AU chairman: USA is nonsense

There is no basis to form a United States of Africa (USA) when there is no unity among the various governments on the continent, stated the newly elected Africa Union Chairman Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika. He said it was "nonsense" to pursue that dream adding his predecessor Muammar Gaddafi pushed it too far.
“Why should we create one Africa when in our countries and our regional groupings we are not united? Libya is pushing these matters too much,” the Malawian president told the local press upon his arrival from the AU Summit in Ethiopia.

He added: “We all know why Gaddafi wants the formation of OAU now; it is because he wants to be the first leader. Some of us don’t like other things but we choose to be silent deliberately. We just look at other things when we know they are nonsense.”

Diplomatic row

Ahead of the Summit, a diplomatic row brewed over who was suitable to man the affairs of the AU. The Libyan leader’s backers, including their northern allies Tunisia, argue that the AU chairmanship – faced by a US$ 1.3bn deficit for its programmes – needs someone with demonstrable financial muscle like Kadhafi.

However, the Malawian President said the southern African country was qualified to lead the AU and that he was ready to take up the mantle. “The chairmanship of the African Union is rotational,” Mutharika told journalists before departing for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to attend the summit at which he was earmarked to take over the chairmanship of the continental grouping from the Libyan leader, Kadhafi.

He said: “The Southern African region, through SADC (the Southern African Development Community), has elected Malawi and therefore we are looking forward to be nominated.”

West African giant Nigeria joined other countries to back the candidacy of Mutharika according to the Vanguard newspaper.