Muammar Gaddaffi's death is being widely reported in the media, and based on some self-righteous comments on Facebook, I updated,
"No matter how much of a monster Gadhafi was, Libya was better under him in the last 30 years than Nigeria with our mixed military democracy. The people who killed him are the same people killing Nigerians and other black Africans with reckless abandon. Why should any Nigerian or African for that matter be happy about his death?"
Libyans who have experienced the oppression under Gaddafi are of course within their rights to rejoice. But for others, especially Africans, I think the circumstances of his death should give pause for thought. Libya until a few months ago was one of the best countries in Africa, all the development indices were comparable to some countries in Europe. Gaddafi himself had always stood for Pan-Africanism and allowed black Africans to live and work in the country. I remember seeing him once in Abuja at an African Leaders summit to campaign for solving the HIV/AIDS issue on the continent. Was he a saint? Probably not.
But what makes the situation problematic was that his ousting and death were orchestrated by NATO, an organisation whose antecedents in Africa has not particularly been without ulterior motives. They seem to only care about removing heads of state that do not bow to their wishes, to the extent of installing despots and championing them even in the face of tyranny - example Mobutu Sese Seko. If NATO is so charitable, why aren't they assisting in Sudan and Somalia? NTC are the new leaders of Libya, but what do we know of them other than their guerrilla war against the former regime and the paranoid murdering of black Aficans?
Going forward, I do wish Libyans all the best. There has been a lot of destruction in the last few months and there needs to be commensurate hard work to bring the country to a better place.
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