The President of the African Union Commission (AUC), Moussa Faki Mahamat, has announced his candidacy for a second term as head of the pan-African organization.
Faki Mahamat, whose term expires in two months, published on Sunday his vision for a new 2021-2024 term of office in which he set out his priorities and achievements.
“The term given to me on January 17, 2017 is fast approaching its end. I would give an exhaustive assessment to the Assembly at the next summit of our organization to be held on February 6-7, 2021. In deciding to stand for a second term, I am obeying the tradition that every candidate should draw the attention of the public on his priorities of the term for which he is seeking the votes,” the President of the AU Commission stressed.
Since his election in 2017, Moussa Faki Mahamat notes that “the world has become deeply complex and its prospects largely obscured,” and cites “the Covid-19 pandemic, the contraction of resources, the multiplication of global perils, national selfishness and the decline of multilateralism, which has hampered the progress of the continent.”
The President of the Commission deplored “the loosening of the chains of solidarity, the weakening of the humanist values of generosity, respect for others, and the decline in spirituality and the significance of material and commercial considerations, which have aggravated the objective difficulties of existence in Africa, as in the rest of the world.”
Africa is a very young continent, he says, noting that its population growth is staggering: “African youth represent 60 percent of the population there. Any initiative in favor of Africa must be anchored on this cardinal fact.”
“Obviously, the African context has undergone many positive changes during the term of office, both in terms of the economic and social development of our states taken individually and at the global level,” he concluded.
HA/fss/abj/APA