News - Mali, the Sudans top agenda as AU summit begins

[TGD]

 AS the 20th Ordinary Session of Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) formally kicked off Sunday in Addis Ababa, the need to find solutions to problems of elusive peace, instability, insecurity, conflicts as well as how to entrench economic development and transformation for a more secured and developed African continent in the next 50 years were highlighted by world leaders at the opening ceremony.

Expectedly, the conflict in Mali, including the scaling-up of African troops to support the weak Malian army battling Islamist militants, as well as flash-points in other parts of the continent dominated the opening of the two-day summit.

Moreso, the unrest in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, tensions between former civil war foes Sudan and newly-independent South Sudan and efforts to build peace in Somalia also featured.

The summit opened with a minute silence in memory of the late Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and Ghanaian President John Atta Mills, who died last year.

However, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn Sunday took over as AU chairperson, replacing President Thomas Boni Yayi of Republic of Benin for the next one-year after a consensus arrangement in line with the body's zoning frame-work.

This came as President Goodluck Jonathan in Addis Ababa, on Saturday night, said the problem between Sudan and South Sudan would soon be solved through dialogue after a meeting with the leaders of the two countries.

Leading the park of leaders who spoke at the ceremony Sunday were the out-going Chairperson of AU; the newly- elected chairperson; the chairperson of African Union Commission, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma; Secretary-General of United Nations (UN), Ban Ki-Moon; President of Palestinians National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas and President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama.

Also, President, Pan-African Parliament (PAP) and member of Nigeria's House of Representatives, Bethel Amadi, has allayed fears of member-states that the transformation of the AU parliamentary body from consultative to legislative organ as envisaged in its amended protocol would erode the sovereignty of various national parliaments.

Amadi explained that the fear was unwarranted against the background that a transformed PAP even with legislative competence does not posses the capacity to make any of its bills or proposed model laws binding without adaptation by the Assembly and subsequent ratification and domestication by the required number of member-states.

According to the legislator, this process was deliberately made cumbersome in order to guarantee the sovereignty of member- states.

The lawmaker argued that the new protocol, when approved, would provide the AU governance architecture with an organ that has sufficient capacity to facilitate the implementation of the Assembly decisions and to develop legislative frame-work for free movement of people, harmonise infrastructure model laws and continental integration, which were the ideas behind the PAP establishment.

He also asserted that a transformed PAP would constitute a bulwark against abuse of state sovereignty or democratic process by any attempted unconstitutional change in government or abolition of democratic institutions.

On the worry over the oversight functions provided for in the proposed amended protocol, the parliamentarian said the fear was also unwarranted since the oversight roles were already provided for in the 'Protocol To The Pan-African Economic Relating To The Pan-African Parliament' as it currently exists.



The Guardian