Is the African Union Really Helping Africa?
Whether The African Union is really helping Africa is a question with a complicated answer, and in this essay we will be diving into some of the important aspects that could give us a concrete perspective. This piece will guide us through the main purpose to the reason why AU was formed in the first place, we will also be highlighting the achievements that the institution managed to obtain in relation to their main purpose since its formation in 2002 as well as the hefty challenges that it fails to overcome.
The African Union was established in 2002 to replace the renowned OAU ( Organisation of African Unity) which according to AU was a ‘Talk shop’ with no actions. When it was formed, the main aim for its foundation was to bring peace and prosperity to the people of Africa. The AU is made of several bodies such as AU Commission, The Pan-African Parliament and the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Right. The AU is assumed to be a tool to transform Africa and a path to continental integration however, real powers lie in the hands of its assembly which is composed of heads of states and governments.
The interesting thing is, the assembly has refused to transfer real powers to any of the organs. For example, the Pan-African Parliament does not exercise any binding legislative powers. And the AU Commission cannot compel member states to comply with the AU rules. Most member states refuse to comply with the decision of the human right court. The AU Commission is the executive organ which supposedly runs daily activities of the institute, but a concern has it that heads of states get in the way of how important things are executed. In February 2024, a report reads that ‘’AU Commission’s Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat accused member states of getting in the way of the commission doing its work and failing to match rhetoric with actions’’ the report also says ‘’between 2021 and 2023, 93% of the African Union decisions have not been implemented.
The same applies to the AU Commission, it can’t compel member states to comply with its decisions, and it has no supranational and binding powers. This means the AU is toothless just like the PAP, it is useless and powerless unless otherwise allowed by the assembly. And the reason why the assembly doesn’t want to give complete powers to the AU organs is because the heads of states have a worrying track record of putting narrow domestic gains ahead of transferring higher powers to the AU.
