Maravi

Reasons for Inonge's AU defeat surface

Reasons for Inonge's AU defeat surface
By Amos Malupenga
Tuesday February 05, 2008 [03:00]

Mbita Chitala’s article urging African Union (AU) leaders to quickly establish a union government largely contributed to Inonge Mbikusita-Lewanika’s loss as AU commission chairperson, a senior government official has claimed. And according to Agence France Press (AFP), Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has threatened to turn his back on Africa if the continent’s leaders reject his proposals again for an African Union government.

Meanwhile, the ordinary AU summit which was held in Ethiopia last week deferred the discussion on the formation of the African Union government to July.

According to the source, President Levy Mwanawasa was last week under pressure from his colleagues in the AU to state whether or not Chitala’s article reflected his government’s position on the matter.
President Mwanawasa fired Chitala as Zambia’s ambassador to Libya for having authored the same article without clearance from the government.

The source said most African leaders were extremely upset with Chitala’s article which they concluded was Zambia’s position on the matter.

“President Mwanawasa had to call for urgent meetings with some of the Presidents in the region just to explain that Chitala was expressing personal opinions,” the source said. “But most of the leaders did not accept that explanation.

They thought President Mwanawasa incited Chitala to write that article under the guise of expressing personal opinion.

They refused to completely accept the President’s explanation saying ‘there is a way in which diplomats conduct themselves both in official and private capacities’.

That is when problems for Inonge started. We faced a lot of hostilities even from countries that had initially pledged to support us, so those results were not surprising going by what transpired in the last two days before elections. Even if Inonge was meant to lose, it cannot be denied that Chitala’s article extensively diminished her chances.”

The source said President Mwanawasa was at pains to convince other countries to rally behind Inonge’s candidature.
“In fact, Kenya threatened to formally protest to the Zambian government over that,” the source said.

“The countries that initially did not support Zambia even used that to justify why they did not want to support Zambia. This issue of African Union government is a very sensitive matter. Much as most leaders are not against Pan Africanism, they are trying to be cautious because the matter is primarily being spearheaded by Gaddafi whose hurry on the matter is yet to be appreciated.”

The source said during the summit, the other African leaders reminded Gaddafi that there was a select committee of ministers which was tasked to deal with the question of African Union government and that the committee had asked for more time.

“For this reason, the summit postponed this matter to July this year because they couldn’t make any conclusion before receiving recommendations from the committee,” the source said.
The source said Chitala’s issue was deep and Zambians should not gloss over it.

“The fact is Chitala is not working alone in this matter and it was not a coincidence that he wrote that article a few days before the summit,” the source said. “So he should not mislead people that it is his Pan African beliefs.

Yes, he might have those beliefs but we also know what is happening. Even some of the people expressing interest in contesting the MMD presidency are doing it on behalf of other interests. Some are not brave enough so they are withdrawing. We know all this and with time, the truth will come out.”

And according to AFP, Gaddafi told the press in Tripoli last Tuesday before he left for the summit in Ethiopia that Libya would turn its back on Africa if the AU rejected, for the second time, his proposals for closer unity.

Wearing a shirt showing Africa's past political figures, Gaddafi said African leaders should stop wasting time and unite in a single government to stop foreign powers taking control of the continent.

"If unity is not achieved, then Libya will turn its back on Africa and reorient its foreign policy in other directions - Euro-Mediterranean or Arab-Mediterranean," he told a news conference on the eve of his departure.

Gaddafi said Libya was also prepared to move its investments in African countries, which he said totalled more than $5bn, to Arab and Mediterranean states.

He said: "The Addis Ababa summit must mark a decisive step in the establishment of African unity. Anyone who blocks the unity project is part of a conspiracy to sell Africa to the highest bidder. Libya will not be party to the betrayal of the continent and will expose whoever is behind it."

Gaddafi had been involved in intensive lobbying in the run-up to this year's summit after he failed to win support for his proposals for a federal African government among the African Union's 53 member states at its last summit in Ghana last July.

In the space of less than a week, he had received around 10 African leaders at his Tripoli residence in a bid to win their support for his unity project.

"The African Union Commission is a dead letter without any powers and ought to be replaced by an executive cabinet," Gaddafi said on Tuesday.

He blamed the governments of English-speaking African states with the exception of Nigeria for blocking the proposal on behalf of "colonial interests".

Labels: AU, INONGE MBIKUSITA-LEWANIKA, MBITA CHITALA

posted by MrK @ 3:23 AM