Ghadafi: The end of another African tyrant KAYODE KETEFE The sit-tight, tyrannical regime of Muammar Ghadafi has collapsed after 42 years of his unassailable sovereignty, and he is, at least, at the time of writing this piece, a man of no fixed address; he is yet to be found by the victorious "rebels"- which is the legitimate government in Libya. Though it is possible that by the time this is being read, Ghadafi could have escaped into exile, found dead or captured alive. Three of his children, (a new report said all of them had escaped) had been captured by the revolutionaries. For six months beginning from February 17, 2011 till August 21, when the rambunctious rebels under the aegis of National Transitional Council, marched on and sacked his capital, Tripoli, the dictator had prosecuted the civil war against his own people with utmost brutality, killing many defenceless civilians. The uprising, riding on the waves of Arab Spring which earlier ousted regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, began as a mere protest against his sit-tight autocracy. But the sanguinary dictator unleashed terror on the protesters by ordering his troops to open fire on them. Instead of being cowed the then uncoordinated protesters were driven into a more determined and purposeful obstinacy. Believing in his professional army, seemingly inexhaustible armoury, well -fortified compound with impregnable bunkers, Ghadafi, who have no respect for human lives, dismissed the first sign of Arab Spring in Libya as a huge joke. The very idea of a popular uprising against him was unthinkable. He was cynical, calling the revolutionaries, all sort of despicable names-they were rats, traitors and gangsters, who would soon be crushed under the boots of his loyalists. Backed by the United Nations's sanctioned NATO's force which assisted them through air raids that strafed Ghadafi's military installations, armoury and troops, the revolutionaries have now sacked one of the longest regimes in Africa. At the peak of his glory, the maverick Ghadafi who used to have as his closest bodyguards, sexy, smartly dressed ladies in military fatigue who were ever ready to cut off even their mammary glands to please him, was seen as a sort of demigod. He habitually repressed all forms of dissents against his regime with utmost severity. He was fond of executing dissidents through public hangings and mutilations which were broadcast on state television to serve as deterrent to others. On the positive side, he is a socialist who believed in making life comfortable for his people economically, he managed the oil-dependent Libyan economy so well to the extent that the small nation has one of the highest per capital incomes in Africa. Even then, Ghadafi was not averse to corruption as he amassed stupefying fortune home and abroad. He is guilty of excessive nepotism, filling major sensitive public offices with members of his own family. Ghadafi does not believe in granting the people their legitimate civil and political rights. Under his rule, People were arbitrarily arrested and tried on trumped-up charges. Only recently, the Libyan press was adjudged the most censored in the Middle East and North Africa.. Ghadafi, obviously, is suffering from the worst strain of megalomania. How can you choose to plunge your own country into a civil war, claiming tens of thousands of lives, simply because you don't want to leave office, more so after spending 42 years? Can self-conceit go any higher? Ghadafi loves blood! He is known to have personally presided over public executions of "enemies" like the killings of members of the Islamic fundamentalist Hizb-ut Tahrir sect, in the 1970s. His fall from the tip of self-constructed political zenith to the abyss of infamy is a great lesson that nothing lasts forever. Now, he is being wanted for prosecution by the International Criminal Court for crime against humanity. Africa has always battled with deluded leaders who got to the office and succumbed to self-induced myth that they were born to rule. We have had such sit- tight cum sadistic rulers in Houphet Boigny of Cote d'ivoire, who spent whopping 33 years in office; Jean Bedel Bokassa of Central African Republic, who spent 13 years in office, metamorphosing from President, to President-for-life and finally, Emperor! It was Bokassa who ordered his troops to open fire on defenceless school children leading to the death of about 100 pupils in 1979- We have also had Hosni Mubarak, who is currently undergoing trial after 30 years of misrule. We have had Idi Amin of Uganda who managed to pack into his eight years rule the worst human tragedy in the whole of Africa. We are still having self-conceited and self-serving leader in Paul Biya of Cameroun, who is now in his 29th year in office, using all sorts of antics and tricks to perpetuate himself in power. If there is anything the Arab Spring has proved, it is the fact that people cannot be repressed forever. The fall of Ghadafi should prove to all present and potential self-serving rulers that the only panacea against masses revolution is good and responsible governance which recognises and respects people's inalienable right to choose their leaders in periodic elections. |
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