MUNYAGA: Does Africa have valid reasons to withdraw from the UN?

By Mboneko Munyaga, East African News Agency

The United Nations was created to prevent another global war comparable to World War ll from happening and to guarantee peace, stability and economic and social progress for all people in the world. However, the now 70-year old organisation has left Africa largely disillusioned with its structure and deep melancholy over genuine membership and sense of belonging to what is supposed to be a global partnership of nations predicated on equality, liberty and freedom for all.

It is not surprising, therefore, that some people have suggested it is better for the continent to pull out of the global body that does not want to treat Africans as equals in the global comity of nations. One such recent voice was from President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. Addressing fellow Heads of State and Government in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia last month, Mugabe floated the idea of Africa abandoning the UN if the continent is not given a permanent seat in the Security Council.

He was bidding the fellow heads farewell after serving as the chair of the African Union (AU) for 2015. In power since 1980, Mugabe’s hard-line stance against colonialism and imperialism is very well known. In a way, it is a direct recapping of the atrocities that the people of Zimbabwe both suffered and endured under white minority rule and during the liberation war, which was perhaps Africa’s fiercest.

But, is there a genuine case for Africa quitting the UN? The author believes grounds do indeed exist for Africa to abandon ship because the UN itself has violated and ignored the fundamental principles of its founding. The second and eighth bullet points of the Preamble to the UN Charter read as: To reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small; and to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples.

A preamble never specifies obligations but as an part of a treaty, serves as the interpretive guide for the purposes and objectives of the core values of a treaty. For years now, Africa’s demand for a permanent seat with veto powers in the Security Council has fallen on barren soil.

And, the case for Africa is quite compelling. It is the only region in the world which is not permanently represented in the Security Council. The reason the League of Nations collapsed was because it failed to prevent World War ll from happening. But, if the League of Nations had not failed, the global community would have had no reason to look for a mechanism beyond 1919 when World War l ended.

No one says Africa should be handed social and economic development on a silver platter. But, how sure is the world that some of the decisions taken at the apex level of global power play, which Africa cannot veto do not actually perpetuate poverty in the continent? A question may arise. Can Africa afford to go it alone? Again, the answer from the author is: Yes, we can.