By Mwalimu George Ngwane
September 9th, 2004 marks the fifth anniversary of the historic extraordinary summit of the Organisation of African Unity (O.A.U) held in Sirte-Libya on September 9th, 1999.
This summit, convened by Muammar Ghadaffi brought together more than forty Heads of State and Governments to « deliberate extensively on the ways and means of strengthening the O.A.U and to make it more effective so as to keep pace with the political, economic and social developments taking place with and outside Africa ».
The summit provided a new spirit and vision for a strong and united Africa, capable of meeting global challenges and shouldering its responsibility to harness the human and natural resources of the continent in order to improve the living conditions of its peoples.
The outcome of the summit was the demise of the O.A.U, the conceptual framework of an African Union and the unanimous resolve to accelerate the process of implementing the African Economic Community (AEC) treaty.
Inspired by the ideals of the founding fathers of African Unity and convinced that the continent’s leadership needed to be relevant to the aspirations of its people, the positive steps taken to practically concretise the new African Union (1999-2004) have been unprecedented given the legendary lethargy of our leaders towards people-oriented development.
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