regards the chairman of the Union, I don’t know it depends on the heads of state. The heads of state will decide on the basis of everything that they will have as information, what they will have updated as regards the restructures - the commission, the posts, the job descriptions, the number of commissioners, the structure that is needed and, as I said, even to be a candidate there is time [table] that you have to follow, there is a time frame that is set, then you have to submit a candidate, then you have elections etc. I don’t know [when I like to see a female chairperson]... We have very capable women today in the OAU. I think it depends on them. They can be candidates if they wish to be. They will decide. I would like to see a woman head as soon as possible. I have no problem. Q: Why has African Union has not fired the imagination of the ordinary African? A: In Africa we have a saying that only a hunter kills an elephant and the whole village cuts up the elephant and eats the meat. The idea of the African Union is not over [something which was born] yesterday, and has not come from [the Libyan leader,] Mr [Mu'ammar al-] Qadhafi if I have read all the magazines and books. The idea of African Union in fact emanated from a Haitian, and he was the one who gave birth to this. It was a dream - a long-standing dream - and this is what motivated Mr Qadhafi - that his country was under sanctions, and then all the African countries decided to get together and [work] to lift the sanctions against Libya and help the Libyan people, because everywhere when you have sanctions it is not the government that suffers, it is the people of the country that suffer. And then you realize that Africa united can be a force. And this is what pushed him to bring to a concrete form this dream of African Union. So let us say this dream of African Union was given a concrete and material form. So this African Union must see the [light of] day. Who will benefit afterwards? It is the whole of Africa, we the peoples of Africa, because if we can have an Africa where you can have trade from the north of Africa to the south of Africa, from one end of the continent to the other, instead of depending on the stock exchange of New York as we ourselves we can trade our commodities among ourselves. Let's [consider], say, oil - instead of sending it somewhere else we can sell it to our neighbour. There will be important development in Africa, and who will benefit? It will be the African peoples. Well, [the] African continent is very rich, and yet at the same time, paradoxically, it is the poorest continent. A small country like Belgium today has trade that is more important than the whole of Africa. I think the whole of Africa in the world contributes only one per cent of trade. And no development can come from outside. Asia developed from within. You can have external support, but development is an internal affair. Today, we have to develop infrastructures, because without infrastructures - let's say without roads, without railroads, without these transport facilities you cannot develop. So when you look at the structure and all the issues we are dealing [with], we want to look at the conditions we have to meet in order to develop the continent. Q: Will you stand as a candidate as the head of the newly formed African Union? A: I don’t want to ask this question. I don’t even ask myself whether I am a candidate or not. It will all depend on how things will evolve. It will depend where I will find myself after the transition, because it is not easy in nine months to do the work that we have been able do... It is not only the transition we are dealing with; we are [also] dealing with all the conflicts. I was in the Comoros. I was in Madagascar. You have all the other conflicts that are there also. All these issues are being dealt with on a daily basis. My only ambition today is to say: What can I do for Africa? I have had a lot of opportunities in my life: I went to school, I was a diplomat and I have had the chance of occupying major posts. I was in New York for 12 years as ambassador. I was the president of the [UN] General Assembly. I was president of the Security Council. I am old, but not too old. What I can say is what I have said: What can I contribute to Africa and [with] all my experience, all my powers, to contribute to Africa? It is not occupying a post for [the sake of] occupying a post. As I have said, it is not the texts that will make [the] African Union, it is the human beings - the men and women who believe in this African Union, who make the African Union. Because you may have very good texts, but if you do not have the people who can work as a team for a common objective you cannot have an African Union...