Ministers from member States of the African Union (AU) have been banned from addressing the heads of states and governments during AU summits. The ban takes effect from next AU summit.
AU Chairperson, President Alfa Conde of Guinea, told the 28th AU Summit on Tuesday in Addis Ababa that the measure was part of the recommendations made in 2016 at AU summit in Kigali.
According to him, since the Assembly is called, ‘Assembly of Head of States’, it should remain so, hence their is no point for Minister to take the floor; adding that, “they should be at the level of their executive meeting and should be limited to that”.
Conde further alleged that most of the Presidents after the opening ceremony take their leave without giving their time at the meeting.
He also frowned at attitude of not being punctual by the leaders, positing that, it was high time such attitude should be checked.
He said that a committee headed by President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, was set up by the Union to reform the Summit and how its meeting would be conducted; noting that all measures would take effect from July.