Leadership crisis rocks African Union

…As sacked Envoy to US denies allegations of misconduct

…Accuses chairperson of witch-hunt

All is not well with the African Union (AU) as the continental body overseeing the affairs of about 1.2 billion people is currently enmeshed in leadership tussle that has fuelled allegations and counter allegations of misconduct and witch-hunt, among others.

At the centre of the rumpus in AU is the organisation’s Chairperson, Moussa Faki Mahamad and the body’s Ambassador to the United States, Arikana Chihombori Quao, who was recently sacked.

Trouble started on October 7, 2019 when the AU Chairperson, Moussa Faki Mahamad, unilaterally terminated the appointment of Ambassador Quan, who vacated his office on 30th November 2019.

The manner in which the Ambassador’s contract was terminated by Chairperson Mahamad drew attention of many of his admirers within the African Union and around the world with two petitions written and addressed to the Chairperson, one of which was signed by 106,000 persons on social media, demanding Quan’s recall.

The first petition was titled, “Reinstate African Union Ambassador Chihombori Quao while the second had as its theme, “Moussa Faki Mahamat Must Go.”

Faced by the heat of the social media bombardments on the matter, Mahamad on November 15, 2019, issued a communique signed by his spokesperson, Ms. Ebba Kalondo, in which he accused Quan of gross misconduct, including carrying out activities and programmes without the knowledge of the Chairperson, creation of some sub-bodies like the Pan African Diaspora Women’s Association (PADWA); Pan African Diaspora Men’s Association (PADMA); and Pan African Diaspora Youth Association (PADYA); among others as well as receiving of donations on behalf of AU.

But in a statement issued in Washington DC by Ambassador Quan dated December 4, 2019, which the Daily Times is in possession of, the former AU Ambassador to the United States denied all the allegations, stating that he never received any donation on behalf of the continental body.

On allegation that he was designing and executing programmes without the knowledge of Chairperson Mahamad, he expressed shock that such a claim was made, explaining that he submits monthly report of all his activities to the Chairperson in addition to a quarterly magazine where the content of his reports were also published.

He said that the associations like PADWA, PADMA and PADYA, among others that he created were not registered but were merely for the purposes of mobilising the African Diaspora, saying that this also was explained in writing to the Transition Team set up by Chairperson Mahamad.

The position, he said, was applicable to Miss African Union Pageant, African Diaspora Youth Leaders’ Summit and African Diaspora Retreat, all of which he said were to mobilise and sensitise African Diaspora to have their continent in focus, no matter where they live.

“The above three programmes were approved by CIDO (Citizens and Diaspora Directorate (of AU). This is the department that deals with the Diaspora at the AU Headquarters in Ethiopia. The request for approval of these programmes was referred to the Director of CIDO by the Chairman’s Chief of Staff. The Director approved them and then sent them back to the Chief of Staff who gave final approval.

“Miss AU Pageant for this year was scheduled for December 14th 2019 and the Diaspora Retreat was going to take place on December 21st 2019. The Youth Event had been held already this year.

I fail to understand how the Chairperson would claim that the above programmes were my personal programmes. If he felt these were my personal programmes, why did he accept my quarterly activity reports and why did his Chief of Staff approve them? This behaviour defies any logic,” Quan said, expressing surprise.

Continuing, the statement said three other bodies, Wakanda One Village Project Initiative; African Diaspora Global Fund and African Diaspora Federal Credit Union (PADFCU) were initiatives that are still in the conceptual phase.

“I was in discussion with the Diaspora and I recommended the above initiatives in preparation for the implementation of the AfCFTA (African Continental Free Trade Area.)

To date, they remain a conversation among the Diaspora who are working to actualise them. None of these programmes have been implemented as of yet.

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No funds have been raised,” he disclosed and went further on other issues- the African Electoral Integrity Initiative Inc and the African Union Trading Company LLC.

“I am not aware of the above two organisations. I do believe that the African Electoral Integrity Initiative Inc may be a case of wrong address from the IRS.

They showed me a letter from the IRS addressed to the Entity but had the AU address. Quite often the IRS does not have updated records. The letter should have been returned to sender.

I only knew of the African Union Trading Company LLC in the Social Media Communique. I did not register this company and I am not aware of it.

It was not brought to my attention during the hand-over. I must state emphatically that I did not register any entities during my tenure as AU Ambassador to the US.

On other accusations against him, Quan said: “I have never received any donations for the AU during my tenure. The Mission could not accept any funds.

Had we received any donations; we were obligated to forward them to the AU Headquarters in Addis Ababa. The donation from Chevron for the $10,000 was made out to Constituency for Africa (Mr. Mel Foote) not to the AU. Mr. Foote sent an email stating exactly that.

The Transition Team including Ms. Ebba Kalondo has a copy of this email. No funds were sent to the AU by Chevron.

“The use of the AU Logo was only for programmes that supported the mandate of the Mission such as events mobilising Diaspora in support of Agenda 2063.

The use was always limited to the single event as long as the programme was supporting Agenda 2063. In all of these cases, I was the keynote Speaker.

“I identified a handful of Steering Committee members in the Diaspora for the purposes of mobilising and organising themselves according to regions within the United States.

These were not diplomatic appointments. Diplomatic status can only be awarded by a country. I am not sure on what platform I could have done this.

One of the individuals was an African Diaspora who was already an Honorary Consul of an African Country and already registered with the State Department. He helped the Mission organise the African Consuls in his State of Residence,” he stated.

Earlier in the statement, Ambassador Arikana Chihombori Quao stated that after his contract was terminated, Chairperson Mahamad sent a team to interrogate his activities as AU Ambassador to the United States and that after responding to their questions, the team gave him a clean bill of health, wondering why Chairperson later changed his mind and started antagonising through such a communiqué.

“A delegation was sent from the AU Headquarters in Ethiopia to the AU Mission in Washington DC on October 16th 2019.

They informed me that they were the Transition Team and it was routine for the Team to visit when there is a change of leadership at AU Representational Missions around the world.

The purpose of their visit was to make sure that all issues were resolved and cleared before my departure,” he said and named members of the team to include, Mr. Tordeta Ratebaye, Deputy Chief of Staff, Bureau of the Chairperson (Leader of Delegation);

Amb. Dr. Namira Negm – The Legal Counsel; Mr. Adeyemo Biodun – Acting Director, Programming, Budgeting, Finance and Accounting; Mr. Melckzedeck Magoke – Deputy Director, Office of Internal Audit; Ms. Ebba Kalondo – Spokesperson of the Chairperson and Mr. Rico Bien Aime – Head of Administrative and Facilities Management.

“The team led by Mr. Tordeta Ratebaye disabled my computer and email without my knowledge on October 17th 2019. Per AU rules, I should have had access to my email until two weeks after I left office. I was still legally employed by the AU until November 1st 2019. I decided not to make an issue of this.

‘Of interest is the fact that the Transition Team was sent to the AU Mission in Washington two weeks after I received my termination of contract letter. I answered all their questions and provided the requested supporting documents.

At the end of their visit, they gave me a Clearance Form which was signed by myself as well as some of the Transition Team members. The Clearance Form specifically indicated there were NO pending issues. The Transition Team left the AU Mission in Washington DC on a good note on October 25th 2019.

“My last day in Office was October 31st 2019, which was five days after the Transition Team departed. Two weeks later, someone forwarded me a Communique which was circulating on social media in which I was falsely accused of misdoings while in Office.

All of the issues had already been discussed and appropriate explanations and clarifications given. Ms. Ebba Kalondo, the spokesperson for the AU Chairperson was present in all our discussions and privy to the information discussed and shared.

“The programmes they were questioning were all included in my quarterly reports which were sent to the Chairperson via his Secretary and Chief of Staff. The same activities were also in our biannual magazine (Invest in Africa).

This magazine was given to all African Heads of State and H.E Moussa Faki Mahamat during the bi-annual AU Summits. Because of the above, I fail to understand why the Chairperson was not aware of the activities taking place at the Mission as I reported them to him quarterly as required.

One would assume that the Transition Team would have been briefed of the Mission’s activities prior to coming to the AU Mission in Washington, DC. Of interest to note is the fact that the Focal Point for our Mission in the Chairperson’s Office was not part of the Team.

“In hindsight, the Communique now gives the impression that the Transition Team actually came to find a reason retrospectively as to why my contract was terminated. If the Team thought they had found anything credible, why was it not indicated on the Clearance Form?

The Form clearly stated there were no outstanding issues. The termination letter dated October 7th 2019 had praised me for the wonderful job I had done and urged me to continue the good work.

“This is in sharp contrast to the accusatory Communique from the Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat’s Spokesperson Ebba Kalondo dated November 15th 2019.

The question is, what brought this change of heart, especially as I was no longer an AU employee. This simply does not make sense and makes a mockery of the Chairperson and his Office,” he stated.

Summarising therefore, Ambassador Quan said he repositioned AU Mission in the US and brought it to international limelight, only to be rewarded with evil by Chairperson Mahamad.

“I took a virtually unknown Mission that had been relegated to a Protocol Office and turned it into a vibrant well-respected Mission, not only in Washington DC but around the world.

I accomplished all this with limited staff (three secretaries, one book keeper and one officer who went on sabbatical six months after I came on board) and very limited resources. I worked tirelessly, an average of sixteen-eighteen-hour days, seven days a week during my tenure.

I attended as many meetings and events as I could promoting Africa and the African Union not only in the United States of America but also in other parts of the Americas. I realised that this is what it took to bring awareness to the people of an entity that was otherwise unknown,” he said.