Era of “political
dinosaurs” in Africa is done –
Vice President Mahama
Accra, May 18, Ghanadot/GNA
– Ghana’s Vice President John Mahama said on Monday that the
era of “political dinosaurs” who considered African
countries as their bona fide property and pillaged the
resources for the comfort of themselves and a small
political elite was probably over.
“Leaders, who had stashed away in foreign banks money
equivalent to the entire budget of their countries are
becoming a rare breed on the Continent,” he noted.
Vice President Mahama was delivering a speech at the 11th
Ordinary Session of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) in
Pretoria, a release from the Office of the Vice President
said.
Mr Mahama said; “this pleasant wind of change” had often
been attributed to a so-called new crop of transformational
leaders with a vision and determination to lead their people
out of poverty into a society of prosperity for all.
“I dare say this transformation is the result of the
frustration of our people with the abject poverty and
squalor they have had to contend with often in the midst of
some of the most valuable and extensive natural resources
that can be found anywhere in this world.”
Mr Mahama, who was a member of the PAP until November 2008,
would be honoured by his colleagues with a citation in
appreciation of his role as Vice President of Ghana. It was
while he was with the PAP that he pushed for the resolution
of the issue concerning the killing of 44 Ghanaians in the
Gambia in 2005.
The Vice President said Africans were tired of the poverty
and disease, conflict and banditry and that they had come to
the realization that things could only change if they took
their destinies into their own hands.
“The rise of strong civil society organizations, vibrant and
vocal media institutions in Africa was not bestowed by some
benevolent leadership. They reflect the will of the people
to hold the leadership of their countries accountable.”
Vice President Mahama noted that the world was at the grips
of an unprecedented economic crisis that was not the making
of Africa.
“And yet Africa faces the danger of being the worst affected
if this global crisis is prolonged,” he warned.
Vice President Mahama said while Africa’s financial
institution had avoided the worst forms of this crisis due
to stronger 20th century style regulation, declining
remittances and collapsing commodity prices might still
erode the modest gains they had made in the last two
decades.
He said a large chunk of the people were in danger of
slipping back below the poverty line if Africa did not
strategize to deal with this crisis.
“Probably the era of unbridled, unregulated white knuckled
capitalism is over,” he said.
“The question that one asks is why has it not been obvious
that this bubble was destined to burst one day? Virtual
markets that existed only in the mind and governed by the
greed to make even more profits while divorced from the
reality of the production process, created a situation,
which was taken advantage of by bands of speculators pumping
money in and out of economies like giant vacuum cleaners,
without an inking that they were bound to come crashing down
to the reality of earth one day.”
Vice President Mahama said although this crisis posed a
danger to Africa it also opened new possibilities to the
Continent, as the accompanying food crisis revealed that the
abandoned and long suffering African farmers must become a
focus of attention.
He said the farmers must be assisted to modernize and
increase productivity in order to be able to feed the
population.
Vice President Mahama said the African farmers could rise to
the occasion given the right support not only to feed Africa
but turn the Continent into a net exporter of food.
“We must also quickly adopt measures to further insulate
ourselves from this crisis. Africa must generate its own
resources for development by being more cost effective in
public financial management, avoiding waste in public
expenditure and eliminating corruption, whiles creating
conducive legal and financial environment for the indigenous
private sector to grow.”
The Vice President said the crisis must also reveal to
Africans the folly of continuing to passionately cling to
boundaries that were bequeathed to her by former colonial
masters.
He noted that the progress on the Africa unification project
had been “frustratingly slow”.
“Our people are tired of the debate of gradualist and
instantiates of union or authority. All that Africans want
is a continent where they can hold up their heads with
dignity and pride as Africans.”
He expressed regret that in West Africa, the youth had
responded to the lack of opportunity by risking their lives
in fragile little boats on the rough Mediterranean seas to
reach the shores of Europe, where they believed they had a
chance of living a more dignified life.
“Every corpse that is washed ashore, of these young people
who drown at sea in such a hazardous journey, must be a scar
on the conscience of all of us in leadership in Africa that
we must work to make this Continent a land of opportunity
for our youth.
“We must draw our synergies together to create a better
environment for our people. We must work towards a
borderless Africa that allows free movement of goods and
people as existed before the cruel colonial partition.
“We must also foster South-South cooperation by increasing
trade between Africa and other nations of the South that
face the same challenges as we do.”
Vice President Mahama said the outcome of Ghana’s election
left behind a simple but significant message to Africa, that
free and fair elections underpinned by strong, resilient
democratic structures and institutions that allowed for free
expression constituted the best instrument for fostering the
progress and prosperity of the Continent.
He said Ghana was looking forward to the report of the PAP
Observer Mission that would be valuable for strengthening
the electoral democratic processes not only in Ghana but in
Africa.
Vice President Mahama also congratulated the people of South
Africa on their recent successful elections and President
Jacob Zuma on his assumption of the high office of
president.
He expressed the hope that PAP would thoroughly debate the
issue of amending its rule of procedure to conform to the
legal instruments of the African Union.
GNA