Accra, May 26 GNA - Dr Yao Graham, Executive Director of the Third World Network, has said Africa still has gaping political vacuum despite attempts by many African leaders to aspire to inherit late President Kwame Nkrumah's mantle as the visionary and driver of Pan-Africanism and continental unity.

He said Nkrumah's leadership and rallying role in African affairs went well beyond his vision and theorizing to include support for national liberation movements.

Dr Graham was speaking at a lecture organized by All African Student Union (AASU) as part of the "Nkrumah at 100" Lecture series in Accra. Dr Graham who spoke on the topic: "Nkrumah at 100: Lessons and challenges for African Leadership" also formed part of activities marking AU Day.

He said Nkrumah's support for the liberation struggle also embodied a unity of his pan-Africanism and commitment to anti-colonial independence as a necessary precondition for the continent's unity and progress.

Dr Graham said despite Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's seemingly radical stance on African unity, "the sad truth is that he is not the successor of Nkrumah that the continent currently and urgently needs." "Col Gaddafi does not offer a coherent vision or leadership practice of pan-Africanism in keeping with the needs of the age and these shortcomings are compounded by his unpredictability and histrionics." Dr Graham said some of Col Gaddafi's views and pronouncements showed him up as a man deeply marked by his years as an authoritarian leader. "Among his many bizarre acts is his current self-designation as King of Africa's kings, a reactionary assertion out of tune with the democratic logic of the continent's national liberation struggles." He said the African people want democracy not monarchs and if there was one element of Africa's postcolonial history that the masses want behind them it is the years of despotism.

Dr Graham said the current global crisis had validated what critics of neo-liberalism have been saying for years, that years of growth had failed to effect any transformation or brought about any reduction in poverty.

He said Africa's response to the global crisis has so far lacked urgency and the sense that this was an opportunity to make a break with some of the discredited policies that have failed to deliver transformative growth over the past couple of decades. Dr Graham said the only thing African leaders have succeed in doing at global forums is to plead for Africa to be remembered for security of aid.

"This is a clear sign that there are no leaders who can see opportunities for change in the current crisis." Dr Bright Oduro Kwarteng, a lecture at the Ghana Institute of Management Public Administration, accused the military and elements of the United Party (UP) tradition for conspiring with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to overthrow the Nkrumah regime in 1966. He appealed to Mills Administration to move the statute of General Emmanuel Kotoka from the airport and change the name to that of Dr Kwame Nkrumah. 26 May 09