Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, the African Union’s Commission new Chairperson campaigned that he would advocate for significant reforms in how Africa responds to its many crisis. Although it is too early to call, yet one should ask oneself, what kind of reforms could the new Chairperson have been talking about?

Although other continents go through difficult periods, Africa seems to be the continent with most crisis and the question that comes to mind is why Africa is always in a crisis? These are mostly related to governance, tribes, clans and inequitable distribution of both wealth and power. It would be a tall call for any chairperson in an environment, where the rule of law never prevails and where those at the top trample on their subjects. That is Africa.

It is the root cause of Africa’s problems, and we do not think that H.E. Youssouf would be able to do anything about it. It is where big bellied men and women and sometimes not so bellied, who have mostly overstayed in power, laugh at their poor citizens. There is truly nothing that the new Chairperson can do about it unless there is a real change to the root cause.

It is understandable that both the UN and the AU both work on reforming peacekeeping in the continent, but the root cause is not addressed – the ability of Africans to change constitutions to suit their personal and tribal/clan agendas or simply arranging elections where they are always the winners. If there was such a law preventing African leaders from this ability, then we would not see the Musevenis, the Kagames, the Kiirs, the Sissis and the others and others as leaders for decades.

Deficiencies in governance, poor and skewed electioneering, illegal overstays, and power hungry self-enriching leaders should not have a chance, should the AU laws prevent people from ever continuing to rule after one term of some four or five years and no more. Limiting power in the hands of one person to a few years would eliminate the main root cause of Africa’s governance problem, for there would always be elections that would bring the competent and the best to the fore. It would, at least, limit the damages of a bad leader to a few years only.

This should be the African standard in the rule of one person as head of state, and unless that is achieved, no one can prevent the current chaos and current peacekeeping missions which may increase in the future as African countries consist of multi-nations concocted together by the European colonial powers of the nineteenth century and all these nations will compete for power within the existing countries. Africa would know no peace, unless there was a limitation to the rule of one person through a short time frame.

The confidence of African populations in the governance of their countries is currently thin and flimsy, which provides other countries both within the continent and outside the continent to interfere in Africa’s affairs. No wonder, discussions for peacekeeping operations in Africa become a major budgetary heading in the finances of both the AU and the UN, institutions that should have worked on development, education and healthcare services, but who spend most of their energies putting out fires fueled by misrule and bad governance.

There has never been a successful peacekeeping mission in Africa and many of them have ended prematurely because the host countries were not happy with the services they were getting or not getting. Many others still call for peacekeeping because it provides with them another means of making a fast buck at the expense of their countries and people. Somalia is one such country where peacekeeping mission is more of a money-making machine than peacekeeping.

Museveni should be asked to pull his soldiers out and back to his country and so should the Ethiopians and the Kenyans and the others. They have been in the country for some two decades and the Shabaab, the terrorist organization, which they were supposed to have eliminated long ago are now threatening the capital of the country, Mogadishu. Why are they in Somalia other than to make money or perhaps even money-laundering processes? Who knows what they are doing? It is certainly not in the interest of the Somali people.

There is no need to multilateral peacekeeping or peacemaking in Africa. The peace of the African continent depends on the rule of law which should fundamentally be changed and enforced to keep the rule of one person to a few years and no more even if he or she claims to be the choice of the people. There is no such thing as the choice of the people – People even change their clothes regularly. Why would they keep seeing the same face always in the TV screens and saying nothing really new.

Should Mahamoud Youssouf want to make history, it is the only reform process he can advocate and introduce to the African Union during his tenure. It is an opportunity, and he should cease it. All peacekeeping operations in the continent should be suspended and the Europeans and Americans who finance them should not waste their monies to lost causes that do not add one to the life of the intended African recipients of the favor. It might be better to save their monies for their own populations, who need them in these uncertain times. President Trump is right. The fat UN and AU administrations need to lose some weight.