Continental forum on African Union ends

A young woman convicted of adultery by a Sharia court in northern Nigeria will be buried up to her neck and stoned to death unless pressure is put on the authorities in her state to commute her sentence.

Her case transcends a personal drama for Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, who referred to it in an address at the closing ceremony of the Third African Development Forum (ADF III). “The status of women in the 21st century cannot be the same as it was in the 15th or 16th century,” he said, referring both to northern Nigeria and to Sudan, where such punishments are also meted out in the name of the Sharia or Islamic law,

“We must not substitute a theocratic dictatorship for a military one,” Soyinka said in reference to Nigeria, where military rule that ended in 1999 was succeeded in the north by the emergence of states ruled by the Sharia. “This projected [African] union must come out boldly in favour of secular rule as a condition for membership.”

Religion and state power, an issue that has fuelled war in Sudan and division in Nigeria, was not discussed during ADF III. However, 1,000 participants in the forum, devoted attention to the issue of peer pressure - the responsibility of members of the incoming African Union to use sanctions such as suspension against governments that do not respect constitutionality.

‘Defining priorities for regional integration’ was the focus of this year’s ADF, an annual forum organised by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) on major issues facing the continent. The theme of ADF III was chosen in connection with the birth of the African Union that replaces the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in July 2002.

While the OAU provided an institutional framework for liberation against colonialism and the protection of new sovereign states when it was formed four decades ago, the African Union is aimed at creating a single political and economic space in Africa, Ethiopia Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said on Friday.

The Union is “a political, economic and social project” which “aims to create a democratic space across Africa, to promote economic development, and to reflect a common African identity”.

At least 1,000 representatives of governments, civil society and regional institutions ended the six-day conference on Friday in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, with a consensus declaration on continental integration to be used by the African Union.