Accra, May 18, 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. 18 May 09