Ghana and the African Union: Problems and prospects

Monday, May 25, is African Union Day (widely known as Africa Day). It commemorates the 1963 founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which in 2002 was rebranded as the African Union (AU).

Currently, President John Dramani Mahama serves as the First Vice-Chair of the AU, positioning him to assume the Union’s Chairmanship in 2027. President Mahama leads several of the AU’s high-profile continental portfolios: reparatory justice, gender equality, and African financial institutions.

From OAU to AU

President Mahama’s prominent role in the AU comes in the context of Ghana’s long-term involvement with Pan-Africanism and attempts at African unity. Ghana played a foundational role in the 1963 creation of the OAU in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Driven by the country’s first president, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana served as the ideological, financial, and logistical epicentre of the Pan-African movement, championing total decolonisation and pushing for a unified political structure for Africa.

The African Union is the world’s largest regional organisation, when judged by the number of member states – encompassing all 55 countries across the African continent.

In 2018, the then chairperson of the AU, the president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, outlined his vision of the AU: ‘An integrated, prosperous, and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in [the] global arena’.

President Kagame clearly regarded the AU as the key driver of Africa’s development and integration. 

Nearly a decade after President Kagame’s vision, the African Union has a mixed and complex record.

On the one hand, it has achieved some progress in continental integration, diplomacy, and global representation.

On the other hand, the AU faces severe criticism for lacking enforcement power and failing to stop armed conflicts and democratic backsliding. 

Ghana and the AU

Ghana is one of Africa’s few consolidated democracies, and this provides the country with a notable position in the African Union: as an island of stability in a turbulent regional environment, as a ‘democratic success story’, and as a source of high-level diplomatic leadership for conflict resolution and election monitoring.

In an Africa beset by democratic backsliding and burgeoning authoritarianism, Ghana sets a key regional benchmark by consistently adhering to constitutional term limits and ensuring peaceful, multi-party transitions of power.

The country was an early and active participant in the AU’s African Peer Review Mechanism, which evaluates member states on their political and economic governance.

By allowing the AU to review its robust electoral commissions and independent judiciaries, Ghana established a template for best practices in African democratisation. 

Successive Ghanaian leaders have utilised the AU framework to help negotiate political stability across the continent.

For example, former President Jerry John Rawlings was appointed by the AU as the High Representative for Somalia in 2010 to mobilise international support for peace and reconciliation.

In addition, Ghanaian diplomats and leaders regularly participate in and lead AU Election Observation Missions to oversee voting processes in other member states, seeking to ensure adherence to the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance.

Finally, Ghana supports the AU’s peace and stability framework by contributing troops to AU and UN peacekeeping missions in conflict-affected regions. By helping to establish and protect secure environments in places such as Darfur and Somalia, Ghana directly facilitates the conditions necessary for democratic elections and civic participation to take root.

The AU and Africa’s flawed development

Six decades after the founding of the OAU, African unity is far from being achieved.

To attain African unity would require deepening economic integration, strengthening continental institutions, and fostering a shared Pan-African identity to counter historical fragmentation. Concrete actions are necessary to bridge the gap between political rhetoric and the practical realities of daily life across member states.

There is a major gap between rhetoric and reality when it comes to African unity.

Failure to achieve it lies not in technical capacity deficits but in the neo-patrimonial character of most African states.

When it is in their personal interest, there may be action in pursuit of African unity; when it does not align with elite interests and may threaten their clientelist networks, there is none.

In other words, there is a disconnect between what is said and what is done.

The issue, then, is not institutional incapacity but political choice; not technical development problems but questions about political leaders’ power and accountability. 

The future

Ghana has historically used its position within the AU to bolster governance, frequently encouraging the AU to take a firmer stance against democratic backsliding and xenophobia.

Ghana remains one of the primary advocates for integrating the continent via the African Continental Free Trade Area, which aims to strengthen economic governance.

At the same time, until or unless African governments, including that of Ghana, do more to address the concerns of the poor and marginalised, then any celebration of progress towards African unity will remain a chimera.

The writer is Emeritus Professor of Politics, London Metropolitan University