How Paul Kagame transformed the AU

Kelvin Jakachira

When Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame took over the rotating chair of the African Union, his critics queried if he would succeed in remodelling the continental body into an effective institution. The AU is widely derided as a toothless bulldog that can only bark but never bites.

One commentator mockingly said of the AU: “Simply put, the AU has the bark of a bulldog, and the bite of a poodle. This is because it’s yet to become independent financially – and ultimately, politically.”

Not surprisingly, over the years the AU has attracted degradation for its lack of efficiency, ambition and its heavy bureaucracy, which makes its operations cumbersome.

The pan African body depends on foreign donors, who in 2019 will pay for 54% of a total budget of $681.5m.  Its peacekeeping operations are lethargic due to poor logistics and funding.

The majority of the AU’s peacekeeping missions depend comprehensively on the benevolence of Western donors.

“The African Union is still heavily dependent on foreigners for funding. Yet this is the organisation that should be working tirelessly for the complete liberation of the African people from the clutches of imperialism,” says Sungu Oyoo, a social justice activist based in Nairobi, Kenya.  “How can this AU push its agenda in the global arena?”

Enter Paul Kagame on 29 January 2016. The advent of the result-oriented Rwandan leader brought a new sense of urgency into an otherwise quiescent AU.

“At home, the results are striking. AU members thus reckon that he could do to the whole continent what had been done in Rwanda,” Olivier Nduhungihere, Rwanda’s foreign minister declared as Kagame ascended to the AU chair.

Kagame is fêted as one of the paragons of Africa in terms of management and governance, but his detractors say his record on freedom and democracy is abysmal. His peers on the continent, however, praise him for transforming war-torn Rwanda into a model economy touted as the “Singapore” of Africa.

The majority of African leaders probably saw it wise to give Kagame a far larger responsibility at the AU. “What differentiates Kagame from many of his peers on the continent? Two things: the ambition to reform and the quest for efficiency,” said a member of the AU Commission. “There is indeed a ‘Kagame method’ to reform and he intends to apply it to renovate the AU,” the AUC official added.

Kagame hit the ground running. His immediate task was to reform the AU and give it the impetus needed to tackle the continent’s myriad of problems.

He championed a proposal to levy a 0.2% tax on each country’s imports to finance the AU, which would provide the organisation with $1.2 billion and wean it off from its donor dependence.

Kagame launched the African Union Peace Fund. Its coffers now have US$89m. The fund is aimed at developing a mechanism of self-financing of Africa’s peace and security activities.

“Promoting peace and security is one of the core functions of our union,” Kagame said at the launch of the peace fund. “However, up to this point, we have lacked a credible mechanism to fund our priority operations in this domain. We depended too extensively on external resources.”

The introduction of the AU passport was accelerated and designs were unveiled at the last AU Summit in Addis Ababa held in February. The passport, it is hoped, will facilitate the free movement of people, spur economic growth, and promote trade within the continent.

Rwanda’s foreign minister at the time, Louise Mushikiwabo, said a common passport was a solution in disbanding all barriers halting intra-African trade.

Kagame championed the reform process to strengthen institutions of the pan-African organisation with significant progress being achieved in implementation.

“As the reforms take place there is need to recognise that self-financing of the Union in a sustainable manner will be a key determinant of our accomplishments,” Dr Richard Sezibera, the Rwadan chairperson of the AU Executive Council, said.

Perhaps Kagame’s most outstanding accomplishment was his push for the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCTA), which was unveiled in Kigali in March 2018. Africa will become the world’s largest free trade area: 55 countries merging into a single market of 1.2 billion people with a combined GDP of $2.5 trillion.

The agreement creates a single continental market for goods and services as well as a customs union with free movement of capital and business. Countries joining the AfCTA must commit to removing tariffs on at least 90% of the goods they produce.

As the Rwandan leader prepared to leave the chair after an eventful term, one Western diplomat said:  “He is the Lee Kuan Yew of the African continent.” Lee Kuan Yew was the first prime minister of Singapore. He is credited with leading Singapore from a poor to first world status.

Elissa Jobson, head of Africa advocacy at the International Crisis Group, says Kagame showed that the AU presidency  – for a long time considered to be merely a figurehead – can be used to promote national interests and boost a leader’s international profile.

Kagame has passed the baton to Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, but an AU official in Addis Ababa says Kagame will remain a point person for the organisation’s broad reform agenda, despite handing over the chair.

 

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