Africa lost a big opportunity in AUC elections-Oduk

Africa lost a big opportunity to scale up its bargaining power globally when it voted against Kenya’s Raila Amolo Odinga’s candidature for the African Union Commission Chairperson post.

Philanthropist and business man Johnson Oduk while commenting on the aftermath of the AUC elections Odinga’s candidature was well-timed considering Kenya’s stand on critical issues like climate change,global credit financing and the new approach in dealing with internal conflicts in individual states within the African Union.

Oduk who has congratulated Mahmoud Ali Youssouf of Djibouti has said that Africa needed an authoritative and amicable voice on global injustices.

” We have lost a great opportunity as a continent and opted for a soft voice that represents the status quo of what has been the case at African Union and the commision that runs it’s affairs,” Oduk said.

Oduk who has worked with several diplomats in Africa said Odinga’s candidature was intandem with Kenya’s push for an independent Africa based credit financing model that would see the continent reduce over reliance on the west and US for donor financing.

He has also blamed Raila’s failure on Kenya’s premature projections on the outcome of the elections without considering the voting patterns that often get tilted in favour of francophone countries.

” We talked about 28 countries when in essence we had 22 only and this is because we over trusted our friends in Anglophone countries who are always biased,” he said

He added that it was wrong for Kenya to send over 80 MPs and individuals who have no diplomatic experience in Ethiopia.

” The heads of state are very intelligent people and when you send crowds of people to create nuisance and try to intimidate them it is a mistake,” he added.

He however appreciated the efforts put in by President William Ruto in Odinga’s campaign.

“The President did well and the evidence is out there for everyone to see that he really wanted Odinga to win,”

He has also called on ODM leaders to stop blame games and focus on rebuilding the party for future elections