USA Africa Dialogue Series - Libya and African leaders

The Libyan aspect of the Arab Spring, a series of pro-democracy and freedom protests that have ended decades-old, entrenched regimes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, with Syria and Yemen still on the boil, has turned into a diplomatic mess for African leaders.

Unlike in the Arab and most countries of the Muslim world where there has generally been a tacit encouragement of the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC), African leaders are in two parts: those behind the NTC, which is on the verge of a decisive victory over the 42 year-old Muamar Gaddafi regime, and those who back the latter.

Of particular interest were the various reasons adduced for positions taken. Nigeria has thrown its weight behind the NTC because; according to its officials, power has shifted into the hands of the NTC which it sees as the current representatives of the Libyan people.

This, interestingly, is the basic position of Western countries, which despatched the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) warships to aid the rebels through air strikes to end the Gaddafi reign. For a country that has declared that Nigeria is now the centrepiece of her foreign policy (rather than the old emphasis on Africa as the centrepiece) officials said little about how this position best advances Nigeria's interests.

And yet, it serves Nigeria's best interests to side with the victorious NTC for the simple reason that a chaotic Libya under a long-drawn contestation between Gaddafi and his enemies will only create a vacuum that will enable Islamic terrorists to plant their cells. They will eventually target Nigeria and other countries in the Sahelian region.

The need for Libya to come under a firm governmental authority to prevent a repetition of the Somalia and Iraq experiences is a viable national interest justification by Nigeria.

The question is: why did the officials fail to project it well? Why give the impression they were simply toeing Western lines as they did in Cote D'Ivoire?

On the other hand, South Africa's Jacob Zuma boldly declared that his country would withhold recognition to the newcomers since the war is yet to be won and lost.

The real truth is that Zuma and most of the South African countries (such as Zimbabwe ) are keenly aware of the contributions of Gaddafi to the anti-apartheid struggle.

In fact, Zimbabwe expelled the ambassador of Libya and his embassy staff for defecting to the NTC side in line with many other Libyan missions around the world. Some of these African presidents are direct beneficiaries of Gaddafi's personal generosities, as the dictator was known to routinely hand out millions of dollars to some of them in support of their campaigns or other personal needs.

Just the other day, former two-time Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo, berated NATO for its role in the evacuation of Gaddafi from power. This was coming over six months after the start of the war campaign, which would probably have yielded little result for the rebels without the NATO military assistance.

Both the Southern African and Obasanjo positions amounted to medicine after death because there was little that Gaddafi stood to benefit from them. If they had mustered this support at the very outset and prevailed on Gaddafi to open his doors to large-scale political reforms rather than commence the killing of protesters, this would probably have helped their friend.

The truth is that the NTC has defeated Gaddafi in battle and has taken over power in Libya. It is now the de facto political authority. Any further effort to elongate the strife in that country by offering effete diplomatic support to a defeated dictator will be a disservice to the Libyan people.

It will also help in exporting terrorism into the conflict and threaten the entire region, which is already under attack by the Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in the south-west and Boko Haram to the south in Nigeria.

All that countries which love Gaddafi and his family can do now is to offer them protective refuge and encourage the new leaders not to go on witch-hunting his supporters back home in Libya. Hands should be on deck to encourage national reconciliation and rehabilitation under a democratic, peaceful atmosphere.

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