How We Can Attain Peace in Africa — Thabo Mbeki Reveals
Former South African President, Thabo Mbeki, has revealed that to effectively address the challenge of conflict in Africa, it requires that leaders do not limit themselves to putting in place security arrangements on the basis of a wrong assumption that peace consists merely in the absence of war.
Mbeki further said that the process of ending a conflict must be understood in its wide political context, and not just on the basis of the narrow security consideration that the guns have fallen silent.
Mbeki while delivering a lecture virtually titled: ‘Examining the Nexus between Foreign Policy Goals and Democratic Governance’ at the 2023 Association of Foreign Relations Professionals of Nigeria (AFRPN) annual conference, expressed worry that this is not as yet happening in the context of the important work the African Union(AU) is doing to end the conflicts on the African continent.
According to him: “We are not doing enough to implement the preventative policies of the AU and have fallen short in other instances, such as the now-ended very violent conflict between the Governments of Ethiopia and the Regional Government of Tigray.
“The re-emergence of the phenomenon of military coups or military interventions on our continent has emphasised the importance of the implementation of the preventative policies of the AU, as well as interventions to help ensure the popular legitimacy of the democratic systems we establish in our countries.
“I have just tried to highlight what has been called ‘the primacy of the political’ in the solution of the conflicts on our Continent. This means that the process of conflict resolution must include getting to the roots of every conflict with a view to ensuring that such conflict does not recur.
“As you would expect, almost invariably this would bring us back to the matter your Association has raised, the matter of democratic governance. In the absence of such governance, citizens take to arms to resolve their differences.”
Mbeki while speaking further, therefore called on African Union to expedite action and resolve the conflicts across the countries in the African continent for peace and development.
“It is the obligation of the institutions of the African Union, such as the Peace and Security Council, that in their important work, they ensure the primacy of the political and thus help to move more of our countries to the democratic order which is high among the objectives of the African Union.
“Quite correctly, your Association has drawn attention to the importance of the objective of growth and development on our Continent. Of course, all of us know that the mere presence of democratic governance will not assure such growth and development.
“It is important that even as we engage this matter of development we do so in a way which ensures the involvement of democratic institutions, such as our elected legislatures, in the development processes,” he added.
Earlier in his welcome remarks, the President of AFRPN, Ambassador Gani Lawal explained that the Association which comprises of serving and retired Nigerian diplomats, has set for itself an objective of retooling and enhancing the capacity of its members through lectures mentoring and seminars.
“In accordance with the core mandate of our Association and its manifest belief in the tremendous power of manpower as the only factor of production that is capable of not only expanding itself but other factors of production through training and innovativeness, exposure to best practices through networking and lectures by erudite scholars and outstanding statesmen, two of whom we have among us today; the foreign service of Nigeria, scholars and practitioners in foreign relations, as well as the Nigerian government are sure to benefit from today’s lecture as a result of the uncommon exchanges and practical knowledge, which cannot be found in textbooks that will emanate from here today,” he said.
Also speaking, royal father of the day, the Sultan of Sokoto, his eminence, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar commended the association and called for more inclusiveness of traditional leaders in governance options.
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