Saturday, November 5, 2011
The world will not forget, for a very long time, the man called Muammar Gaddafi – the fabled strongman of Libya. I wonder if there is a leader in recent times that enjoyed the kind of generous notoriety as much as he did. He would be remembered for a number of reasons – majorly on the negative side. Nonetheless, the most regrettable, eerie and ignoble was his sudden exit from mother earth. Contrary to his boastful and, often, puerile and foolhardy utterances, he was caught with minimal resistance and executed like a common criminal by angry National Transitional Council (NTC) fighters less than nine months after the revolution that ousted him from power began. Anybody that had heard him shout and bark on television would have thought that he was invincible. He openly threatened to annihilate all those that dared to launch a revolution against his 42-year-old regime. His son, Saif Al-Islam, was more daring; yet he was the first to run for dear life when the chips were down. See how vulnerable man can be!
Going by their threats and outpouring of venoms, little did anybody know that they were simply making up and were the most cowardly persons that God has ever created! In the early period of the insurrection that ultimately consumed him, Gaddafi called his people rats, threatening to eliminate all those that had the effrontery to dare him. The mere mention of his name would make even the lion-hearted squeal in fear and trepidation. Indeed, the fear of Gaddafi was the beginning of wisdom in Libya. He was a cult figure in his country, if not the entire Middle East and North Africa, which he bestrode like a colossus. Those who attempted to challenge him were brutally cut down.
For 42 years, Gaddafi presided over the affairs of Libya with such arrogance and ruthlessness as never witnessed in the annals of the country. Each of his children manned the juiciest offices in the land and wielded the same raw powers as him. We may not have all the time to give elaborate attention to the lifestyles of each of the children. That is a subject for another day. But what we cannot fail to mention is that Gaddafi did not do his children any good by the way he pampered and obliged them, even when they made bizarre requests. The brashness with which some of them carried themselves smacked of insensitivity to the sensibility of their people. Saif Al-Islam, whom I had mentioned earlier, was the most pompous and aggressive; yet fickle-minded and can melt at the sight of the enemy’s machete. It happened when the NTC fighters overran Tripoli: he was safeguarded by the human shield thrown around him by some loyalists. Even though he was loudmouthed, he knew when to run for dear life. Today, he is still alive in hiding. Three of Gaddafi’s sons, daughter and wives had earlier taken flight to safety in neighbouring countries.
Those that ran away knew the wisdom in the saying that he who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day. In fact, they saw the writing on the wall. Curiously, Gaddafi, their father, did not or chose not to see the writing on the wall. He opted to fight and die (but for me, he chose to fight and commit suicide). Short of sounding immodest, I can state that Gaddafi was the most idiotic person of the 21st Century. Where then lay all the awe-inspiring feats being attributed to him? That he committed suicide has wiped away all the gallantries associated with him. In fact, he was a bloody coward who set up other innocent people to do his dirty jobs for him, while he ensconced in the luxury of his palatial homes and revelled in inanities.
Gaddafi was a brutal and notorious leader; give it to him, even though his latter days were fraught with uncertainties. He masterminded the overthrow of some countries across the globe, including the assassination of Anwar Sadat of Egypt for his role in the Israel-Palestine peace initiative. He also used the enormous wealth, which he expropriated, to fund several illegitimate and bloody insurrections all over the world. The bombing of Pan Am flight across Lockerbie, Scotland, was one incident that pitted him against the world – particularly Scotland. His $1 billion dollar largesse for the promotion of Islam in the United States equally raised some dust; but he was undaunted. He continued with his campaign of entrenching his presence in the global arena with unrelenting vigour. By his actions, he found allies in other world leaders, especially those that shared his ideology and pacific sentiments.
Nonetheless, his style of leadership and brashness also attracted to him some respects from those that felt Africa should carve out a unique identify for itself. Independence for African nations was also at the centre of some of the struggles Gaddafi waged. This made him undoubtedly a target. Plans had been afoot to do him in. On numerous occasions he escaped being assassinated. Opposition against him mounted from Libyans abroad bent on overthrowing him. These Libyans held seminars and workshops abroad to create awareness about the evils of Gaddafi. As the campaigns grew in popularity and gained support from the international community, so were the days of Gaddafi gradually and systematically numbered.
Things came to a boiling point in February this year when some die-hard Libyans, emboldened by the events in Egypt and Tunisia, came together to brave an attempt to remove Gaddafi. This was something unheard of in the 42 years that he greedily held on to power. Initially, he had underestimated the efficacy of the people’s power, because he was still basking in the euphoria of his supposedly total control over the military and other instruments of power at his disposal. His sons – Mutassim and Saif Al-Islam – complicated things further for him by creating the impression that they were capable of suppressing any open rebellion against their father’s regime. He had believed them wholly. This probably was responsible for his refusal to quit, even when it was clearly suicidal to remain in Libya. He clung to power the way a drowning man would cling to straw.
Those that celebrate the demise of Gaddafi have good reasons to do so; after all, it was good riddance to bad rubbish. Who would not be excited that a sad chapter in the political history of Libya had been expunged? Definitely, the entire country will heave a sigh of relief, having been freed from the stranglehold of one of Africa’s maximum rulers.
I have spent some time ruminating on the havoc the man caused in Libya, and would not fail to wonder why the people allowed such evil to exist among them this long. The man did not just overtake Libya in one day. Not at all! He had the pleasure of time to entrench himself into power. Some analysts opined that Gaddafi must have mesmerized his people so much so that they could not lift their voice against him. Forget the latter denigration of his personality, he was a man highly respected and adored by his people. In fact, many of them saw him as their Messiah. That was why it was difficult for the NTC leadership to secure the support of the entire populace: there are still pockets of resistance to their leadership, even after Gaddafi has passed away.
The battles of Misrata, Ben Walid and Sirte were the fiercest in the entire struggle to topple him. Apart from loss of lives the NTC fighters suffered massive loss in ammunition. While Tripoli fell in a jiffy the three cities above fell after several weeks of fierce fighting and after NATO had increased its air campaign.
Deep inside me, I am pained about how the whole exercise went, particularly the loss of precious human lives. Even the deaths suffered by Gaddafi’s family were also considerably avoidable. This is why I still think Gaddafi was foolhardy to have holed himself up in the face of imminent danger to his life. Only a fool would see a deathly situation and confront it. What lesson had Gaddafi intended to teach with his obdurate stance? Another writer described his action as simply foolish.
I have never envied the man Gaddafi: he had guts, and was courageous unto death. Did he not vow to fight and die in Libya? He fulfilled this vow by shedding his blood for a cause he believed in – whether it was worth the price or not. I would have wished Gaddafi was alive: he was charismatic and enigmatic. Or do you think otherwise? To speak the truth: Libya and, in fact, the entire Africa Continent will miss him sorely. Will anybody easily forget his flamboyant and self-effacing nature – his female guards and camp tents? He was unique in his own way, and was unusually kind-hearted and empathic whenever the occasion demanded. He demonstrated this rare quality in matters that involved other nations, where he felt his interests would be bolstered.
I am sure he would do many of the things he did quite differently if he were to relive his life. For instance, it is certain he did not like the devious tag of a monstrous, blood-thirsty terrorist he notoriously acquired after the downing of the U.S.-owned Pan Am Airline jet that was on a flight over Scotland. Even his meddlesomeness in the affairs of some African countries would have been avoided. Probably, he did some of these things out of sheer adventurism or egoism. Whichever one it was his attitude generally was cantankerous and belligerent. And this attracted to him negative publicity, and diminished his stature before the world.
What lessons for the world from Gaddafi’s misadventure? There are many of them. But the most instructive is the urgent need for leaders to know when to quit. They should know that despotism and highhandedness are no longer fashionable in our modern world. So, what are the remaining despots in Africa doing to avoid a similar fate befalling them? Under this category are such leaders as Paul Biya of Cameroun, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Blaise Campore of Burkina Faso, etc. I still remember how Campore masterminded the assassination of his personal friend and former President of the then Upper Volta, Captain Thomas Sankara. It was a most brutal betrayal any friend could suffer in the hands of his best friend. Another lesson is that the people’s power will always extinguish the egoistic desire and morbid aspiration of any self-styled despot. Ask former President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and former President Ben Ali of Tunisia whose displacement by the People’s revolution gave impetus to the struggle to topple Gaddafi. The third lesson is that the people should not allow themselves to be intimidated by the bravado and arm-twisting antics of despotic leaders. This is happening in Syria and Yemen. Surely, it will not be long before the two leaders kiss the dust.
It is important to state at this juncture that the role the international community played in the entrenchment of the people’s long-drawn wish in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya has been monumental. There was certainly no way the people would have removed these autocratic and barbaric regimes on their own without foreign support. This is why the international community should mount pressure on the leaders of Syria, Cameroun, Bahrain, Kenya, Yemen and other such countries to relinquish power voluntarily and honourably or be chased out ignominiously. I do not subscribe to the undue criticisms being mounted against the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and their allies in NATO about their role in strengthening democracy in Africa and Middle East. Imagine what would have happened if the global community had opted to be passive over happenings in these African and Middle East countries that have suffered indescribable highhandedness and totalitarianism under unconscionable rulers.
Absence of good leadership is responsible for the backwardness some countries of the world suffer at the moment. Africa is the worst hit. What is accountable for this unfortunate and endemic situation is not hard to find. Poverty and illiteracy are the two key culprits, which have had terrible toll on the lives of the people. I believe that a literate society will be naturally alive to its social duties and cannot easily be misdirected. Sit-tight leaders have often found a docile, gullible society very easy to manipulate and intimidate. Have you ever pondered why some people collude with politicians to steal votes during elections? Some do it purely out of ignorance, while some others out of sheer greed. Whichever way the pendulum swings, what cannot be argued is that many African countries are populated by poor and ignorant people! They are simply willing tools in the hands of callous and egregious politicians.
So to deal with the menace of totalitarian leadership across the world, there is an urgent need to raise the level of literacy and reduce poverty by half. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is one of the initiatives designed by the United Nations to cut poverty by half by the Year 2015. Meeting the goals of the MDGs will as well reduce atrocities by sight-tight leaders and make the environment unfavourable for them to perpetrate these atrocities.
Again, it is not enough to remove Gaddafi; there is a compelling need to ensure that all the parties involved in the revolution are reconciled. This is the only way the fragile peace achieved can be sustained. I have drawn attention to this point, because there is a possibility of some aggrieved Pro-Gaddafi supporters continuing with their opposition to the new NTC government in Libya. Do not forget that there are still too many arms in wrong hands in Libya. What happens to these arms? If not quickly mopped up they could be used by terrorist organisations to unleash mayhem on the country.
As already known, NATO is rounding off its operations in Libya having attained the cardinal objective of going there in the first place. But I must not fail to ask, ‘Why the hurry to exit Libya when it still has so much work to do in ensuring that peace is entrenched?’ The challenges facing the world and NTC are so onerous that something drastic should be done to tackle them accordingly.
On the part of Libyans themselves, they should brace up to the challenges of rebuilding their nation devastated by months of internal insurrection. They should work as a people, not minding differences in tribes and languages, to ensure the emergence of a stable and progressive Libya.
In conclusion, we sincerely mourn the loss of Gaddafi and all the innocent souls that perished in the unfortunate and generally-avoidable revolution. May God grant them peace in Paradise!
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