“The ghettos of Pan Africanism” addresses the need for a unity Africa as panacea for undevelopment- Prof. Araoye.

Professor Ademola Araoye is the  Director, Abuja Leadership Center, a TETFund Center of Excellence in Public Governance and Leadership at the University of Abuja, FCT,Nigeria.

Prof. Araoye recently published his book the ghettos of Pan Africanism. The book launch held at the Odulade Arts Connexion and cultural centre in Ibadan

Speaking about the book, Prof. Araoye explained  the importance and timeliness of the book.

 He said “Killings are a major feature and challenge to the oppressed people in the continental ghettos of pan-Africanism. It can be chilling. William Reno records that in December 2009, the Lord’s Resistance Army, a brutal rebel militia group guided by a wig-wearing commander named Joseph Kony massacred more than three hundred people in a remote corner of north-eastern Congo. Most of the victims were clubbed to death, some were killed with machetes, a few were shot, and a few more were strangulated. Reno further notes that violence is pervasive with dozens of small scale dirty wars in Congo, Somalia, the Central African Republic, Burundi, Sudan, South Sudan, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria from east to the west, from some of the mightiest nations to its smallest and least significant. Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Luka Yusuf, referring to the 2007 massacre of unarmed civilians in ZakiBiam, said that was just the military’s normal role as enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Confronted with these horrors, international society has shown legitimate concern for violations of human rights and the catastrophic lack of respect for the sanctity of human lives.

“Yet, Africa faces a dilemma in respect of externally contrived mechanisms to ensure justice is done and to serve as a deterrent to egregious human rights abuses, especially in times of bloody conflicts. The African Union summit meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on October 11 and 12, 2013, on the International Criminal Court (ICC) concluded with a demand for a postponement of the trial of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. The trial of President Kenyatta, scheduled for November 2013, had exacerbated African concerns over the ICC and instigated that summit of African states. The summit attained a consensus that no sitting African Head of State or Government should appear before an international court. Although it was initially suggested that the meeting was going to discuss the possibility of a mass withdrawal of the 34 African state signatories to the Rome Treaty that established the International Criminal Court, the AU consensus, in the end, was limited in scope as it addressed mainly the immunity of sitting Heads of State or Government. ‘”

He concluded that African unity is what should be the goal in order to achieve a better life for the continent and Africans.

“The confrontation between an emerged global society (as distinct from the community of states often referred to as international community) glued together by transnational consensus and universally shared sensibilities around given transcendental moral codes and humanistic principles on the one hand and a power based and driven international state system dominated by ruthless elite forces, on the other hand, raises profound issues relating to the feasibility and integrity of the concept of international justice. This is at least so in the mind of discerning Africans. It is a truism that the doctrine of universal jurisdiction developed to address the problem of atrocious abuses of human rights perpetrated by state officials with immunity and all manner of mindless rebels is welcome. This is especially so in Africa with its appalling record in this regard. Yet, the real challenge to bringing these monsters to justice is not so much resistance to international justice in Africa, but rather the abuses of the process of international accountability by the same forces that, firstly, refuse to sign on to the process, and yet, secondly, exploit the good intentions of international society to advance their strategic goals. This is the crux of the challenge of international transitional justice in a global state system that is underpinned by the singular pursuit of national interests and, now, the protection of collective geo-strategic, including economic, interests of dominant elite forces in the international system. The international system, its regime of governing principles, the hierarchy and the privileges appertaining to being a member of an elite club of powerful states is traditionally power-based. This power projection of the victorious allies in World War II was evident at the Nuremberg trials that preceded the International Criminal Court at The Hague. The same considerations hold true today”.

“In the final analysis, the damning and regrettable reality is that the prevailing and unspoken sensibilities undergirding international transitional justice system, notwithstanding the moral cloak of the advocating state actors, are political. The morality of the international system of states is fickle, relative and selective. Its justice can only reflect the interests of the regime of elite forces that dominate and drive the politics of the international system, including international justice. In this setting, it is not conceptually feasible to expect a credible, independent, morally based international sanctions system that is not underpinned by a constant search of the most powerful forces to consolidate the power of their reach, hold and control of the global system.

Secondly, in the advocacy of international society for the enthronement of international morality, they are unable to bring onboard powerful state actors that are easily the most egregious transnational violators of rights and the perpetrators of mindless unlimited violence on weak peoples around the world. As international society courageously pursues the birth of a saner, more humane world, even in conflict, the main elite state powers of the global system exclude themselves from this project to protect the dignity of humanity wherever this may be. Otherwise, someone should be howling over the indiscriminate use of cold metallic drones to incrementally wipe out poor communities who ever so often have no control over the bloodthirsty madmen from the dark ages who hold them hostage.

“The powerful state actors do this, even while they directly influence the outcomes of international transitional justice processes. International justice is thus perceived by the weak and objective analysts from even these powerful states as a quasi law-based enterprise that is mainly an expression and mere extension of the configuration of global power. The cold political calculus of this regime bears no relevance to the pursuit of justice to victims. International justice becomes then a convenient political instrument of the powerful against the weak. In a way, it is double jeopardy for the victims of abuses as the same forces that undermine the credibility of international justice that should be their last resort exploit their plight. This is the fundamental precept of blatant neo-conservatism that has dominated the international system, especially in the George Bush White House, the nuanced neo-conservatism in relation to Africa of the Barrack Obama White House, the Lilliputian mind of a Sarkozy presidency in France and the confused Labour government in the United Kingdom under Tony Blair acting in Iraq, Libya or in Cote d’Ivoire. In the case of Nicholas Sarkozy, what morality or justice, international or otherwise, can Africa expect from a character standing trial for the alleged fleecing of an ailing virtual centurion billionaires Liliane Bettencourt? In 2020, Trumpist assault on the international liberal regime would make the situation worse for African states that he has described as “shitholes.”

“Accordingly,  International transitional justice comes across as simply a power game in which the ghettos of pan-Africanism are mere pawns. Another clear case in point of Africa’s dilemma in relation to international justice is the principle of Responsibility to Protect. Analysts have observed that restraining powerful predatory elite states contemptuous of the sovereignty of weak states from exploiting the R2P principles encoding universal humanitarian values to unilaterally project their strategic interests has been futile.  The outcomes of the unilateral interventions of major powers in domestic affairs of weak states using this principle show that, in reality, the interventions were in pursuit of national strategic projects. They had nothing to do with the rule of law or to protect vulnerable citizens. The façade of “humanitarian interventions” was exactly what it was — only a façade to do other heinous things.

Accordingly, international structures or institutions, from the Security Council, the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court (ICC) and allied bodies, have to struggle to act as established to pursue justice as it is known of it in the domestic democratic setting of civilised societies. They are all political bodies. Ultimately, they end up as instruments in the hands of powerful forces that deploy them to pursue the interests of powerful forces against weaker states.”

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