One of the key decisions taken at the just concluded 18th African Union (AU) Summit held at its newly built magnificent headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, was the choice of a new chairperson for the year 2012, a position that is rotated. At the end of the three-day summit which opened on January 29, President Thomas Boni Yayi of Benin Republic emerged as Chairperson for the year, taking over from the President of Equatorial Guinea, Mr. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
In the run-up to the election, Nigeria’s President, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, reportedly made an attempt to displace the Benin Republic leader and ready himself as the eventual chairperson of the AU. His move was, however, thwarted by stiff opposition from some of his colleagues at a mini-summit of the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) of which he is the current chair. The other ECOWAS heads of state and governments had insisted that a gentleman’s agreement reached earlier at the regional level to support Benin Republic’s bid must be respected. Besides, they reportedly urged Jonathan to pay greater attention to containing the rising insecurity in Nigeria, which to them, poses a serious threat to peace and security in the sub-region.
At the end of the selection process, President Jonathan’s spokesperson, Reuben Abati, and Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Olugbenga Ashiru, made spirited attempts to deny media reports that their boss vied for the Union’s top job. The reports, according to Abati, were “calculated to cast his (Jonathan’s) administration in a bad light”, even as he admitted: “It is true, however, that in the last week, some newspapers have been speculating that President Jonathan may be adopted by the ECOWAS Heads of State and Governments to be the next chairman of the African Union, since it was the turn of ECOWAS to produce the AU Chairman for 2012-2013. Mr. President was indeed approached by leaders within and outside the West African sub-region to take up the challenge of leading the AU for the next one year”.
Credible diplomatic sources within the AU, however, revealed that the Nigerian leader had indeed shown interest in leading the organization, and only backed out of the race when it was all too obvious he would lose if it came down to a vote being called at the ECOWAS level, as the sub-regional group had the mandate to produce the new chairperson.
We at Peoples Daily are deeply saddened by the ill-advised move of our President, coming at a time when Nigeria needs the goodwill and support of sister African countries, especially in the ECOWAS sub-region, for its higher aspiration for a slot in the United Nations Security Council. We feel every Nigerian president should try to subordinate their ambition to the overall national, continental and global aspirations of our country. This is imperative because Nigeria, being Africa’s so-called Big Brother, can hardly achieve its foreign policy goals if its leaders alienate smaller sister African countries. The ECOWAS community spirit and our own enlightened self-interest demand that we be sensitive to the concerns of our smaller neighbours.
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