African Union Celebrates 2018 Africa Day

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AU Commemorates Africa Day

The 2018 Africa Day (formerly African Freedom Day and African Liberation Day) was on Friday, marked by the African Union (AU) with calls for more efforts in the fight against corruption.

The Africa Day, is the annual commemoration of the birth of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), now known as the African Union (AU) on 25 May 1963, and is celebrated in various countries on the African continent, as well as around the world.

It is celebrated every 25th of May.

The 55th AU anniversary celebrations at the headquarters of the union in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, has sessions for featured panel discussion, African bazaar, displaying cultural costumes and items of AU member states, as well as music concerts.

Chairperson of the AU Commission, Moussa Mahamat, while stating the achievements by the people and government of the African continent, underlined the need to do more to meet up with other continents.

“Central to the work ahead is the fight against corruption in all its forms.” 

“Resources that are needed for development and the delivery of services, such as electricity, education, healthcare, sanitation and clean water, are diverted by a few, thus depriving the majority of the people from access to these critical services,” he said.

The AU has dedicated 2018 as anti-corruption year, under the theme “Winning the Fight against Corruption: A Sustainable Path to Africa’s Transformation”, and African leaders have declared the July 11 every year as the African Anti-Corruption Day.

“I want to challenge all of us, leaders and Africans from all walks of life, to firmly deal with this scourge (corruption),” noted the chairperson of the AU Commission.

In recognition of the Buhari administration’s commitment to fighting corruption in Nigeria and globally, President Muhammadu Buhari has been named champion of AU’s anti-corruption theme.

In his remarks, Bankole Adeoye, Nigeria’s Ambassador to Ethiopia and Permanent Representative to AU, emphasized the need to sustain robust efforts to phase out corruption in Africa.

The ambassador further identified corruption as a major obstruction in the transformation of Africa, calling for more concerted efforts to ensure transparency and determination in stamping out corruption in the continent.