The Pan-African Parliament was established in March 2004, by Article 17 of the Constitutive Act of the African Union, as one of the nine Organs provided for in the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community signed in Abuja, Nigeria, in 1991. The Protocol establishing the PAP was ratified by 49 Member States. Photo Pan-African Parliament
Liberal commentators miss the point entirely when they treat the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) as a weak institution waiting for reform. They speak of protocols, procedures, committees, direct elections and governance standards as though Africa suffers from poor administration.
Africa suffers from stolen power.
The PAP held its Extraordinary Session of the Seventh Legislature in Midrand from 28 to 30 April 2026 and elected Algeria’s Fateh Boutbig as president of its new Bureau. The African Union (AU) presented the moment as institutional renewal, regional rotation and continental maturity. The newly elected Bureau now carries the language of reform, representation and revitalisation. The words sound familiar because African people have heard them for decades. Every summit promises renewal. Every declaration invokes unity. Every protocol gestures towards liberation while the material life of the continent remains trapped inside the colonial architecture that produced Africa as an extraction zone.
