The African Union (AU) has become an empty shell. It is a political body in name, but not in action. It no longer reflects the radical dreams of the Pan-Africanist revolutionaries who envisioned a united, self-determined Africa. Instead of leading the continent into a new era of liberation, development and unity, the AU has become a polite spectator to the very issues it was formed to confront.

It has failed us. And if it cannot change, it must be disbanded.

Let us be clear. The AU, or its predecessor, the Organisation of African Union (OAU), was never created to be a bureaucratic club. It was founded to be the engine of African liberation and development; and as an institution built upon the visions of Queen Nzinga, Thomas Sankara, Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, Frantz Fanon and Amílcar Cabral. And, of course, Walter Rodney, whose revolutionary scholarship must be taught across Africa, from primary school to university. These figures did not fight for an Africa that would beg at the doors of global powers or remain dependent on foreign aid for its survival.

Yet, the AU today is more symbolic than strategic. It lacks the political will, urgency and coordination needed to meet even its own stated objectives. Let’s consider just the following three objectives, without going into further details, to expose how lacking this continental body is:

• To establish the necessary conditions which enable the continent to play its rightful role in the global economy and in international negotiations.
• To promote sustainable development at the economic, social and cultural levels as well as the integration of African economies.
• To promote and defend African common positions on issues of interest to the continent and its peoples.

On all fronts, the AU is failing.

Recent developments have exposed this failure with brutal clarity. When the United States, under Donald Trump’s second term, announced new policies that directly affected African interests, what did the AU do? Absolutely nothing of substance.

Firstly, the US revised its stance on USAID and related funds, suspending them following revelations of mismanagement. While some misuse is undeniable, these funds were, in many cases, saving lives through public health interventions. Millions were left vulnerable overnight. But the AU did not call an emergency summit, did not offer a continental strategy, did not demand a serious conversation about how we build independent and resilient health systems. Yes, we have our Africa CDC which is doing extremely well but nothing was publicly shared with the people to share our vision post USAID.

Instead of confronting this challenge head-on, the AU chose silence. And we all know that silence is complicity.

Secondly, the US, again, has introduced tariffs that have affected nearly every country globally, including my own, Malawi. There is no denying that these tariffs have the potential of decimating economies. Where is the AU’s collective economic strategy? Where is our response? The European Union held consultations and moved swiftly to develop its countermeasures. China and some of Southeast Asian countries are also realigning their economic strategies. Meanwhile, the AU slumbers. If this is how we face global economic shifts, then what is the point of the Union?

Lastly, have you heard a single decisive response from the AU regarding the travel restrictions imposed on over half the continent’s countries? The AU has undoubtedly taken “silence is golden” as its holy writ.

These recent developments that have been rolled out like the way African politicians love rolling the red carpet and those big sofa chair of our old folks, we must ask the hard questions:

What leverage do we really have as a continent if we are not united in purpose or action? Why are we still dependent on powers thousands of miles away for our health systems, food security and technological development? Why are we still exporting raw materials only to import finished goods at inflated prices?

Africa is not poor. Everyone knows. We are plundered.

Yet we allow NGOs to operate as sovereign entities with diplomatic immunity, and foreign capitalists to loot our land, while millions of our people live without access to the most basic services. The AU has not even tried to coordinate a pan-African plan of action to this continued exploitation or the recent development. It has not built the kind of strategic alliances, infrastructure or consciousness that our times demand.

We cannot keep behaving as though the Berlin Conference just ended yesterday.

We need boldness. We need a new model. If the AU cannot become the radical, people-centred, Pan-African body it was meant to be, then we must disband it and reimagine the future. May be we will let the Alliance of Sahel or a new generation of regional and continental alliances lead where the AU is evidently failing.

We must take charge. Because no one will save Africa for us. Unfortunately, the African Union is joyriding us into the storm with a broken compass. As I recently discussed with two colleagues from Guinea-Bissau and South Africa, if we don’t act now, the louts will keep coming here and declaring: “We came, we saw, he died” while our continental bloc remains ever-present in meetings, yet deep in slumber. Present, but absent in meaning.