The summit of the African Union member states leaders ends on Monday in Ethiopia.

Their communiqué will be scrutinised. If it includes “We’ve come a long way,” forget it.

Anyway, the summit is unique. It comes at a time when optimism about Africa’s future is, once again, high. It also marks two occasions when continental leaders defined its place in global economic and political sphere.

The first time was the formation of the then 32-member Organisation of African Unity, OAU, 50 years ago.

Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah summed the mood: “Seek ye first the political kingdom, and all things shall be added unto you.” In hindsight, “economic kingdom” would have made more sense.

The second round marked the OAU’s metamorphosis into the now 54-member African Union, AU, 21-years-old last Saturday. The theme of a symposium in weeklong activities at AU’s headquarters in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, defines the mood: “Pan Africanism and African Renaissance.”

Well, anybody alive for more than 10 years has heard of Pan Africanism and the continent’s renaissance.

Both the OAU—and its infamous tag as a Dictators’ Club—and the AU remain compromises. Some Africans wish a politically and economically United States of Africa. Others insist “It isn’t time-yet.” It’s an accomplishment both sides are still talking. Unfortunately, one of the OAU’s original member states, Morocco, remains absent.

It pulled out of the OAU in a huff over one of the organizations’ many failures to deal with continental issues. Three member states are suspended for failure to live up to the AU’s rules. Hurrah!

Also missing is former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, whose rule ended ignominiously in October 2011. A late convert to Pan-Africanism, Gaddafi advocated, some say bought supporters, for a United States of Africa. His unbridled ambition to be first head was obvious.

Fortunately, the AU can boast of the lack of, in its midst, the likes of infamous rulers like the “Butcher of Addis,” Mengistu, the “Butcher of Kampala,” Idi Amin, and Gaddafi, whose contempt of some leaders worldwide was legendary.

Of course, Gaddafi’s idea of Africa’s “Big Man” isn’t dead. Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe re-championed it in January. He said, in part: “…we must also have an African head… Yes, we need one.”

A reading of the OAU and AU’s objectives indicate common sense and achievable goals. Indeed the OAU succeeded in the fight against colonialism and apartheid. However, in most of other aspects performance and implementation deficiencies remained galore.

What the African leaders at the summit should come up with are clearly defined nuts and bolts for reducing performance and implementation deficiencies that plagued the OAU and are creeping into the AU.

What ails the continent and the remedies are already known. Pan Africanism and renaissance are hackneyed.

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