African nations urged to settle internal conflicts

African nations urged to settle internal conflicts
Funke and Collins Atohengbe, South Africa

African nations have been urged to search for a more adequate solution to the internal conflicts threatening the continent’s peace and security.

The First Vice President of the Angolan Parliament, Mr Joao Goncalves Lourenco, made the call at the Fourth Ordinary Session of the Second Pan African Parliament in Midrand, South Africa.

Lourenco said only an African solution to an African problem could help surmount the challenges facing the continent with regards to the prevention of and management of conflicts, eradication of  poverty, respect for the basic rights and freedoms as well as promotion of good governance and the rule of law.

Cooperation as antidote 

The Angolan Parliamentarian said the African people had no alternative but to cooperate in the efforts to attain their common objectives.

He reiterated the role of the Pan African Parliament in conflict resolution, insisting that Africa needed to solve its many problems without the interference of foreign forces.

The President of the Parliament, Dr Moussa Idriss Ndele congratulated the newly elected Presidents in Africa and praised the people of Sudan for overseeing a peaceful referendum.

Support for Nigeria’s leadership

Also at the meeting, the second Vice-President of the Pan-African Parliament and Ugandan Parliamentarian, Mary Mugyenyi, has express support for Nigeria’s stance on the Ivorian political crises when Gbagbo failed to relinquish power.

She said Nigeria was on the right path that would have saved Ivorians the avoidable blood bath that followed Gbagbo’s cling onto power when it was obvious he had been defeated by the opposition.

Mugyenyi said it would have served a better purpose had Africa followed Nigeria’s proposition then to send an ECOWAS military team into Ivory Coast to dislodge the then leader Laurent Gbagbo out of power to keep the sanctity of the election instead of setting up a mediation panel.   

While not supporting a situation in which foreign powers interferes directly in African political conflicts as seen in Libya, Mary Mugyenyi said African leaders should not create condition that could make such interference possible.

She called on the African Union to ensure that its institutions are empowered to perform the roles they were created to play.

Good governance and security are among the issue on the agenda of the 4th Session of the Pan-African Parliament holding in Midrand South Africa.

Qasim