Is Muammar Gaddafi the Right Man to Lead African Union?

AU

Muam­mar Gaddafi

At a meet­ing of the 12th ordi­nary ses­sion of the assem­bly of the heads of state and gov­ern­ments of the African Union (AU) on Feb­ru­ary 2, rep­re­sen­ta­tives elect­ed Libyan leader Muam­mar Gaddafi as the new AU chair.

Gaddafi’s role as chair would be to help set and imple­ment the AU’s agen­da dur­ing the peri­od for which he is elect­ed to serve. The lead­er­ship posi­tion of the AU is a rotat­ing posi­tion sim­i­lar to the chair of the Euro­pean Union. Gaddafi takes over from Tan­zan­ian Pres­i­dent Jakaya Kikwete.

Already, Gaddafi is stir­ring up con­tro­ver­sy by say­ing that democ­ra­cy is not good for Africa and is call­ing for African nations to emu­late the sys­tem that now exists in social­ist Libya, where mul­ti-par­ty elec­tions are outlawed.

Also, he has pro­posed the cre­ation of a “Unit­ed States of Africa” that would include not only African nations but also nations in the Caribbeans and South Amer­i­ca such as Haiti and Jamaica.