Too Late For Gaddafi

True Colors — 05 July 2011

Libya War Is a Must Win

“There is a time for everything,” a line in Holy Bible goes. In 1969, it was ascension to power; in 2011 it’s time to descend. This is a story about Libyan leader, Muammar Abdul Salam bin Hamed bin Mohammed Minyar Gaddafi. For the last 42years, it has time for the same Gaddafi reign with nothing known about the inside of his leadership apart from splendour and elegance. Most attention was on his foreign policy as he battled pariah status slapped on him by Western powers.

Little did any one know that he would be distracted from his own survival at home. In a bid to authenticate his stay in power, he began to hop around Africa to show that he was loved near and far. Things had actually worked out well in as far creating an invincible image could go. Gaddafi had stunts which will never be imitated.

Throwing cash at crowds while driving by, moving with snaking convoys and making personal arrangements for his own stay in any country or occasion was something small to him. I break off this narrative to point out the first flaw in Gaddafi’s style of work. A leader in one country shouldn’t focus more on his safety in a foreign country.

His or her fundamental goal should be to secure themselves at home by reading the people’s mood properly. Back to the narrative! In making himself feel at home away from home, Gaddafi would disregard all protocol prepared by his hosts because somehow, he already had a mentality of King of Africa, even when on the outside, he was still lobbying for the creation of United States of Africa. No need to say he rubbed many other leaders on the continent the wrong way.

He was wont to make unnecessary enemies by playing boss to other leaders who also felt the right to feel big at home. Gaddafi was “campaigning” by showing off the bossy side and therefore, was losing the African mandate. If the matter of the United State of Africa was ever to materialize and the matter of who would lead it was put to the vote with African leaders deciding by secret ballot, I dare say Gaddafi would have lost to a more courteous President. Gaddafii’s countenance on his trips kept exposing what he was most likely to be at home-a dictator who thrived on using national resources to hoodwink people.

A stroke of luck to his survival had come when nations like USA forgave him after issues of the Lockerbie bombing were resolved. However, it was too late after decades of no economic, military, intelligence and diplomatic ties with the powers of the world. One of the mistakes leaders like Gaddafi make is to deny the supremacy of certain powers. Facts will always be facts! Someone may loathe USA, Britain, France, Russia but that doesn’t take away the edge they have over the balance of power in the world.

Total independence of Africa is what all sons and daughters on this continent look out for. But the more we fail to put our affairs in order, the more we lag behind. The more we expose our need for foreign Aid or markets for our goods and services. Detaching Africa’s survival from the predator powers is one way sure way of surpassing the underdog syndrome. The easy route is through setting up political structures that conform to proven rules like democracy.

A popular leader shouldn’t fear elections. They don’t eat people! This is about Gaddafi. He loathed the “whites” so much but kept playing into their hands by alienating influential contacts in his neighbourhood. Who can be sure whether most African Presidents are not celebrating Gaddafi’s misfortune? They could even be aiding the war effort from the background.

Rwanda’s Paul Kagame is already on record supporting the invasion. By the time such a man says someone is dictator enough to be bombed out of power,……………….. The so-called Pan Africanists are opposed to the Libya invasion. They argue that it’s an affront on the whole of Africa. Their love for mother continent is a treasure for us all.

What is misplaced is their concern. Their concern should have come earlier when hell had not yet broken loose. In a bid to save a son-of-Africa from the jaws of the West, they should have read the signs earlier and lobbied him to make timely changes, even if that meant putting up appearances of making reforms. It would have removed the excuse for the “West” to target the “South.” The true African spirit is not preservation of dictatorship or being deaf to modern practices.

It is about adopting trends that are more convenient and which create room to prevent a situation running out of hand. In all this, foresight plays a big part. Gaddafi was admired by inhabitants of the African continent for his philanthropy, flamboyance and the way he defied the Americans. Among many, this admiration expired the day the first protestor hit the streets in Tripoli to denounce him. It was a very novel event in the face of a man whom many believed was heaven-sent to rule for life, without the mechanical process of elections. Gaddafi took power by force. There were no elections.

Anywhere after being in power for 20 or 30years, he should have been in position to rate himself and determine to hold democratic elections in his country. If he feared that, it all goes to show that he was unpopular at home. With no other way for change to come, the “Messiahs” had to exploit the political explosion in the Middle East and North Africa to choose him as an easy target. An obstinate target, feared but unpopular at home, or with shaky and scattered support, loathed by neighbouring leaders and with severed contacts among the powerful global states. Gaddafi made himself that lone target.

After achieving so much in the development of his country, he should have felt proud to let the people show their appreciation through the ballot. The war has now come so far. Thousands are dead including Gaddafi’s own family like son, Saif al-Arab and his grand children. Buildings, key Government installations and the country’s infrastructure are now bombed out wastes. Apart from the accompanying humiliation, Gaddafi himself is abandoned. His servant ministers and military commanders have seen the light.

He is running around in circles in his own country, and is at risk of stopping a bullet anytime. That is if he survives the NATO bombs. All he has worked for all those years is suddenly lost in one flash of exposure. Already, the war to dislodge him is denying other citizens of the world who need international military intervention, like in Syria and Yemen, the relief.

The powers are overstretched at this time. The war has come too far and so much is already lost. Even if NATO was wrong to invade him or had ulterior motives of stealing oil, that is now in the past. At this time, it is wise that other African leaders join forces to ‘encourage’ beloved Gaddafi to let go. There is nothing much to do for him now. Every single new bomb going off in Libya makes the whole of Africa-not Europe or America-bleed.

Continuing to play spectator will leave the continent in bigger losses when Gaddafi is removed by foreigners who will then reserve the say in Libya’s affairs after. The war must come to an end with Gaddafi out of power-and alive, i beg. Whatever happens now, Africa must be the winner! And the sooner, the better. If at all the Colonel remains, the reprisals he would unleash on his people would be untold. He is now a desperate, wounded lion with nowhere to run. He might end up like Adolf Hitler!

By Robert Atuhairwe

The author is journalist and Director for Political Monitoring at Public Opinions

Contact: 0772468064 007aronda@gmail.com