CHALLENGES FACED ORGANIZATION OF AFRICAN UNION (OAU)

The rampant outbreak of natural calamities like famine, floods and other epidemics. This compelled the UN and other organizations to take up the mantle of disaster management.

Colonial legacy was another obstacle to the OAU. Some African states continued to identify with the former colonial masters eg Anglophone and Francophone. This undermined decisions of African states.

Lack of a common continental language made it difficult for the OAU to promote meaningful co-operation.
The frequent occurrence of military coups which undermined the work of the OAU in promoting democracy.
The presence of dictators in Africa like Mobutu in Congo, Bokassa of CAR, Mengitsu in Ethiopia, Amin in Uganda and Mugabe in Zimbabwe.
The OAU was greatly overwhelmed by the growing number of refugees. This presented a burden to the host member countries by sharing the scarce resources.
Poorly developed infrastructure between the member states. This limited trade and economic cooperation among the member states.
Interstate conflicts became a major challenge, ie Uganda vs Tanzania during Amin’s era, Ethiopia and Somalia over Ogaden, Nigeria vs Cameroon.
The presence of neo-colonialism hence making African states to attain total
decolonization.
The oil crisis of 1973 – 1974 drastically affected the effective operation of OAU, ie made countries to adopt unfair strategies (affected regional economic integration).
The failure of the member states of OAU to meet their subscriptions made the work very hard.
The frequent outbreak of civil wars in Africa, ie Chad, Congo, Nigeria, Angola, Somalia and Sudan.

General illiteracy among the masses of the OAU member states. This undermined the effort of fighting poverty, disease and ignorance.
Lack of an international peace keeping force of its own/army/high command. This made it impossible to intervene to solve the civil wars and other conflicts of the states.
Assassination of prominent African leaders like Samora Machel in 1986, Anwar Sadat in 1981, Amilcar Cabral in 1973, Chris Hani in 1993 etc.
Ideological differences during the cold war era. This made countries to adopt capitalism like Kenya and Tanzania communism. This affected uniformity in problem solving.
The geographical vastness (size) of the continent. The size of about 12 million square miles hindered the effectiveness in promoting political unity and trade in Africa.
The heterogeneous nature of the continent was a major obstacle. Very many races, tribes, cultural and ethnic differences. This made unity of purpose very hard.