HARARE - Congratulations Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma for finally assuming African Union (AU) Commission hot seat.

We share with you your optimism to work for a “prosperous, peaceful and integrated Africa”.

We wish you well, but we ask? Is your leadership going to reassert Africa that is not defined by geography but by a set of values and principles freely adopted as independent states over the years?

Is the AU going to cherish the values of freedom, respect for sovereign will of the people, promote sustainable development and eradicate poverty? Is this not a tall order for you madam?

After that bruising battle with Jean Ping who represented the Francophone side of the African Union, the basis for co-operation and unionism in the African Union not defined by geography will remain a pipe dream.

If 37 countries voted in your favour, will they now support you in dealing with current problems in Guinea-Bissau and Mali, illegitimate governments in Madagascar, the failed state of Somalia, instability in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Nato-inspired and AU blessed mess in Libya.

For your own information, what makes your task unenviable and failure inevitable is the strange animal called African Union? It is a union characterised by many divisions than similarities.

It is actually an oxymoron that it can be a union.

It is still divided along the 1888 Berlin Conference lines. When Omar Bongo died, then French Prime Minister Nicholas Sarkozy wailed “Oh what a friend we had in Omar Bongo”.

Bongo was a “good” friend of France supplying them with oil and investing loads of money in France.

Jean Ping will not go down without a fight and the continent will always be divided along linguistic and colonial lines.

Today there is more trade between African countries and their former colonisers than trade between African countries themselves.

Most former French colonies accepted independence on condition that they will co-operate with France, while most of the trade colonies like Ghana and Nigeria did not need to wage a war of independence unlike some countries in Southern Africa.

Their priorities are bound to differ on many issues.

The geopolitics in the different regions of Africa is also influenced by regional interests and more by interests of powerful groupings and nations such as the European Union, Arab Union, France, United States and China.

To suggest that Dlamini-Zuma will “steer the previously rudderless African ship towards the shores of peace, prosperity and cooperation as intended by our founding fathers” is to expect too much.

Africa Union has persistently failed to deal with African crises leaving room for outside forces to intervene. It assisted in passing the UN resolutions that were abused by Nato and allied countries to initiate the war that devastated Libya under humanitarian pretexts.

AU utterly failed to stop Nato’s aggression, a clear sign failure to represent African and Libyan interests. Resolution 1973 that imposed a no-fly zone was voted for with the support of three African countries that were non-permanent members at the time — South Africa, Gabon and Nigeria.

If one African country had abstained, that resolution would not have taken place.

Moreover, the AU was sadly sharply divided on the Libyan issue.

Some African countries allowed their bilateral differences to give a pretext for foreign powers to impose their policies on Africa by implementing a regime change.

Even the so called Friends of Africa betrayed it in Judas Iscariot fashion.

Why did India, Brazil, China and Russia abstain from the resolution? They were protecting their economic interests with the rest of the western countries.

I hope you will deal decisively with such double standards and protect African interests which your predecessors failed to do. Africa needs to address health issues such as combating malaria and the Aids and HIV pandemic, improving the standard of living of millions of impoverished and uneducated Africans.
 
Good Luck madam. - Wellington Gadzikwa