His Nigerian ally, President Olusegun Obasanjo, told another briefing that there would be no extraordinary meeting and the next AU summit would be in Maputo next year.
Diplomatic sources said the first deadly blow against the reformists’ agenda was delivered on Monday when Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s proposal to increase the number of representatives on the implementing committee of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) from the original 15 to 20 was adopted.
By increasing the number, analysts said countries such as Libya and Zimbabwe which would have been left out of the committee because of governance issues were now likely to sneak in through their regional dominance.
The sucker punch was yet to come: two days later the powerful West African lobby fended off a strong South African challenge to get rid of Amara Essy, the Ivorian elected just for a year in Zambia last year to oversee the birth of the AU, and replace him with a more capable technocrat.
According to a regional diplomat, the South Africans did not hide their dislike of Essy’s methods and one of their most senior officials was overheard saying as far as Pretoria was concerned "Essay was just a nice person, and that was that".
Diplomatic sources said the first deadly blow against the reformists’ agenda was delivered on Monday when Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s proposal to increase the number of representatives on the implementing committee of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) from the original 15 to 20 was adopted.
By increasing the number, analysts said countries such as Libya and Zimbabwe which would have been left out of the committee because of governance issues were now likely to sneak in through their regional dominance.
The sucker punch was yet to come: two days later the powerful West African lobby fended off a strong South African challenge to get rid of Amara Essy, the Ivorian elected just for a year in Zambia last year to oversee the birth of the AU, and replace him with a more capable technocrat.
According to a regional diplomat, the South Africans did not hide their dislike of Essy’s methods and one of their most senior officials was overheard saying as far as Pretoria was concerned "Essay was just a nice person, and that was that".