Addis Ababa, Feb. 1, GNA - Brother Muammar El Gaddafi, Libyan leader and Chairman of the African Union, on Sunday handed over the leadership mantle to Dr. Bingu Wa Mutharika, President of the Republic of Malawi for a one- year tenure.

The smooth handing over ceremony ended speculations and strong rumours that were making the rounds in the Ethiopian capital that Brother Gaddafi was lobbying the African leaders to take the AU leadership for the second time.

It had also given credence to the laid down procedures of the Union which planned last year to handover the leadership to a Southern African country. Brother Gaddafi called on African leaders to consider redefining the roles and prerogatives of the AU Chairman as previous dealings did not spell out the real prerogative of the leader to take positive actions for and on behalf of the Union.

"As the AU Chairman, you do not even represent the Union in international summits, you cannot take discretional decisions on behalf of the Union and certain things even happened and I as Chairman was not even aware." He said the roles spelt out by the Union were not mandatory enough to make the Chairman vibrant at international conferences, summits and meetings."

"Who speaks and represents the AU in Summits? I will prefer a redefinition of the rights and prerogatives of the Chairman as I am presently not comfortable with the happenings and the position of the Chair."

The Libyan Leader called for effective collaboration and partnership among member countries to fight the menace of hunger, poverty, disease and conflicts that had over the years devastated and impeded the orderly progress and development of the Continent. "African countries cannot continue to be beggars from donor organizations, who most of the times do not fulfil their financial pledges they make to African countries amid embarrassments and harsh conditionalities."

He said most European countries started their development programmes at slow pace, but with political will and economic determination, most of those European countries have now become political and economic giants, providing resources and consultancy services to African countries that had the potential of developing better. Brother Gaddafi advised member countries against engaging in negative tendencies such as wars, conflicts, corruption, bad governance and poor sanitory conditions, which he said were detrimental to the socio-economic growth of Africa.

Dr. Bingu Wa Mutharika, incoming AU Chairman, said he would devote much of his tenure on the fight against wars, climate change, gender inequality, poverty and hunger that had over the years bedevilled the continent. "Africa is not a poor continent, but the people in it are poor. We have Minerals, Technocrats, Engineers, Doctors who are making other continents richer and yet their continent continues to be on its knees for development."

He called on member states to go beyond the organization and issuance of resolutions, declarations and communiques and take positive actions that would place the continent parallel to others in the world. Dr. Mutharika promised to focus on agriculture as a good foundation for weaning African countries from their total dependence on donor agencies in the world.

This he said would be started by promoting the construction of dams throughout the continent for Agricultural irrigation purposes and by embarking on food security programmes to avoid waste and encourage increased food production. "Africa must feed Africa before feeding the rest of the world, and my major agricultural slogan will be 'feeding Africa through technology', let us act now and stop begging." The Malawian leader also promised to create a comprehensive data base on African staples and work out a modality for comparative advantage production to ensure that there was sufficient food on the continent for export to other continents. 01 Feb 10