Hunger seems to have no clue to the continental bloc. Poor governance and the grey-load of seeing the continent get united seemed far from being achieved. The story remained untold.
In July, 1999; the Sirte Extraordinary meeting was held. It was by acclamation that the Assembly of Heads of State and Government in July 1999 in Algiers accepted an invitation from Colonel Muhammar Ghadafi to the 4th Extraordinary Summit in September in Sirte.
The purpose of the Extraordinary Summit was to amend the OAU Charter to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the OAU. The theme of the Sirte Summit was 'Strengthening OAU capacity to enable it to meet the challenges of the new millennium'.
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This summit concluded on 9 September 1999 with the Sirte Declaration aimed at: Effectively addressing the new social, political and economic realities in Africa and the world; Fulfilling the peoples' aspirations for greater unity in conforming with the objectives of the OAU Charter and the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community; Revitalising the Continental Organisation to play a more active role in addressing the needs of the people; Eliminating the scourge of conflicts; Meeting global challenges; and Harnessing the human and natural resources of the continent to improve living conditions.
To achieve these aims the summit, inter alia, decided to:
Establish an African Union in conformity with the ultimate objectives of the Charter of our Continental Organisation and the provisions of the Treaty establishing the African Economic Community.
Accelerate the process of implementing the Treaty establishing the African Economic Community, in particular: Shorten the implementation periods of the Abuja Treaty, Ensure the speedy establishment of all the institutions provided for in the Abuja Treaty; such as the African Central Bank, the African Monetary Union, the African Court of Justice and in particular, the Pan-African Parliament. Strengthening and consolidating the RECs as the pillars for achieving the objectives of the African Economic Community and realising the envisaged Union. Convene an African Ministerial Conference on Security, Stability, Development and Cooperation in the Continent, as soon as possible.
Three years later, Organisation of African Unity was transformed into African Union following the meeting that was held in Durban, July, 2002. The leaders had wanted to change the face of OAU with a new vision. They felt they would bring sanity into the continent with their ‘vibrant’ exclamations.
Thirteen years down the line since the establishment of the African Union, the continent continues to struggle. Wars are gushing in most countries of the continent. Democracy which most countries adopted has become a hide out for political thieves, who by voting them into power; they abuse the rare resources the citizens crave for.
Most countries in Africa are struggling to adopt good governance hence many conflict on elections. The recent political inferno in Burundi undermines the power the African Union has over its members. There is a broad indication that the voice of the mother body can be challenged without any sanction.
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Coups are still whirling in the continent and the continent seems to struggle to enforce rule of law and putting democratic values in place. The issue of some disc-jockey, who overthrew a legitimately elected leader in Madagascar, was a very challenging one to the continent as it showed how weak it has been.
There are many positives we can draw from the African Union, In pursuit of prosperity in the region, the AU has in place declarations and institutions to promote and support economic integration among its 54 member states as the pathway to sustainable development.
Progress has been made by the AU commission, in collaboration with international partners and the UN, towards better coordinating and harmonizing development policies and programmes with the 5 Regional Economic Communities (RECs) representing the various geographical regions of the continent. Some of these RECs, such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), have been quite active in exploring possibilities to harmonize budgetary and fiscal policies and for a monetary union on the basis of a common currency.
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