Djibouti has joined the Pan-African Network (PAN) that aims to bridge the digital divide and offer telemedicine & tele-education services to the countries of the African Union (AU). PAN is part of the proposed plan to connect all the 53 nations of the African Union by a satellite and fiber optic network that would provide effective tele-education, telemedicine, internet, videoconferencing and VoIP services and also support e-Governance, e-Commerce, infotainment, resource mapping and meteorological services.

Black children are more likely to be thrown out of school for bad behaviour than their white classmates, according to research to be released this week. But a Department for Education study found pupils from black Caribbean and black African families are catching up with their peers in GCSE results.

Oxford African Refugees and Families Development Community (OARFDC) is a developing not-for-profit group with a main focus on supporting refugees and Asylum Seekers based in Oxford. The group has produced a bilingual (English/French) newsletter called Africa in Oxford. The aim of this newsletter is to provide practical advice, information and support for refugees and Asylum Seekers and to help them become useful members of their new community in Oxford.

African teams in the World Cup have not been performing too badly, but their valiant efforts are not reflected on the scoreboards of the various groups so far. Therefore many of us have been watching the games with a mixture of affirmation that ‘African football has arrived and improved consistently to world class professional standards' and doubts that maybe we are not quite there yet or still lacking in the killer focus.

But we take comfort in the universal fact that ‘the boys are playing well’ although we are not quite resigned to the English consolation psychology of ‘it’s not the wining that counts but participating’ which makes them turn ‘glorious losers’ into celebrities. Africans want victories and are hoping that one of our teams will just move beyond the ‘nearly’ club. So we keep vigil in all kinds of public and private places, glued to the box watching every match. If all fail we have the automatic transfer of loyalties to Brazil or any other team (almost all he major ones) with Black players in them!

Like other people across the world, for the next month work can only be partial unless you are in a football related industry. FIFA is our employer for now! When people are not watching the matches they are discussing those that have happened and making all kinds of spirited predictions about those still to take place. Even those who do not like football are forced to participate in the frenzy because those of us who do will never stop talking about it. Media is saturated with stories about ‘the beautiful game’.

Hence it was with a great sense of sacrifice, personal and political loyalty, that I found myself abandoning Togo's match against South Korea Tuesday evening to go and listen to Professor Okello Oculi, speak at the Unfungomano Hall at Nairobi University. It was part of the Public Debate Series of the African Research and Resource Forum (ARRF) for 2006.

Two reasons forced my hand. One, Okello was one of the radical Pan Africanist scholars who had influenced my intellectual and political outlook as an undergraduate student. He was one of those refugee scholars from Idi Amin's Uganda who were lost to Uganda but gained to many generations of African students in other countries.

Unlike the SAP refugees of the '80s and '90s and the current 'kyeyo' academics in the face of globalisation whose destination are mostly in Europe and North America, many of the Ugandans headed for other African countries and rebuilt their lives, some of them becoming adopted citizens of those countries. They were brains lost temporarily or permanently to Uganda but they were not lost to Africa.

Two other Ugandans had a direct impact on me. Firstly, Prof Yolamu Barongo, who was both a mentor and intellectual father to me. Without him I could have joined the army instead of graduate studies. Another one was the literary icon, Okot p'itek, who did not teach me directly but was an intellectual and political influence through writings and an electrifying presence at seminars, workshops and conferences across Nigeria while he was teaching at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University).

Okello never returned to Uganda and he is more Nigerian than many of us whose only claim is that we were born there. Our lives later became interchanged when I became permanently resident in Uganda as General-Secretary of the Pan African Movement. So whenever we meet we have to talk shop, with him sharing with me what is going on in the rough and tumble of Nigerian politics and I feeding him on my take on the up and downs, the zigzags and sometimes motions without movement in Uganda's politics!

So I could not refuse to go and listen to Okello. The other reason was the topic of discussion: ‘Interrogating the Conditions of The African Universities’. It is a topic that should interest anyone concerned about not just the survival of Africa and Africans but in us controlling our destiny. If we cannot own the thinking process of our society we cannot control or exercise autonomy over those societies. And our universities are very central to this. They are much neglected, abused, maligned and marginalized but we cannot use other universities as the engine of our development.

So many sins have been committed against our universities but they have also been perpetrating many sins against themselves. The mad rush for private universities mushrooming across the continent in the name of privatisation and liberalisation in education may produce more people with degrees but cannot produce more educated citizens. Even within the public sector universities, a two-tier system is in place offering apartheid discrimination based on financial resources. Okello called this FTDs (Financially Transmitted Degrees). He also looked at some of the internal weaknesses in the university systems including the process of recruitment, philosophical values underpinning the establishment of the universities during colonial and post colonial societies, the pressures of SAP, the ideological hegemony of elitism and reactionary values. He used his vast experience in East and West Africa and in Britain and North America to identify what the central problems for our universities are. And this is basically ideological: what is the purpose of a university? He identified lack of creativity and creative thinking and creative interaction between our technicians of knowledge and the society. We study as if our societies do not exist and our societies and governments, businesses, make policies as if we do not have local thinkers and qualified professionals. In plain language: our universities are not organically linked to our societies. There were places of excellence in the past like Dar Es Salaam and Ahmadu Bello university, and even the conservative bent older universities like Makerere, Ibadan and Legon. South African Universities have always been more integrated into the power structure, thinking and shaping the future of their societies.

The discussions, especially the robust interventions by the students (a modest turn out given that Togo was playing) were both nostalgic and sad for me. Inspiring because I felt that the tradition of debate is not dead, though sadly not fashionable anymore. I was also sad that though many of them are angry and believe they deserve better, they are no longer reading or having access to books that could make them turn their anger into a positive force for creativity and social transformation. They also reveal a very crude way in which the university has become integrated into the vulgarity that is dominating our societies.

I kept wondering if all present in a church become possessed by the holy spirit, who will shout hallelujah when and if we get to the promised land? When universities merely reflect the vulgar side of society instead of providing original refection on the society they cease to be a universe of ideas and are doomed to become irrelevant. Hence the current attitude in many countries: If you say you are a graduate, people retort: ‘And so what?’

* Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is General-Secretary of the Pan African Movement, Kampala (Uganda) and Co-Director of Justice Africa

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

It has become increasingly clear that there are indeed two African Diasporas: the Historical and the New, and the differences between the two have implications far beyond academics. The composition of the two Diasporas is not homogeneous and their ability and inclination to engage in continental Africa are not the same.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the flow of scientists, engineers and medical personnel from developing to industrialised nations was thought to have almost entirely negative consequences for the source countries. Recently, there has been growing emphasis on reverse flows of knowledge, skills and money the migrants send home. What was once termed brain drain is now seen as brain circulation.

Has Olusegun Obasanjo finally run out luck? Tajudeen Abdul Raheem charts the career of the Nigerian president.

Anybody who believes that treachery does not pay has not studied the life history of Nigeria's recently humbled aspirant-maximum-ruler, retired General, Chief Mathew Okikiola Aremu Obasanjo, president and commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

A combination of capacity to speak to the left while going right - and extraordinary luck - has propelled him far beyond what his childhood dreams could have been from his very humble beginnings in Owu, Abeokuta. For a man of no exceptional ability to have risen from pauper to president is a worthy mythic story in itself, but Obasanjo even managed to do the journey in reverse also: from prisoner to president. It will require extr ordinary humility not to begin to believe that the Almighty God specifically created you to deliver Nigerians. His acolytes convinced themselves that Obasanjo was Nigeria's chosen messiah and with time Obasanjo himself began to believe that he is Nigeria's Mandela, Napoleon, and Jesus Christ rolled into one.

Given where he started from and how far he has travelled the temptation was almost irresistible but as a self –confessed born again evangelical Christian one would have expected his faith to counsel him and make him grateful to the Good Lord for all the bounties showered on him. Instead Obasanjo began to believe he is the Lord redeemer himself. I hope in these sober days he reflects on those very Christian words: Pride goes before a fall.

After all this was a man who according to his own biographer, as a boy, wanted to be a motor mechanic! His life's ambition would have been satisfied if he had ended up owning a shared workshop in some run down area of Abeokuta. But he ended up training as a technician (though he keeps claming he is an engineer) in the Nigerian army.

He was a junior officer during the Nigerian civil war and an average performer until lady luck shined on him in two distinct ways. Towards the end the war, he took over the command of the third marine commando (TMC), from one of the most authentic heroes (or villains) of the civil war, Benjamin Adekunle, The Black Scorpion. But good fortune smiled on Obasanjo and TMC troops fell on the radio station of the Biafrans, a few days after which General Effiong surrendered to the federal troops. And who was the officer he surrendered to? Yes, your guess is right: Major Olusegun Obasanjo.

How kinder can faith be? Like other young officers (Murtala Muhammad, TY Danjuma, Mohammed Shuwa, Alani Akinrinade etc etc) propelled to command posts by the exigencies of the civil war, Obasanjo finished the war and went into obscurity to continue a steady rise in the army. Towards the end of the Gowon regime he was made a federal commissioner (minister) but not many people would remember that until Gowon was overthrown in July 1975. The coup was essentially by young officers who had served in the war and were disgruntled by the lack of direction of the Gowon regime, especially as it became clear that he was unwilling to handover power to civilians, but bent on civilianising himself. Murtala became the preferred leader for the coup plotters. Obasanjo became his deputy. Six months down the line Murtala was assassinated (February 1976) and a reluctant Obasanjo became head of state.

From then onwards more accidents have conspired to keep Obasanjo ahead of his many enemies, but also his serial betrayal at the highest levels became a guiding principle. He changed course from the dynamism of the Murtala regime in relations with the West, but kept the Africa-centred focus. He invited Jimmy Carter to Nigeria on the first ever official trip by a sitting US president to an African country. From then onwards he thought himself friend of the US. Domestically he endeared himself to everyone by handing power to an elected civilian government in 1979 in an imperfect transition. He thus became the first military leader to peacefully hand over power without a coup to an elected civilian leader.

Nigerians forgave the excesses of his authoritarian rule, including killing of a university student during demonstrations, detentions without trials, introduction of fees in universities, etc because he handed over power. Internationally Obasanjo's stocks rose rapidly, courted by the many friends of Africa looking for signs of good news from the much abused continent. Contrary to his domestic authoritarianism Obasanjo became part of a global progressive coalition, claiming friendship of Carter, the former British Prime Minister, Jim Callaghan, Willy Brandt, etc. He was to become one of the eminent persons of the Commonwealth that tried to broker a reconciliation between the liberation movements of South Africa and the apartheid regime in the 1980s. He was even at some stage considered a likely candidate from Africa for the post of UN Secretary-General. Nigerians could not understand why a man with at most a dubious internal record could become an international hero. The only comparable global experience is former President Carter, who became more popular after leaving office in very dismal circumstances.

Under the military dictatorships of General Babangida and Abacha, Obasanjo became a reluctant pro democracy advocate but was never loved or trusted by the real democrats. This was a man who used to cane people, especially press representatives who dared to trespass on his Otta farm. He even reportedly had signposts at his gates specifically naming categories of undesirables, including journalists.

His opposition to both IBB (Babangida) and Abacha were based on military reasons rather than democratic considerations. He did not want the military to be 'disgraced out of office'. He connived in IBB's annulment of Nigeria's only free and fair popular election won by Abiola. In spite of coming from the same historical city as Abiola, Obasanjo was very public in his criticism and opposition to Abiola being president.

It were these anti-democratic credentials that recommended him to the power blocs that conspired to impose him as Nigeria's leader after the exit of Abacha. His betrayal of June 12 made him a beneficiary of the democratic dispensation. Who says betrayal does not pay?

No sooner was the man released from jail than did other generals hurry to him asking: Oga abi you wan go back Aso Rock (i.e. Boss would you like to go back to Aso Rock). The man had famously criticized General Gowon for wanting to contest presidential elections in one of IBB's many aborted primaries. Obasanjo asked the former general: “What did you forget in Dodan Barracks (the former seat of power in Lagos) that you want to go and pick?” Obasanjo did not tell us what he had hidden in Aso rock that he needed to go and dig up.

But the generals were in charge and hence their choice became 'the choice of the people'. A man who could have been killed in Abacha's prison without much protest from many quarters metamorphosed into the presidency and began to behave as though he was a messiah. At a personal level one cannot begrudge him his feelings of triumph but after sometime people got fed up, especially as the initial promise of 'good days are back' was undermined by the president's arrogance and I-know-all mentality.

Obasanjo sees himself as the only person who believes in the so-called Nigeria Project. Like all dictators he thought the nation must forever be grateful to him for ruling us. His grown up bootlickers who prefer to call themselves Baba's boys and girls did not help matters by making themselves so loyal that they could not even tell their boss if he had bags of saliva on his nose! Many former advisers and even current ones have been known to complain bitterly that their boss never listens to anyone What the hell were/are they doing in his government then?

But luck and chicanery have gone full cycle on Obasanjo.

His sad term bid has ended sadly with the rejection of his cocktail of amendments in which the constitutional limitations on terms would have been removed. Most reasonable Nigerians did not think that the bill would pass but Obasanjo listened to the echoes of his own voice through his hired hands. Threats, intimidation, bribery and all kinds of measures were deployed but at the end of the day, he lost it. Unfortunately for him all the good he has done (and there are quite a few) may not now be remembered. It is this defeat, which has undermined him both locally and internationally, that history will remember him for. Maybe treachery, in the end, does not pay.

For a man who has been lucky enough to be at every great historical moment (right place right time) in Nigeria's history, Obasanjo has finally run out of luck. He is now highly weakened, a lame duck president who may not be able to influence his succession as the country faces a certain or uncertain period of electioneering to replace him in less than one year. The look I saw on the face of the president when I was attending a conference in Abuja recently was not the usual boisterousness that he usually displays at official Pan African forums. He looked tired, off-minded and somehow not all there. He is probably, finally, thinking of life after Aso Rock. There are a few fellow presidents who need to begin to do the same before history sweeps them into oblivion. Those who cannot embrace change will ultimately be swept aside in this unforgiven game of politics. No President can preside in perpetuity.

* Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is General-Secretary of the Pan African Movement, Kampala (Uganda) and Co-Director of Justice Africa

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Anthropologist and author Mr. Francis Njubi Nesbitt will look at the reality of the diaspora today and its role in African development (remittances, brain drain/gain etc). Mr. Elvis Ndubuisi Iruh (publisher/editor in chief of The Voice), together with the audience, will discuss examples of ways migrant Africans can be more creatively engaged (socially, politically aswell as economically), supported by constructive government policies. Ginger da Silva of Radio Netherlands will moderate the discussion.

As the United States runs short of nurses, senators are looking abroad, reports the NY Times. A little-noticed provision in their immigration bill would throw open the gate to nurses and, some fear, drain them from the world's developing countries. The legislation is expected to pass this week, and the Senate provision, which removes the limit on the number of nurses who can immigrate, has been largely overlooked in the emotional debate over illegal immigration.

What is liberation? What is the existence of liberation like? While most holidays or commemorations celebrate people and things for whom or what they were, there are some that celebrate things as we aspire them to be. The latter is what can be said about May 25th when we celebrate African Liberation Day, often referred to as Africa Day.

Is African Liberation Day recognition of the rising tide of national independence that swept Africa and the Diaspora, or is it recognition of the continuing struggle for a completely liberated African world, free from all the vestiges of colonialism and neo-colonialism? The answer should not only be sought in history but also determined on the basis of which is more conducive to Africa's progress. Which best addresses the current exigencies of the African world?

History teaches that the origins of African Liberation Day are in the first Conference of Independent African States, which took place on April 15, 1958, in the Ghanaian capital of Accra. African leaders and political activists joined representatives from the governments of Ghana, Ethiopia, Liberia, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, The United Arab Republic (a federation of Egypt and Syria), representatives of the National Liberation Front of Algeria and the Union of Cameroonian Peoples.

This represented the first Pan-African Conference held on African soil, expressing the collective disgust of African people with the system of colonialism and imperialism.

This conference defined Pan-Africanism as "the total liberation and unification of Africa under scientific socialism", laid out a strategy for coordinating the liberation of the rest of Africa and looked forward to the eventual complete unification of the entire continent. The Conference called for the founding of Africa Freedom Day, a day to, "mark each year the onward progress of the liberation movement, and to symbolize the determination of the People of Africa to free themselves from foreign domination and exploitation."

Five years later in the city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, another historic meeting occurred. On May 25, 1963, leaders of thirty-two independent African States met to form the Organization of African Unity (OAU). By then over two thirds of the continent had achieved independence from colonial rule. This historic meeting changed the date of Africa Freedom Day from April 15th to May 25th and renamed the occasion African Liberation Day (ALD).

Since then ALD has been held on May 25th in every corner of the African world. It marks the last stage of African people's struggle against imperialism, demanding the African masses to coordinate efforts on a global scale and for the intellectual and professional classes to fulfill a heightened obligation.

Africa's intellectual and professional classes must not forget that we are only such because generations of our people, past and present, have struggled and suffered. This means that our obligation is to embrace the theoretical and scientific ground work laid down throughout the generations, put it into practice and use it to better the masses of Africa's children. Countless great leaders have practiced and written about the African revolution. The intellectuals and professionals must study this so we can know why we occupy this designation and how we can pick up where generations before have left off.

In order to do this we must collectively examine the theories and practices within the various stages and phases of our struggle for liberation. In other words African people must work and study together in organizations that exist for the liberation of Africa.

Because those historic meetings/conferences called for the "unification of Africa under scientific socialism" this means our generation's mission as agents for Africa's liberation is to make this a reality. We should not allow the current propaganda interests of the global order to make taboo the terminology, theories and lessons that have been accumulated by martyrs like Kwame Nkrumah, Walter Rodney, Sekou Ture, Shirley DuBois, Thomas Sankara, M'Balia Camara, Samora Machel, Malcolm X, and so many others.

Revolution is a concept that must be resurrected in the African world, as it currently is in Latin America. Countries like Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia are boldly showing us that we must hold fast on ideals of socialism and revolution. If "a better world is possible" Africa's rich legacy of struggle and natural potential dictates that a revolutionary Pan-Africanism become possible.

The difference between a revolutionary African and someone else is that whether they are a doctor, lawyer, engineer, carpenter, farmer, professor, educator, student, or whatever; a revolutionary African uses their attributes and skills for an organized mass movement that is working for profound positive change. That is the definition of revolution. Many freedom fighters before us, and today call for concrete and working relationships among Africans worldwide. Not a rhetorical or symbolic relationship and not simply economic but a growing, moving, permanent political phenomena.

Concrete relationships mean systematic, streamlined and consistent lines of communication between the African continent and the Diaspora; joint projects, programs and institutions that engage us on a global scale and that are socialist in nature.

ALD should be an occasion to remind and reinforce African people and the world of these exigencies. As the liberation struggle continues, ALD should be an opportunity for us to become more politically educated about the history and ever changing realities of Africa and her Diaspora, in addition to Africa's relationship to the struggles of other oppressed peoples of the world.

It must become an occasion for highlighting and hearing directly from men, women and youth who are on the front line of the struggle for Pan-Africanism and other just struggles. ALD celebrates the glorious and rich culture of Africa, but more importantly it is a chance to dedicate and rededicate our energies and our creativity to an African Revolution.

* Netfa Freeman is director of the Social Action & Leadership School for Activists (SALSA), a program of the Washington DC based Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) and an organizer with the Pan-African Liberation Organization (PALO). He can be emailed at netfa (at) hotsalsa.org.

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

René Préval’s inauguration on 14 May 2006 opens a crucial window of opportunity for Haiti to move beyond political polarisation, crime and economic decline, says the International Crisis Group. "During his first 100 days in office, the new president needs to form a governing partnership with a multi-party parliament, show Haitians some visible progress with international help and build on a rare climate of optimism in the country."

On the eve of African Liberation Day, Black Britain talked to an elder from the Pan African Congress Movement about what true independence means for Africa and why the struggle for liberation continues and what independence means. "If it means we have a flag, if it means we have a constitutional model of Europe, if it means that we are still speaking the language of our oppressors, if it means that the values and ethos of our colonisers remains in place, then there is no independence."

The Pan African Parliament (PAP) might not meet again because it is running out of money, said a committee chairman. "I'm not sure if the sixth session scheduled for October will go ahead," said Wycliffe Oparanya, chairman of the PAP's committee on money and financial affairs.

In this essay Dr Paul Moorcraft argues that Bob Geldof and Tony Blair should leave Africa well alone. "Western governments can help by encouraging the African diaspora to return. Western banks should also play a role in repatriating more of the billions that corrupt dictators have stolen from their people."

Tajudeen Abdul Raheem returns home to Kampala just as Yoweri Museveni is inaugurated for his third term. It’s a case of ‘no change’ that history will judge severely.

I was ' home' in Kampala last weekend. And what a time to be back, with all the reverie and revulsion in some quarters about the 'inauguration' or 'coronation' of President Museveni for his 'sad term' or his 'first term' under the new multi-party democratic framework.

Contrary to innocent speculations that I had come specifically for the big day itself, I was in Uganda for two meetings. My first meeting - on inauguration day - was one hour away in Jinja and organised by HURIPEC and the Political Science Department of Makerere University. The theme of the workshop, whether by design or mere coincidence was 'Debating Form and Substance in Africa's New Governance Models'. It was a meeting of the usual and the not so usual suspects on the activist-scholar circuits of this continent.

On the 'usual side' were the conveners themselves, my good friend the shoe professor (he had sworn that if Museveni did not win the Presidential elections he would [eat] his shoes), Joe Oloka Onyango, Yasin Olum, Susie Nansozi and others. From across Africa there was Adebayo Olukoshi, head of CODESRIA. Jibo Ibrahim, newly appointed Director of the Abuja-based Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD); Cherryl Hendricks, from the Institute for Security Studies in Johannesburg; Muthoni Wanyeki, Director of FEMNET in Nairobi and several others were also present. The veteran Mzee Dan Nabudere was there lending his wisdom and insight. On the 'unusual' side were a bright group of up and coming scholar-activists from Makerere. I had agreed to participate at the last minute, selfishly hoping to catch up with old friends and comrades. But the workshop did surprise me most pleasantly in terms of originality. For as long as Africans continue to think profoundly about our condition and possess the courage to offer solutions and act on them Africa will never surrender.

Needless to say that events in Kampala cast their shadows over the discourse. The presence of a dozen African heads of state and/or heads of government in one city, plus numerous other representatives of reportedly more than thirty states, cannot go unnoticed even by the most cynical group of activists and scholars. Kololo Hill (venue of the inauguration), between Museveni and his guests, on 12 May had all the forms of emerging models of governance. I had joked to the organisers that it was not possible to model governance without governors and there were governors of governors in town.

By the time I left my scholar-activist colleagues in Jinja and got to Kla, the swearing in was over but the 'swears' in some quarters and ululations in others. The long march back to their various villages and poor slums by the numerous supporters of the sworn-in candidate was in full force.

The publicists have been spinning the 'coronation' as an epoch-making new dawn. Although the initial enthusiastic announcement of 30 heads of state being expected turned out to be grossly inflated the turn out was no less impressive. But their claim before the event that 30 heads of state were coming is what made the turn out of 12 look like a failure. The other presidents of the East African community were there. The growing influence of Rwanda and a new realism in the relationship between Uganda and Rwanda was evidenced by President Kagame's presence and the special mention and excitement it received in the media. As regional powers go, Thabo Mbeki, South Africa's philosopher king, was there. The grand old man of anti Western belligerency loathed by the West but always a winner with many Africans, Uncle Bob, was there. The DRC compensated for the absence of Kabila Jr, (obviously held back by his own scheming for a 'first ' term in elections due soon) by sending two surplus vice presidents. There was also the president of Djibouti and the president of Somalia. Toss in the president of Burundi and other dignitaries and you cannot begrudge the National Resistance Movement their few hours in the sun. To crown it all Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, who could not make it for the coronation, came in for the after party.

I could not help recalling that there was a time when Museveni’s visionary leadership was the beacon of hope for many Africans and the envy of many of his colleagues. Every one wanted to be his friend then. But now he needs to be everybody's friend, hence the long list of would be visitors. A regime that depended so much on internal support is now running on an artificial supply of energy from other African leaders. A president that used to be envied by his fellow presidents for being western-friendly has now returned back to the fold as anti-western, albeit in a very selective way. A man who used to be feted is now desperate to fete others. On the other hand those same leaders who used to deride him as a 'western stooge' are now best pals with him. What is form and what is substance?

The day after the inauguration I went for my second meeting. It was a preparatory meeting for CSO’s involved in the UN Conference on Least Developing Countries, of which Uganda (in spite of decades of HIPC, AGOA, donor-support, etc), along with 33 other African countries, are members. By coincidence the coordinator was a comrade from Nepal very active in the popular struggles for democracy in Nepal. Understandably many participants wanted to know more and get better information beyond what we have seen on our televisions recently. The irony was not lost on many of us that while the Nepalese were trying to remove the monarchy and enthrone democracy, in many African countries the challenge is in preventing democracies from becoming monarchies or elective dictatorships. People used to come and consult Museveni on new ideas, now the likes of Obasanjo are visiting him to find ways of conspiring against the wishes of their own peoples. History will judge and do so most severely. How times have changed even as the supporters of Museveni cry 'No Change'!

* Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is General-Secretary of the Pan African Movement, Kampala (Uganda) and Co-Director of Justice Africa

* Please send comments to

It was good to read the article on the visit of Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem to the Pan African Parliament (PAP). It is good that I have finally found space to air my views on the PAP. Firstly, I concur with the sentiments that there is a need to publicize the existence of the PAP as the majority in our various countries are not even aware that there is the existence of such an institution in Africa. Publicizing the PAP will certainly enhance the desires of oneness and strengthening the mindsets of all of us towards a unified Africa. This will build us more than ever and the potential of this PAP towards unifying Africa is certainly understated.

Secondly, I would like to comment on the process of representation on the PAP. Why can’t it be mandatory that we have elected leaders to represent us from each country? The election process should happen at the same time from each country. The criteria for being elected should be that each candidate should have served a full term in their own countries. The elections should be given full attention with a mandate required from all districts in every country. If I feel that I have the power to elect a representative from my country to represent me at Continental level, I will be sure to have an interest in what that MP is going to say or contribute in the PAP.

Therefore I would like to call upon all Africans to support my call for all Nations to conduct elections for their Pan African Parliament candidates. These elections need not be expensive as we could use our existing infrastructure at district level and get civil society and civic bodies to organise and mobilize for the administration of such an election. It is by carrying out such activities that the local people will feel the importance of the PAP.

Thirdly, should the above-mentioned proposal be accepted by all, it will give room for the members to have full allegiance to the PAP and not consider it as just another activity through which to get an extra allowance.

This is how we as a continent will be able to build our continental leadership. This is a call for our leaders to start investing seriously in the PAP.

Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem visits a Pan African Parliament session in South Africa and reports back on the progress of one of the African Union’s most important institutions. After two years of existence, the PAP is making progress, although teething problems remain.

The Pan African Parliament (PAP) has been sitting for its Fifth Ordinary Session in Midrand, South Africa. On its agenda are: the rationalization of Economic Communities (RECs) in Africa; Peace and Security in Africa focusing on the Great Lakes region, Darfur, Cote d'Ivoire, Chad and the DRC; PAP and civil society linkages in enhancing effective implementation of NEPAD/APRM; the PAP audit and strategic plan.

I have taken the trouble to identify the agenda partly to let all Doubting Thomas’s know that the PAP is not just an assembly of eminent MPs from across Africa who meet occasionally as a kind of Pan African Parliamentary lobby group. It is also to show critics and cynics that despite its statutory 'advisory' role, according to the Constitutive Act of the AU, the parliament is finding its feet and developing a pro-active programme of action to make itself relevant to the yearnings of African people to make the dream of unity a reality.

The PAP is one of the most important institutions in the AU that distinguishes it from the old Organisation of African Unity. The latter was statutorily and in practice a leaders' forum, whereas the former seeks to be a pro people and people - driven organization, hence the inclusion of democratic and potentially democratizing institutions like the Parliament, ECOSOC, African Court of Human Rights, etc.

It has not been easy for the parliament to take off properly since it was inaugurated two years ago. There was a lot of politics about where it was going to be based. Libya was one of the countries that offered to host it. It has the resources to do so but many felt that while they may have a huge building there may not have been much of a parliament because of the maverick nature of the Libyan political system. In the end South Africa won and it was a very good decision because despite one's reservations about the Pan Africanisation of Apartheid power relations, the country is one of the most vibrant democracies on the continent. It also has resources to support the infrastructure of a parliament. The South African parliament already uses 11 national languages, therefore providing for a PAP that officially uses 6 working languages was not a problem at the level of facilities. South Africa has fulfilled its obligations about providing a permanent home to the PAP, with a custom-built parliament equipped with the latest techno facilities including individual offices for all the 200 parliamentarians and 24-hour Internet access. Many of the parliamentarians do not even have these facilities in their national parliaments.

However the building and technical support is not what makes a parliament. It is the quality of what they do inside their sessions and how much they impact on the lives of ordinary Africans that will give or deny legitimacy to the parliament.

I had the honor of visiting (along with a number of civil society activists) the PAP in session last week. We found a generally enthusiastic, warm and people-friendly PAP. From the speaker to the clerks to the parliamentarians, they did not mind that we had not made any formal appointments but had just dropped by and they were willing to engage and entertain our queries.

They all wished that more Africans would take and interest in and interact with the PAP. Maybe two years is too short for the parliament to be visible to all Africans, but we need to take more interest in it. The South African Broadcasting Corporation is trying its best to popularize the work of the parliament by having daily broadcasts of interviews, features and discussions on the PAP while it is in session. The PAP also needs the support of media in all the African countries for people to know that it exists - and exists for them.

The challenges that the PAP faces derives from the structure and powers conferred on it. One, it is merely advisory therefore its debates and proceedings are not binding on countries. Two, it is not directly elected thereby denying it Pan African legitimacy. It is either elected or appointed from national parliaments which makes it like a kind of continental subcommittee of parliaments. Three, by statute it is only required to meet twice annually, with each session lasting not more than 30 days.

In reality most sessions have been for two weeks because of limited resources. The parliamentarians do not get any extra allowance apart from per diem and transport for the duration of their stay, which is covered by their national governments. This has meant in practice governments limiting themselves to the statutory meetings, with little money for any activities in between the two sessions. It has 10 subcommittees, which must also meet during these ‘sessions’. Consequently the PAP is not able to perform its monitoring, oversight and advocacy functions effectively. Four, there is also a high turn over in membership due to different electoral timetables in the 53 countries. This means that at every session more members are being sworn in while experienced members are being lost. A departing member called PAP the most prominent transit lounge in Africa! For instance, three of the five members from Uganda will not be returning for the next session because they lost their seats in the last parliamentary elections. One way of stopping this is to have PAP elections at the same time in all the countries and separate it from national elections and parliament. We cannot have an effective PAP without offering Pan African citizenship and full participation to all Africans wherever they may be.

Finally, our leaders have to put their money where their mouth is by making available the resources that PAP needs to function. We cannot have PAP running like another donor-driven NGO or aid-addicted state bureaucracy.

* Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is General-Secretary of the Pan African Movement, Kampala (Uganda) and Co-Director of Justice Africa

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