African Unification Front
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See: African Union Policy on UN Security Council
Dec. 6, 2004
Obasanjo's Plan Will Dismember the African Union
UN Security Council is a Threat to African Unity
 Olusegun Obasanjo’s campaign to have Nigeria be the only AU state to join the United Nations Security Council, is in violation of various African treaties and AU policies. Obasanjo has also made claims that this is necessary because Nigeria, or more correctly the Nigerian government, allegedly represents the black race on account of its population size. He has mentioned this several times this year.
Obasanjo, president of the AU state of Nigeria, has decided to put his personal political interests ahead of the general interests of the African Union. He is making claims that because the colonial borders of Nigeria contain more blacks than any other single AU state, that this entitles Nigeria to represent the black race and Africa. He doesn’t offer any additional arguments whatsoever.
Yet ultimately, the question is "Who speaks for Africa, the Nigerian government, or the Pan African Parliament?" If Africa is to have a seat on the UN Security Council, should that seat be occupied by the Nigerian government or by the Pan African Parliament? And, who shall speak for the Black Race, the Nigerian state government or the Pan African Parliament? And what of the non-black Africans, does Obasanjo's understanding of Blackness include them, should they trust him instead of the parliament?
We need a lasting and just system in international relations. The campaign that Obasanjo has crafted and is now championing is not going to bring this about. He is merely proposing to put a black face on the same old way of doing things. In the process, he is also undermining the authority of the Pan African Parliament, and proposing to isolate Nigeria from the rest of Africa, and violating the established policies of the African Union (including the Abuja Treaty, the Union Act, and several others besides).
Obasanjo’s reasoning is divisive and insensitive. The Black Race, spread across the planet, has no way of holding the Nigerian government accountable for its actions. The 600 million Africans, in Africa, who live outside the borders of the state of Nigeria do not have any say in how the Nigerian government is run. They do not vote for the Nigerian government, do not live in Nigeria, and have few rights and entitlements in Nigeria. In fact, the Nigerian government does not even represent most Nigerians in Nigeria.
Moreover, most Africans will disagree with Obasanjo’s self-serving attempts to undermine African Unity, using race as a cover. Africans have been fighting to end racism, not to entrench it, not to legitimize it.
Foreign policy is a projection of domestic policy. It reflects a close relation to the form of political and social organization of the nation and to its institutions generally. Africa's foreign policy must conform to Pan Africanism. It must support institutions such as the Pan African Parliament, like cultural renascence, like the the struggle against racism and neo-colonialism. Our foreign policy cannot simply proceed as if these things don't exist. Africa must strive to establish with other countries the sort of relations most favourable to the strengthening and development of its own institutions.
Obasanjo’s worldview is a collage of outdated colonial clichés, steeped in the attitudes of Western fascist militarism. Obasanjo's utterances do not constitute merely some technical discussion about the UNSC. His attack on Pan Africanism cannot be explained away as ignorance or confusion. He is after all the Chair of the AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government. His campaign amounts to a project to dismember the African Union, to undermine the PAP, to set the Nigerian state against the rest of Africa, and to divide Africans along racial lines.
Obasanjo is the man who oversaw a military armory in the middle of a densely populated civilian urban settlement, with predictable results. Following the deadly explosions in the middle of a hellish night, Obasanjo (not known for an excess of oration skills) insulted distressed relatives of dead victims for making noise while he was talking to them the next morning. But he is more famous for paying millions of dollars to have rich foreign women (most of whom are definitely not members of the Black Race) wiggle and strut in the middle of a highly polarized and conflicted black community. This provocation and lack of judgment on Obasanjo’s part resulted, as would be expected, in violence that claimed the lives of 200 Africans.
Think what damage Obasanjo might do to Africa if he was on the UN Security Council as the lone spokesperson for Africa. He would expose Africa to grave military danger. Already he has been calling for something called “logistical support” from foreign powers, to allegedly facilitate peacekeeping in Africa. The term “Logistical Support” is a euphemism for foreign military intervention. It involves use of satellite imaging, flights over Africa by US military planes, foreign bases, military “advisers”, and much more besides.
The cry for logistical help is opportunistic and shameless. It is part of the political culture of National Begging, and psychological dependency, that results in asking for money even when we have enough, and even begging for free equipment that we don’t need. For instance the ten million dollars Obasanjo offered for the “Miss Universe” charade could have paid for food, tents, and trucks for the peacekeepers in Sudan. One state leader recently bought a $50 million presidential jet, another state president ordered for obsolete radar equipment worth $40 million, and such more.
Africans already have legitimate representation in international affairs, the Pan African Parliament, and shouldn’t have to depend on the Nigerian government, led by a man who employs American mercenaries (MPRI) to train the Nigerian armed forces, to represent them in the UNSC.
The inclusion of a single AU state on the UNSC is a blatantly divisive provocation designed to anger Pan Africanists everywhere. Even before the creation of the AU and its parliament, the formular of representation by a single state had been rejected and a rotational formular had been designed and ratified, in order to have fair representation of the UNSC when time came to reform it.
If Obasanjo suceeds in his mission of betrayal, it will mean that Nigeria will now become the neocolonial power in Africa, having colonial relations with the rest of Africa.
The narrow interests of the Nigerian government will become the legal substitute for, and define, the interests of Africans everywhere. It will be a deliberate attempt to make the PAP redundant, since the Nigerian government, not the PAP, will have the ultimate say over how the Africans are treated by the international community during a crisis. But it won't end there, other opportunistic state leaders might challenge Obasanjo's claim to that status, and seek to enter the UNSC on equally divisive grounds.
It is conceivable that if leaders in South Africa or Egypt, adopted Obasanjo's ideologically unsound attititude, demanding inclusion in the UNSC, using similarly racial criteria, it could tear Africa apart along racial and ethnic lines. This would do massive damage to Pan Africanism, and must be resisted. What Obasanjo is doing is extremely dangerous.
The fact is that the UNSC is the highest expression of the neocolonial order, and for Africans to participate in it is counter-intuitive. The desire to join the UNSC is the kind of opportunism that is likely to legitimize this offensive and outdated institution, rather than consign it to the dung-heap of history where it belongs.
The UNSC should be abolished. The UNSC exists to protect the narrow self-serving interests of its members, and to preserve their dominance in international affairs. Africans need to denounce the Security Council rather that join it. And, finally, Africans need to protect themselves from the UNSC, because it has the potential to do a great deal of damage to African Unity, as the case of Obasanjo’s misguided campaign continues to show.
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