African leaders who represented the continent at the recently concluded United Nations General Assembly spoke eloquently about the problems bedevilling the continent The speeches carried familiar themes of debt, insecurity, climate injustice and unfair trade, delivered with the assurance of people who believe the case is self-evident. A case made so often deserves a sober look at why it has achieved so little.
They did not just speak eloquently; they spoke unanimously about one issue bordering them: the exclusion of Africa from the United Nations Security Council Such unity is rare on a continent of 54 countries with different colonial inheritances and competing interests. The African Union gave the demand a formal shape in 2005 through the Ezulwini Consensus, which called for two permanent seats with full veto powers and five additional non-permanent seats for the continent.
The United Nations was founded in 1945, in the aftermath of the Second World War, with the primary aim of maintaining international peace and security and preventing another devastating global conflict Africa was barely present at that founding. Most of the continent lived under colonial rule in 1945, and only Egypt, Ethiopia, Liberia and South Africa were among the original members. The structure of the new body therefore reflected the balance of power at the end of the war, and that balance has shifted beyond recognition.
It is divided into six principal organs: the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, Trusteeship Council, International Court of Justice, and Secretariat The Trusteeship Council has been inactive since 1994, when Palau, the last trust territory, became independent. Many of the territories it once supervised were in Africa, and their independence swelled the Assembly without altering the ranks of the permanent members of the Council.
The General Assembly is made up of 193 member states It is where leaders deliberate on issues affecting the globe. Africa’s 54 states make up more than a quarter of that body, yet the weight of numbers counts for little. Assembly resolutions are admired and then ignored, because they are recommendations and bind no one.
Meanwhile, the Security Council is the UN organ with primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security, where major binding decisions on global peace and security are made It comprises five permanent and ten non-permanent members, making 15 members in total. The five permanent members, the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom, each hold a veto, and one negative vote from any of them can bury a resolution that the rest of the Council supports. The composition of the Council has been amended only once, in 1965, when non-permanent seats grew from six to ten.
Currently, three African countries sit as non-permanent members of the Security Council for a fixed term of two years Seats are allocated by region, and three of the ten non-permanent places go to Africa. That is the full extent of the continent’s entitlement. Its representatives serve for two years and depart, and during their stay they cannot block any resolution.
Sadly, no African country has been found worthy of having a permanent seat on the Security Council This is because the permanent members are more powerful than the non-permanent members, who are there to fulfil all righteousness. Worthiness has little to do with it. Africa features heavily on the Council’s agenda, and a large share of the peacekeeping missions it has authorised have been deployed on African soil. The continent supplies the crises and many of the soldiers, yet it is denied a permanent hand in the verdict.
It is like George Orwell’s Animal Farm, where “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” Orwell’s pigs rewrote the commandments at night while the other animals were too tired or too fearful to object. The comparison stings because the text of 1945 was written by victors who have never found it convenient to revisit it.
For decades, African leaders have mounted the podium at the UN General Assembly to lament this injustice, but the rest of the world has taken their words of lamentation with a pinch of salt The record supports that scepticism. Negotiations on Council reform have dragged on since 2009 with little to show beyond documents. India, Brazil, Germany and Japan have pressed their own claims, while Africa’s demand has been welcomed in statements far more often than in decisions. Complaints repeated every September, with no leverage behind them, become a ritual that the powerful can watch with polite patience.
Beyond the fine speeches, our leaders must put things right at home No one takes a continent seriously when its citizens are ready to die in the Mediterranean Sea to escape the harsh realities at home. Credibility is built at home. A country that cannot keep its citizens safe asks the world for a seat while its own roof leaks. Nigeria, the most populous country on the continent, has often cast itself as a natural candidate, and its record in peacekeeping in Liberia and Sierra Leone and its leadership within ECOWAS give that claim some foundation. That foundation weakens when young Nigerians sell their possessions to pay smugglers, and when power supply and security remain unreliable for ordinary people.
Until African leaders prove themselves worthy, until they harness the potentials of Africa for the good of Africans, they will continue to receive the pariah treatment on the global front The way forward is practical. The African Union must agree in advance on who would occupy any seats granted to the continent, whether by rotation or by clear criteria, so that the demand does not dissolve into rivalry between Abuja and Pretoria. The African Continental Free Trade Area, if implemented with seriousness, can turn a market of 1.4 billion people into an economic weight that no capital can wave aside.
Nigeria can lead by example and justify its designation as the true giant of Africa We should remember that the permanent members did not win their seats by asking politely. They held them because the world could not do without them, and Africa will get its place when the world can no longer do without Africa.
Isah can be reached via lawcadet1@gmailcom