By: OLU IBEKWE (oluchukwuibekwe@gmail.com)
The Protocol to the Constitutive Act of the African
Union (AU) Relating to the Pan African Parliament (PAP Protocol) was adopted at the 2001 Organization of African Unity (OAU) Summit in Sirte, Libya and came into force in 2004 after the
required ratifications.
Pan African Parliament (PAP), under that
protocol, was given advisory and consultative powers which affected its ability
to effectively function as a continental legislative body.
A Revised PAP Protocol was however adopted
by the 23rd Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the AU held in
Malabo, Equatorial Guinea on June 27, 2014 (Malabo
Protocol).
Article
8 of the Malabo Protocol designated
PAP as the legislative organ of the AU with power to propose draft model laws
in designated areas for consideration
and approval by the Assembly.
This marked a departure from the initial protocol which gave PAP advisory and
consultative powers.
An
inference can be drawn from the above that when ratified, PAP can only make
model laws in designated areas which must be considered and approved by the
Assembly. The seeming hesitation by some member states to ratify the protocol on
account of fear of loss of sovereignty is in my opinion, misplaced.
The
protocol requires ratification by 28 member states to come into force but as at
November 2020, only 12 countries have ratified it. They are: Benin, Cameroon,
Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, Sahrawi Arab
Republic, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Togo. 18 more ratifications are required
for it to come into force.
Recall
that the initial PAP Protocol was adopted in 2001 and came into force about
three years later in 2004. In contrast, the Malabo Protocol was adopted in June 2014 and six years later, has
only been ratified by 12 member states! Worst still is the fact that the
majority of AU member states (31 of them) have neither adopted nor ratified the protocol!
There
is therefore need to begin to activate external support mechanisms that will
assist PAP in the advocacy for the expedited ratification of the Malabo Protocol.
Prime Movers
The
transformation of the Organization of
African Unity (OAU) into the AU
was facilitated by some dominant political-economic
powers like Libya, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Egypt. Libya under late Muammar Ghadaffi undertook to offset
the debts owed by some African states to the OAU which enhanced the successful transition to the AU. Do we still have such leaders in
the continent today?
Regrettably,
Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt and Kenya that were in the fore-front of the
transformation of the OAU into the AU are yet to ratify the revised
protocol.
To
change the situation, PAP needs to identify and recognize some prime movers that
will champion and be at the fore-front of the advocacy for the ratification of
the protocol.
Former PAP
Parliamentarians
On May 29, 2015,
PAP adopted a resolution establishing a Pan
African Parliamentary Network (PAPN)
to be made up of former PAP parliamentarians.
PAPN was intended to sensitize national
parliaments and the population on the objectives and actions of the PAP and help in its advocacy in favour
of the ratification and domestication of AU
legal instruments.
Unfortunately,
the PAPN which could have provided
external support for PAP on this
issue is still not operational, five years after the resolution establishing
it.
Under
the current PAP Protocol, membership of the PAP is tied to the tenure of members
of parliament in their national parliaments. Parliamentarians who loose
elections or are appointed into ministerial positions cease to be members of
PAP.
The
implication is that each time elections are held in member states, a good
number of parliamentarians do not make it back to the PAP resulting in high
turn-over and loss of institutional memory.
Secondly,
it has resulted in a large pool of former PAP parliamentarians that can be
galvanized to assist PAP in their respective national parliaments in the
advocacy for the ratification of the Malabo
Protocol.
A
functional PAPN will give these former PAP parliamentarians a platform to
continue to contribute to the institutional growth of the Parliament.
Ratification
of the Malabo Protocol will address
the issue of high turn-over in that membership of the PAP will no longer be
tied to the membership of the respective national parliaments. Members of the
PAP will be elected from outside the national parliaments, with a fixed five
year tenure and be eligible for re-election for one further term only.
This
means that when ratified, all members of the PAP will have the same entry and
exit dates, except in case of vacancies resulting from unforeseen circumstances
as opposed to the current situation where as much as a third of the membership
of the PAP are replaced every session.
Interestingly,
this pool of experienced former PAP parliamentarians, some of whom served as PAP
Bureau members will be eligible for election into the PAP under a ratified Malabo Protocol and therefore should have
a stake in ensuring its speedy ratification. But they need to be galvanized.
Regional Economic Communities
(RECs)
As stated earlier,
only 12 AU member states have
ratified the Malabo Protocol as at the
end of November 2020 and their regional distribution is shown below:
Region |
No of countries
that have ratified |
Countries in the
region |
Central Region |
2 |
Cameroon,
Equatorial Guinea |
Eastern Region |
1 |
Somalia |
Northern Region |
1 |
Sahrawi Arab Republic |
Southern Region |
1 |
Madagascar |
Western Region |
7 |
Benin,
Chad, Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Sierra Leone, and Togo |
West
Africa Region has the highest number of ratifications (7 countries) which is
probably because the Western Region (Economic
Community of West African States, ECOWAS) is far ahead of the other RECs in
the integration of their region. For example, the ECOWAS Parliament enjoys legislative powers. The region has a
ratified protocol on free movement of persons and free trade area agreement and
moving towards a single currency. The fear of loss of sovereignty is arguably no
longer an issue.
East
Africa is another region where the regional parliament enjoys legislative
powers but only Somalia has ratified the protocol. Having granted legislative
powers to its regional parliament, it is difficult to understand their
hesitation in granting legislative powers to the continental parliament. We can
therefore move faster!
In
the case of the Southern Region, the issue of land has been noted as a big
factor. PAP with the type of legislative powers contained in Article 8 of the Malabo Protocol will not have the power
to make model laws on land ownership or distribution without the approval of
the Assembly.
Civil Society
Organizations
Civil
society organizations (csos) such as
the Centre for Human Rights (CHR) of
the University of Pretoria, Mzalendo
Trust and Parliamentary Network
Africa (PNAfrica) can provide needed support for PAP’s advocacy towards the
ratification of the Malabo Protocol.
AfricanParliamentary News
recalls that a civil society forum was organized by PAP in collaboration with the Centre
for Human Rights on the sidelines of the Second Ordinary Session of the
Fifth Parliament of the Pan African Parliament in May 2019. The forum
culminated in the signing of MOU
with PAP and the eventual
establishment of a PAP Civil Society
Forum. The engagement with CHR could
be broadened to include advocacy for the ratification of the Malabo Protocol.
As a
collateral consideration, it is important to remember that most of the AU legal
instruments are inaccessible to the members of the respective national
parliaments. Civil society organizations can engage the various ministries of
foreign affairs of member states and the Permanent
Representatives Committee to facilitate and/ or expedite the submission of
these AU legal instruments to the national parliaments.
It is
noteworthy that South Africa, the host country of the PAP is yet to ratify the Malabo Protocol when it should have been
one of the first countries to ratify it. South Africa signed the protocol in
February 2019 after 12 countries had already ratified it.
As
the host country, South Africa
should be in the fore-front of the advocacy for ratification of the protocol.
South Africa’s Parliament and its Committee on Foreign Relations should be
engaged by the csos on the need to provide leadership even amongst the other
countries in the Southern region.
We
must also appreciate the fact that a former President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki played a pivotal role in
the formation of the African Union and canvassed for South Africa to host PAP even when Egypt wanted to host the
Parliament. History beckons on South Africa to once more, show leadership.
Media Engagement
The
recent formation of African
Parliamentary Press Network (APPN), made up of journalists and media
practitioners from across the continent to
monitor and provide enhanced visibility for the PAP and national parliaments is
a welcome development.
APPN is expected to give
robust media support to the PAP in
terms of coverage of its activities as well as positive analysis of its vision,
mission, core values and objectives as contained in the protocol.
Most
importantly, APPN is expected to
assist in the advocacy for the ratification of the Malabo Protocol and ensure that the issue is put on the front
burner by the various national parliaments and their respective committees on
foreign relations. The PAP Bureau
may therefore wish to explore ways of formalizing this engagement with APPN to achieve maximum result.
Send comments/
reactions to: oluchukwuibekwe@gmail.com or via WhatsApp:
+2348034077681
No comments:
Post a Comment
Disclaimer: Comment expressed do not reflect the opinion of African Parliamentary News