UN General Assembly
1973

145. The influence of the African States in the debates and resolutions of the General Assembly is held to be dominant. And in fact, it is. Their votes are decisive in the resolutions that are approved, not merely because of their numbers, but also because of the influence they have upon other countries, which keep them company in an alignment, whose roots, however, are unfortunately not to be found in a conviction of the justice of the causes defended, or in the merit or efficacy of the resolutions approved, but in barefaced opportunism and convenience. Votes which are cast with Africa, in order to please Africa, are votes against the real interests of Africa. It has been said here, with some truth, that, should this tendency continue, the United Nations would soon turn into a mere branch of the OAU. Such a situation would certainly be very degrading to the United Nations, which would thus find itself reduced merely to repeating and to echoing timidly resolutions and decisions adopted in other forums.