THE 12th Ordinary Session of the African Union (AU) Assembly of the Heads of State and Government was due to end yesterday with the adoption of the strategic plan for 2009 to 2012, which aims at addressing bottlenecks impeding the version of a Union Government for the continent.

The 53-member union was expected to appoint members of the Advisory Board to tackle corruption within the organization and consider a report of the AU Commission on the review of the protocol relating to the proposed African Union. A closed door meeting on Monday elected Libyan Leader, Muammar Qathafi, as the new AU chairman. He replaces Mr. Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, the President of Tanzania.

The meeting was also to consider a proposal to transform the African Union Commission into an authority as part of the road map that would lead to the formation of a continent unity government. The authority will have a broader mandate than the commission, which comprises 10 commissioners who carry out the policy decisions of the AU.

Ghana’s Vice President, Mr. John Dramani Mahama, was the leader of the Ghanaian delegation to the meeting, which had as theme: “Infrastructure Development in Africa”. President Abdoulay Wade of Senegal, who spoke on the theme, noted that through his personal initiatives, he was able to raise capital from the door community to improve on infrastructure, especially energy, investment and transport in Africa.

He said while the international community was interested in helping Africa to develop its infrastructure, the regional leaders did not know what to do with the money. President Wade said as a lecturer in Infrastructure for many years, he knew that building of roads, bridges and improving on energy supply were some of the interventions to end poverty and accelerate the development of Africa. Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director at the World Bank said recent studies had shown that the factors hampering infrastructural development in Africa included incompetent management of utility services and poor pricing of services.

She said while Africa needed an additional $40 billion to improve on infrastructure, an estimated $30 billion could be made available through local revenue if the authorities reduce waste and let consumers of utility services pay the appropriate fees for services. Touching on the Zimbawean crisis, the Tanzanian President, Kikwete, called on member countries of the AU to facilitate the formation and running of a Union Government in Zimbabwe.

Mr. Kikwete appealed to the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) to continue their efforts to enable President Robert Mugabe and the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, to break the deadlock on the sharing of ministerial posts. Mr. Kikwete described the conflict in Somalia as a big challenge for the AU, stressing that, “The high sea piracy in the Gulf of Aden internalizes this conflict and called on the international community to help solve the problem. He asked the new Head of State of Somalia, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, who was attending the summit for the first time to explore ways of finding lasting peace in his country. Mr. Kikwete, who also spoke about the conflict in Darfur, said although the AU had no objection to the war crimes being brought against the Sudanese leader, President Al Omar Bashnir, there was the need to suspend the international warrant issued by the International Court of Justice for his arrest and prosecution since he was a major actor in the peace process.

Mr. Jean Ping, chairman of the AU commission, spoke against the coup d’etat in Guinea and Mauritania and said such interventions were signs of political retrogression.

Source:- Gaily Graphic