ABSTRACT

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Abstract
The OAU was the first continental organization in Africa formed by Pan-Africanism through which many countries in Africa achieved their political independence. Similarly, the metamorphosis of OAU to AU was done in order to correct some of the imbalances and hindrances that have being affecting the former from achieving its goals and objectives effectively. The study appraises analytically some of the factors responsible for the transformation of OAU to AU where views and professional opinions of experts were reviewed. It also revealed and appraised that challenges confronted by the OAU such as high poverty rate, economic stagnation, gross human rights violation, disunity in Africa among others needed to be addressed for Africa’s goals and objectives to be actually realized. The study makes use of neo-functionalism theory to describe possibility of waxing stronger and great if there is mutual sense of belonging among African States, particularly which has led to the formation of AU. The study is a qualitative that uses both primary and secondary sources of data. Twelve informants were interviewed from different Nigerian government parastatals and higher institutions. The interview data was thereby analysed thematically with the aid of Nvivo 10.
Keywords: OAU, pan-Africanism, metamorphosis, African Union, Africa

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