Advertisement

Commonwealth’s lack of power makes it attractive

Saturday April 21 2018
chogm

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari, Seychelles' President Danny Faure, Sierra Leone's President Julius Maada Bio, Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May and Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland arrive at Windsor Castle for a Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM) retreat in Windsor, west of London on April 20, 2018. AFP PHOTO

By Charles Onyango-Obbo

The 2018 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), just ended in London.

The Commonwealth tends to get ridiculed by many cynics in Africa, as an irrelevant grouping of former British colonies (although Mozambique and Rwanda who joined in recent years were not British dominions.) Whenever CHOGM meets, questions about its place in the modern world are always raised afresh.

However, it might be time to ask another question; given that the Commonwealth is a colonial relic, why has it not died?

This year, the timing of CHOGM was impeccable, starting immediately after the end of the Commonwealth Games in Australia that was reportedly watched by 1.5 billion people.

With that, the Commonwealth looked to answer its critics – it organises one of the biggest global sporting events.

And there it is: One, the most useful thing the Commonwealth would teach the East African Community, and other regional blocs in Africa, is how to generate star dust, and how not to die.

Advertisement

Consider for example that Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, and Nigeria’s Muhammadu Buhari, did not attend the historic signing of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in Kigali, Rwanda, in March.

Museveni stayed away in a huff as a result of the seasonal squabbles between Kigali and Kampala, but at least Uganda signed AfCFTA. Buhari didn’t show, and Nigeria didn’t sign. He said AfCFTA was likely to damage the country’s economic interest.

However, while Museveni and Buhari could not hold their noses and attend “our thing” here home, they were in London for CHOGM. Buhari even delivered a keynote address at the Commonwealth Business Forum.

When it came to AfCFTA, Buhari became a narrow Nigerian economic nationalist. At the Commonwealth though, he was the globalisation president, saying: “The surest, most sustainable way to lift millions of people out of poverty across the Commonwealth is through boosting trade and investment.”

Buhari sees boosting trade and investment across the Commonwealth as good business, but it’s bad to do so across Africa – despite 18 countries on the continent being members of the Commonwealth.

It’s tempting to dismiss Buhari as having “colonial mentality” or even of being a Britophile, but that would be lazy. It seems the attraction of the Commonwealth is precisely because it is largely powerless, and therefore non-threatening.

Buhari can talk global trade at the Commonwealth and still look good, because he is under no obligation to follow through and open up the Nigerian economy. He gets glory for good intentions and right posture. AfCFTA is a different animal.

The Commonwealth’s enemies need to pick up from it a leaf about the power of small things: I am not sure whether they are still ongoing, but once one of the most sought-after things was a Commonwealth Fellowship.

To many writers, their best shot at international glory remains the Commonwealth Book Prize.

At this year’s Commonwealth Games, all the 39 countries that participated went home with a medal. Some of them are countries that have toiled on the grander Olympics stage, and repeatedly gone home empty-handed.

For all its problematic history, the Commonwealth teaches us that our regional blocs and the AU, for that matter, would help themselves a lot by creating small moments of joy.

Charles Onyango-Obbo is publisher of Africapedia.com and Roguechiefs.com. E-mail: Twitter@cobbo3

Advertisement