African News

Rwanda’s Paul Kagame Elected Chairperson The Of African Union

Paul Kagame

The Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) meeting at their 30th Ordinary Session at the AU Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, elected on 28th January 2018 a new bureau to pilot the activities of the Union for the year 2018.

In his acceptance speech delivered in the backdrop of the theme of the year 2018: “Winning the Fight against Corruption: A Sustainable Path to Africa’s Transformation”, President Paul Kagame said it is a solemn honour, to accept the call to serve as Chairperson of our Union. He expressed his gratitude to the Heads of State for their double trust. First as the leader of the reform process and now as the leader of the African Union

“I promise to do this with you and do the best job I can. Obviously, I will need your full support” he said, before acknowledging the high experience of his predecessor, saying “President Alpha Condé is a professor, a teacher, and I can safely say that I have learned from him. I have also seen his very big heart for Africa. Congratulations Mr President”. He called on his peers to join him in paying tribute to President Conde’s impeccable service to our organization. “I have been lucky to work with his predecessor President Idriss Deby, and even luckier, to work with both of them. I want to assure you that I had a lot of wisdom flowing from them”, said Kagame.

President Kagame further said the programmes, policies, and priorities of the African Union contain the right tools for the job. “I wish to pay tribute to previous leaders of the African Union, and to former Heads of State, for paving the way forward”. He added that, there is tremendous value in the African Union’s flagship initiatives, such as Agenda 2063.

H.E. Professor Alpha Condé, outgoing Chairperson of the African Union (AU), and President of the Republic of Guinea during his chairmanship in 2017 appointed H.E. Nana Akufo Addo, President of the Republic of Ghana, as Champion on Gender and Development in Africa. Promoting women to high-level positions, the Republic of Guinea under the leadership of H.E. Pr. Alpha Condé, for the first time since its independence welcomed the largest number women in his government to high office, including the Ministry of Economy and Finance; several National Directorates or Autonomous Services.

While the Summit this year’s concentrating on tackling corruption, the presentation outlined how the AU among many other global players is coming to recognize and seek to harness the powerful contributions of faith and faith actors in order to reach their goals.

H.E. Mr. Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the African Union Commission, in his address boldly stated that to date, the African Union is the first inter-governmental organization that made parity a reality at higher decision-making levels. Applauding the placement of women in management positions in the Commission, he accounted that between 2013 and 2017 the gender gap reduced in strategic positions and the increase from 29% of women to 45% currently on Director’s positions; cognizant of the fact that yet more needs to be done.

President Buhari congratulated the African Union for dedicating the theme of the year to the noble cause of fighting corruption on our Continent. He thanked the African Heads of State for entrusting him with the responsibility of serving as the Champion of the theme of the year. He pledged that he will do his very best to ensure that the anti-corruption agenda will receive the attention it deserves and make the impact we all hope for, during 2018 and beyond.

Addressing invitees from the African Union Commission Summit, local and international media, and global and regional development organizations, the Commissioner for Economic Affairs of the AUC, Prof. Victor Harrison, endorsed the report, urging African countries to adopt the recommendations for inclusive growth. “These studies present the behaviour of African economies in the face of difficult external conditions and announce the revival of growth with an estimated rate of 4.1 percent in 2018. We all know that growth is not yet inclusive in Africa, and unemployment affects more women and young people,” he told the audience.

In another development the AU-EU-UN Task Force on the Stranded Migrants situation in Libya on held its Second meeting of the year in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and the Sixth since the establishment of the Task Force during the AU-EU Summit in Abidjan in November 2017. The meeting was held under the Chairmanship of the Special Envoy of the Chairperson, H.E. Madam Amira Elfadil, and Commissioner for Social Affairs. It was attended by the EU Ambassador to the AU and the IOM representative to the AU.

The Commissioner of Social Affairs applauded the efforts of the Libyan authorities in facilitating the voluntary evacuations, particularly in expediting the issuance of landing rights permits and facilitating AU and other stakeholders’ missions to Libya.

The outgoing Chairperson of the AU for 2017, H.E. Prof. Alpha Conde, President of Guinea, appointed H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, President of Ghana, as the African Union’s Champion for Gender and Development Issues. As part of his vision for this important role, the President of Ghana launched the Gender and Development Initiative for Africa (GADIA).GADIA is an unprecedented flagship programme and implementation framework for the President’s AU Gender and Development Championship.
Newly Elected Chairperson of the African Union, H.E. Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda also officially launched the first phase of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) championed by twenty-three African countries at the Headquarters of the AU, a historic and a vital milestone towards the continental effort to start the implementation of the 1999 Yamoussoukro Decision.

Saidina Alieu Jarjou
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

4 Comments

  1. Paul Kagame’s assumption to the chairmanship of the AU is one of the many things that make people sceptical about the seriousness of “African Leaders” to tackle Africa’s numerous problems. How can Agenda 2063, which seeks amongst other things, to achieve universal culture of good governance, democratic values, respect for human rights, justice and the rule of law be taken seriously, when this Kleptocrat and brutal dictator of over two decades is chair of the body charged with this project?
    And talking about fighting corruption, how does a penniless rebel commander amass so much wealth within a twenty year period since becoming the top public sector employee of his country? According to some reports, Paul Kagame was worth $500 million USD in 2014 and he is going to chair an AU that is committed to fighting corruption?

  2. Bax,
    This actually says more about the people that voted for him into that position,
    It seems quite a few people are on the payroll!

    • You’re right Grim reaper, but it’s far worse than just a few in that hall being on someone’s payroll. I think it is safe to say that Paul Kagame and many like him in top positions in the continent today, represent what our founding fathers called neo-colonial agents, and have warned against their rise to power throughout the independence and early post independence period.
      It is little surprise that Mr Kagame, despite his brutal, corrupt and self perpetuating rule, has become the darling poster boy of Western Imperialism in Africa. The obnoxious trio of Kagame, Kabila and Museveni serve imperialist interest in the East Africa Region so well, especially in mineral rich DRC, that not much is heard about their dictatorial regimes and efforts to rule forever, unlike those that resist Western imperialist penetration.
      Often, these people (resisters of imperialism) are put under immense pressures, internally and externally, sometimes resulting to massive civil disturbances or even their overthrow, for the same crimes that the puppets, like Kagame and Museveni (Uganda), get away with. Gadaffi and Pierre Ngurunziza (Burundi) are good examples; not that they were right in how they ruled, but the differential treatments say a lot.

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