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The 18th Ordinary Session of the Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) ended on Monday. And like previous summits, the permanent host city—Addis Ababa—was resplendent with the pulsating commotion that is brought about by the high-level meeting.

Though this year’s summit did not live through the eccentric flamboyancy of the late Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi and his entourage, it was characterized by its own distinctive facets like the Nkrumah Statue and the new headquarters, reports Bruh Yihunbelay.

Starting last Thursday, January 26, Melkamu Teshal, a 28-year-old teller at a private bank here in Addis Ababa, has been perturbed by the blockade of major streets and avenues. Parenthetically, his line of work compels punctuality and in an attempt to avoid tardiness, the young man, who usually wakes up around 7:00 am in the morning, was compelled to reset his alarm clock to 6:00 am.  According to him, even though many consider it as a trivial anomaly, for a man who is inured to nitpicking about trifling things, the one-week-old summit has turned out to be exasperating.

“You get stuck in the taxi for about 20 minutes at a single juncture,” he complains, referring to the road blocks that crop up whenever delegates, dignitaries and heads of states and governments move about.

True to form, residents of the metropolis are accustomed to recurring blockades whenever the annual AU summit rolls up in the month of January. And since it is part of protocol, at whatever time a convoy is in motion, excepting perambulators, who are off the hook, both public and personal transportation come to a standstill for an average of 15 minutes.

Motorcades and sirens are part of the routine and the number of both traffic police officers—in their specially-tailored ceremonial attire—and federal police officers on the streets spike.

A momentous icon

However, apart from the customary hurly-burly, at this year’s summit, Addis Ababans and regular participants were looking forward to the inauguration of the highly anticipated new AU Commission Conference Center and Office Complex some 350 meters off Roosevelt Street. What is considered as witty by many is that the building, which consumed some USD 200 million and was financed and constructed by the Chinese as a gift to Africa, lays on the former grounds of the oldest notorious maximum security prison locally dubbed Kerchelé (a local variant of the Italian word for prison Carcere) or Alem Bekagn (roughly translated as: “I have given up or have had enough of this world.”

At present, the gleaming edifice is the tallest in the metropolis and rises tall and majestic in the capital’s skyline.

In passing, during the construction of the skyscraper, Addis Ababans have been bestowing much praise on the Chinese contractors who were diligently working round the clock to finish the complex whose construction commenced in June 2009.

The 20-storey structure, which is erected on a 130,000-square-meter plot provided free of lease, has 350 offices.

Covering a floor area of 51,887 square meters, the Center features an office tower and a large conference hall. In addition, the 113.2-meter-high high building has a basement and the main frame is 99.9 meters high, signifying September 9, 1999, the date when the Organization of African Unity (OAU) transformed to the AU.
The main conference hall can sit over 2,500 people, with 1040 people in the 1st balcony, 679 in the 2nd floor balcony and 786 in the 3rd floor balcony.

The Center is further equipped with a medium-size conference hall sporting 681 seats, news briefing rooms, caucus meeting room, VIP reception, medical center, etc. The building’s external site has a total surface area of 11,000 square meters and includes an amphitheater, helipad, equipment room, flag square, sports field, gardens and a vast parking lot. And in a nod to environmental concerns the new building uses solar energy to generate power.

At the inauguration ceremony, which was held on Saturday, January 28, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said: “It is very interesting to note that just as Africa is rising from the ruins if desperation and Afro-pessimism this magnificent new headquarters of the AU is rising from the ruins of a prison of desperation and hopelessness.”

Election to no avail

After the former president of Mail and first chairperson of the AUC Alpha Oumar Konaré passed the torch in 2008 to the 69-year-old Gabonese diplomat and politician, Jean Ping, dialogues and tête-à-têtes regarding elections were not part of the summits after that. However, it was high on the agenda of the 18th summit.
Following much deliberation and ado, the highly anticipated race between the Ping and his South African challenger Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma (ex wife of South Africa’s president, Jacob Zuma) ended early Tuesday inconclusively, with neither being able to command the two-thirds majority needed to win. 

Consequently, it was decided that a caretaker commission would run the organization until new elections are held in June in Lilongwe, Malawi.

After a fierce battle and campaigning, in the end, both candidates were snubbed by the heads of state of the 54-member continental organization.

In three rounds of voting, Ping held a slight lead in his bid for a second term, with solid support from the francophone countries.  But in a fourth round in which Ping was on the ballot alone, a bloc of 20 countries abstained, leaving him short of the 36 votes needed to win.  It effectively was a no-confidence vote in his leadership, throwing the organization into a limbo.

After hasty consultations, the heads of state decided to keep the current commission in place as a caretaker until another election is held at the next summit in Malawi at the end of June.

A committee was formed to set election rules and solicit other candidates.  Diplomats say the committee will also decide whether Ping or Zuma would be allowed to run in that election.  Sources close to both candidates indicate they probably would stand aside and let others run.

There are some who cast the outcome as a major accomplishment, saying it had succeeded in ousting Ping, who has been blamed for the organization's slow and weak response to the recent crises in Libya and Ivory Coast.

On the other hand, the outcome of the race was also seen as a blow to South Africa, which invested heavily in Dlamini-Zuma's candidacy.

The statue affair

Today, a 3.5-meter bronze effigy of Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana, stands tall at the forecourt of the imposing new AU building.

It was unveiled last Saturday afternoon by President John Evans Atta-Mills of Ghana accompanied by Ping, the outgoing Chairman of the AU and president of Equatorial Guinea Teodore Obiang Nguema, former president of Ghana Jerry John Rawlings, and other Heads of State and Government.

Others who graced the occasion were Professor Francis Nkrumah, the eldest son of Nkrumah, and Samia Nkrumah, the only daughter of Nkrumah, who is also the chairperson of the Convention People’s Party.

The brain behind the statue was Don Arthur (Ph.D.), an architect and a sculptor. Work was done by Mamphey Developers in Accra on account of the pressure exerted by the Government of Ghana on the AU for the work on the statue to be done in Ghana. 

The sculpture depicts the late leader wearing a short-sleeved shirt in an African design with a pair of trousers and shoes to match. Nkrumah is seen raising his right hand, with a short walking stick in the left hand and with the head raised and looking into the heavens.

Underneath the statue is the inscription: “Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hands unto God, Africa must unite,” a quotation from a speech he delivered at the founding of Organization of African Unity in May 1963.

Honoring the founding fathers of the OAU is considered by many to be long over due and though Nkrumah is regarded as one of Africa’s greatest statesmen and was even voted in December 1999 as “Africa’s Man of the Millennium” by BBC listeners in the continent, there were some who argued that Haile-selassie I et al also deserved similar cenotaphs.

From China with love

Like other numerous China-funded infrastructure projects in Africa, many described the glistening high-rise building that is the new AU headquarters as a symbol of the ever-deepening Sino-African amity.

During a speech he delivered at the summit on Sunday, Jia Qinglin, Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, China’s top political advisor and the guest of honor, said that China will adhere to the principles of mutual benefit and common development, making sure that the powerful oriental nation’s assistance will be results-oriented and that his country is not going to interfere in the internal affairs of the recipient countries. He condemned cases where powerful countries bullied poor and developing countries as a condition for extending aid.

"This is not part of China's foreign policy," he said amid a long applause from the assemblage.

Moreover, Jia announced that China will provide RMB 600 million (USD 95 million) support to AU over the next three years.