The African Union – Compromised from All Sides

In African Arguments Muthoni Wanyeki asks:

What is going on with the African Union? Is its drifting away from the bold values declared in its Constitutive Act, meant to signal a definitive departure from its predecessor, the moribund Organisation of African Unity?

Regarding Libya and North Africa:

It also must not be forgotten that Egypt has always been a significant player within the AU. And Libya has recently tried to be as well. In pursuit of the ‘United States of Africa’ dream, the Libyan President has bankrolled (with Libyan public funds) the payment of dues to the AU of any number of small Central and West African states. He has also bankrolled – through means both dubious and legitimate – the electoral (and re-electoral) efforts of both dubious and legitimate African Heads of State from Cairo to Cape Town, from Dakar to Mombasa. While that may not have gotten him the political results desired during the so-called ‘Grand Debate on the Union Government,’ it has certainly won him bemused, if often irritated accommodation. For even the most ill-conceived of regional integration efforts, such as the convening of all genuine and manufactured feudal structures in Africa—the Kingdoms and Councils of Elders. That Kenyan Kamlesh Pattni of Goldenberg grand corruption scandal fame is a fixture of these convenings is enough to tell the entire tale.

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Bold values are fine but its more or less an impossible task to reconcile 'values' with valueless leaders.