By ANTHONY MULOWA in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia –

. MUGABE

PRESIDENT Edgar Lungu yesterday joined other African leaders during the official opening of the 26th African Union (AU) summit at which outgoing AU chairperson Robert Mugabe got a standing ovation when he  tasked the United Nations (UN) secretary General Ban Ki Moon for the last time to ensure that Africa got a seat on the Security Council.
Mr Mugabe sent most African leaders cheering most of the times as he addressed them while observers and others from the galleries joined in applauding the 91- year-old Zimbabwean leader.
The speech, mostly off the cuff was frequently characterised by cheers both inside the chamber and galleries.
Mr Mugabe urged Mr Ban to deliver the message that Africa needed to be treated as an equal partner by giving it a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
“Mr Ban, tell them that there should be real equality in the UN Security Council. We are a free 54 independent countries and we come to New York every September year in, and out spending our money yet the voice in the UN Security Council says you (Africa) shall never have the voice in the Security Council,” he said.
He said Africans would fight for their own identity and that if it meant withdrawing membership from the UN, they would do so.
“One day we will decide, we can’t continue to be artificial members of the UN. If the UN must survive, we must be equal members,“ the veteran politician said.
Mr Mugabe said the only way Africa was going to survive the hash economic conditions as a result of plummeting metal prices on the international market was to implement a robust industrialisation drive and value addition to its natural resources.
This he said would help eradicate poverty and create jobs for youths.
Mr Ban who was in attendance presented his farewell speech to the AU as his mandate comes to an end in December after serving 10 years in office said the AU had made a number of commitments on human rights and women’s rights.
Mr Ban said this included the Maputo protocol on the rights of women, the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance and the protocol creating the African Court on Human and People’s Rights.
He encouraged AU member states to make these real by ratifying them where necessary.
“I urge you to move from setting standards to what I call the three  Is, Implementation, Institution-building and Investment in real  change,” he said.
He also observed that seventeen African Countries would go to the ballot box this year and that leaders should never use undemocratic constitutional changes and loopholes to cling to power.
Mr Ban said leaders must protect their people and not themselves.
Incoming AU chairperson Idriss Derby said the continent needed to organise and defend its interests.
“The AU is and remains a cradle of this solidarity. It may not have lived to its expectations mainly because we are not supporting it. The Union we all wish for will be an empty shell if we don’t move freely,“ he said.
Mr Derby who is the President of Chad said the organisation was operating like it used to over 20 years ago even if leaders met often to deliberate on various issues.
He said the AU should not expect everything from outside in terms of support but build its internal capacities.
African Union Commission (AUC) chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma said in order to unlock its full potential, Africans must put an end to the pervasive culture that limits full participation of girls and women in  all spheres of society.