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While accepting the rationale for Soviet, Cuban and East German intervention in Ethiopia and Angola, Obasanjo argued that East-bloc aid to black Africa must have limits. "The Soviets should not overstay their welcome," he warned. "Africa is not about to throw off one colonial yoke for another. The Soviets should therefore see it to be in their interest not to seek to perpetually maintain their presence even after the purpose for which they were invited has been achieved. This way they run the risk of being dubbed a new imperial power, as indeed they already are being called even by those with whom they have had long association." That was a clear reference to Egypt, Somalia and the Sudan, all of which have expelled Russian advisers. Lest anyone miss his point, Obasanjo concluded: "We must be the prime determinants of our destiny. Let the Soviets and their collaborators heed this timely counsel."
Obasanjo's roundly applauded speech was the high point of the session. Beyond their own bright promise of stronger African leadership, his statesmanlike words contrasted with the gaffes that too often in the past have soiled the image African leaders sought to project. There were, alas, still a few of those gaucheries at the 15th summit. Items:
> Sudanese security men had to break up a wrestling match between Algerian and Moroccan delegates over a map of Africa that classified the Western Sahara as a nonindependent country. The Algerians, who support Polisario guerrillas fighting for the area's independence, were penciling in "independent" when the Moroccans chanced along and tried to ink in boundary lines indicating that Western Sahara had been partitioned between Morocco and Mauritania. A brief, fierce struggle ensued.
> In a short speech that Sudan's Numeiri generously described as "vivid and cheerful," Idi Amin Dada of Uganda offered a few of his customary impromptu bons mots. One contained a sardonic ring of truth: "I guess I should say a few words about liberation fronts and the Palestinian people, since you are not at the OAU unless you mention those things."
> For all their attacks on Western neocolonialism, the delegates for the most part addressed one another in the two major languages of colonial Africa: French and English. One embarrassing moment occurred when Angola's Neto, who was educated in Lisbon, was forced to wait until a Portuguese-speaking interpreter could be found to provide the running translation of his speech. Neto concluded by caustically requesting that Portuguese be made one of the OAU's working languages.