Addis Ababa, January 29: Libyan leader Moamer Gathafi may seek to be re-elected as chairman of the African Union (AU).
Heads of state from the organisation’s 53 members are due to gather in Addis Ababa for their 14th summit, with a host of burning issues to tackle, ranging from ongoing conflicts to infrastructure development.
Gathafi, elected almost by default a year ago, set the tone for his tenure by vowing to achieve the “United States of Africa” project he has championed for years.
But his dream of a fully integrated continent, his pet craze since he pushed through the creation of the AU in 2001, still looks a tall order.
African leaders gathered in the Ethiopian capital are expected to pick a new annual chairman as soon as the summit kicks off on Sunday.
The system of rotating regional blocs should hand the job to a southern African leader and a consensus had begin to emerge around Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika but some diplomats fear Gathafi will put up a fight.
“It is said that Gathafi is determined to take this to a vote because he thinks enough countries will support him,” an AU official said.
Some continental heavyweights such as South Africa, Ethiopia and Uganda are virulently opposed to Gathafi’s strangleghold on the AU.
But others, notably countries in the Sahel and west Africa, are faithful to the maverick Libyan leader.
The theme of the summit is “Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Africa: Challenges and Prospects for Development.”
But beyond the sticky issue of the presidency and the meeting’s official agenda, discussions are also likely to focus on Africa’s many conflicts and political crises.
Madagascar is still in institutional limbo, Niger is on the brink after the president unilaterally changed the constitution to pave the way for potential lifelong rule and progress is fragile in Guinea, where an interim administration has taken over from an unpopular junta which seized power.
The survival of Sudan’s north-south peace agreement is also a source of great concern and the AU’s peacekeeping mission faces an insurmountable task in an insurgency-ravaged Somalia.
—Agencies