GHADAFFI’S LAST STAND, LIBYA’S OR WEST’S VICTORY AND NIGERIA’S LESSON.

    Finding a headline for this article should be the most hectic engagement I’ve had in the past 48 hours right from the colonel’s capture, transportation to Misrata and eventual death. So many people expected an article from me and so I though it wouldn’t be nice to disappoint them.

   I like relational style of writing where a current event is used to tackle another event. The whole world right now is abuzz about the death of a tyrant, despot and supposedly people hater, almost every writer, social commentator, TV personalities, world leaders, and columnist are busy focusing on the bad aspect of Late colonel Muammar Ghadaffi however I prefer to focus on both but most especially his good side. Most people obviously would wonder why I included Nigeria in this article the answer is not far-fetched our leaders are no better than him, they stole he did, they oppressed us, he did to his people, our voices weren’t heard, so were Libyans then, we are both oil-producing nations, critics were both clamped down on in both countries, so now I bet no one can ask why I included Nigeria in this piece, but unlike Libya we practiced democracy, and had to an extent some form of freedom of speech, something that was a luxury in the then Ghadaffi colonized Libya but his death has changed the game.

  Ghadaffi died so cheap but I assumed he would have preferred to died fighting but he was captured, beaten and then Killed( he did not die of any useless Cross-Fire Theory), he was caught, his guns collected and shot fatally, reports have it that he pleaded for his life, how come did he die from cross-fire, if his  barricade had been broken before he was captured, why wasn’t adequate security given to such a Valuable prisoner? Questions that demands answers. The simple reason was that they(NTC and NATO) feared that if he was captured he would be taken to the International Criminal Court in the Hague Netherlands and tried for crimes against humanity, his sentence would most likely be Life-sentence, mind you he was old already,  so a life sentence wasn’t an option he had to be killed and the Cross-Fire Theory established. 

That’s their problem he is dead and that was what most leaders in the West wanted, African and some Arabian Leaders obviously wanted him out of power and not dead, they felt he was becoming too obsessed with clinging onto power and creating a dynasty.

  There was a conspiracy to kill Ghadaffi, remember former US President Ronald Regan tried to kill him but was unsuccessful during the operation El Dorado Canyon on the 14 of April 1986, also there was an alleged plot by Britain's Secret Intelligence Service to assassinate Gaddafi, when rebels attacked Gaddafi's motorcade near the city of Sirte in February 1996, was denied by former foreign secretary Robin Cook, although the FCO later stated: "We have never denied that we knew of plots against Gaddafi."

   Colonel Ghadaffi’s death undoubtedly sparked rays of hope to all revolutionist worldwide, even his very best friend Hugo Chavez would be considering his options with such mind-boggling news, even Yemeni and Syrian presidents would be on high alert. This year would be the best year the West would ever had considering the number of successes recorded in taking out “allegedly” bad eggs, no year would have been better, Osama, Anwar Alwalaki, Ghadaffi, these men were terror to the West and they were all taken down in almost easy circumstances.

 He made a promise to die in Libya and he kept to that, he could have escaped but didn’t, which shows that he was a man of his words, he died for what he thought was the truth, in reality he died a fool, a man whose good part would forever be consigned to the abyss of political history and his path shared with Adolf Hitler, Gen Sani Abacha, Osama, Benito Mussolini, Saddam Hussein and their likes.

   His good part included providing basic amenities needed for the survival of a society; also Ghadaffi built schools, housing, hospitals, roads and highways. He led a campaign to expand free education and health care and tried to create new industries. In 1969, life expectancy in Libya was 51; today, it is 77, per capita annual income - about $14,000 in 2010. Ghadaffi's regime forced foreign oil firms to relinquish majority stakes in Libya's oil fields and hand over larger shares of the earnings thus creating better living conditions for Libyans.

  Ghadaffi did everything he did for his people, he truly loved them and fought to protect them from being exploited by the ever sniffing and predatory West, but in the process he made loads of mistakes and therefore so many enemies, his greatest mistake was killing the people he professed he loved, he was apparently a racist if words of ill treatment of blacks are to go by, those act apparently made him lose friends even in Africa.  If you are not with the West you automatically become a Dictator and Tyrant. His people were brainwashed that he was the problem and had to be taken out of the picture, I agree that he needed to be taken out of the picture but he shouldn’t have been bruised, battered and killed like a mere rat, he deserved a better treatment, too bad he ended the way he did, he ruled with an Iron-fist and died a death of Irony.

  Hope no one is questioning my apparent support for Colonel Muammar Ghadaffi, because I have loads of reason to question NATO’s involvement in the revolution, I’ve said over and over again that I’m totally against foreign intervention in Libya, mind you without their involvement the revolution was doomed. So I think we have to agree to disagree on that aspect.

  Libyans fought for the future, imagine a 40 yr old in Libya doesn’t know anything about leadership history because there was only one leader and that was Ghadaffi, they knew he had to leave office because he overstayed his welcome, misused his exalted position and misappropriated public funds through constant cronyism and nepotism, all his families and friends were part of the government and fed fat. Libyans demanded that such corruption should end, and that was exactly what prompted the colonel into a coup 42 yrs earlier, what an Irony. He started brilliantly but ended battered, bruised, in biblical terms he was “Broken without Hand”, this happened because he had an Overdose of power, Power corrupts, Absolute Power corrupts absolutely.

  To Nigerian Leaders, a great lesson has to be learnt from this episodic reality. Ghadaffi made sure his people felt his presence by achieving high standards in education, basic amenities, increasing life expectancy, increased per capita income, and others. This was a dictator, how come democrats in Nigeria cannot achieve half of that not to talk of equaling them. He also was a victim of the lust of power.

  Ghadaffi always felt his capture would be tantamount to a sitcom, I bet he never envisaged what would transpire on the 20th October 2011 throughout his life on earth, we need to always imagine what the future holds after we leave power, power cannot be taken anywhere, nobody was born with power and definitely we would die without power. Therefore the need to sit back, relax and envisage the future becomes more of a necessity than an alternative.

   To Nigerians, a lesson can be drawn from the event too, look at ordinary Libyans they demanded the future they’ve waited for so long, they knew they were cheated, placed in perpetual bondage, exploited, crushed to the ground, used and eventually dumped, they were pushed to the wall and had nowhere to run to, they had to fight back, their response we all know the outcome. We Nigerians are most certainly in the same situation except that in our case we are ruled by a corrupt democratic regime and theirs was a corrupt totalitarian regime. In Nigeria our so called (s)elected leaders whom we ‘allegedly’ got into office, spite us, spit on us, exploit us, oppress us, use us and essentially dump us and pathetically all we do is fold our hands, murmur and “leave everything in God’s Hand”.

  Open your eyes widely and think wisely, God won’t come to do anything physically, the bible says and I quote “FAITH WITHOUT WORKS IS DEATH”. Action is what moves the Hand of God, so why do we keep Praying without doing anything? The time to act is now, this obviously isn’t the country  Great Zik, Awo, Tafawa Balewa, Hebert Macaulay, Aminu Kano amongst other fought for. Imagine me paying electricity bills for electricity that I never get, or water bills for water that never flowed and still they oppress me, even threaten to disconnect my Cable or Pipe from the national grid, I stupidly smile and run to pay ‘my’ bills. I honestly am tired of the contented nature of Nigerian to happenings around them, it sends me into a state of utter madness and disdain for everyone, we need to become covetous.

  We need to ask for our right; this is our country, our home, our final abode, why should we be treated like dogs, the only positive and possible best answer to these questions should be nothing other than action, we’ve spoken a lot and history would bear witness talks don’t solve problems in Nigeria, even it is widely accepted that Action speaks Louder than Words, the Arab revolution is proving that fact. I am not saying we should resort to violence but can anyone honestly tell me a better way to go about a revolution in contemporary Nigeria?  Without violence I don’t see any remedy to our situation, I’m not proposing any solution that’s for you to find out, I have my reservations. I must commend the peaceful protest carried out in LASU Ojo campus over fees hike, our anger over maltreatment should be shown to our thoughtless, mindless and selfish leaders’, not weak, harmless, hopeless and helpless followers(Boko Haram).

 In conclusion please I want all to note that I’m in total opposition of what happened to Colonel Muammar Ghadaffi, it was thoughtless and heartless, I use this medium to reach out to Nigerians to learn from the events that occurred there and to advice leaders worldwide that if we don’t leave certain things those things leave us, especially power( the hunger and lust for it), if we don’t purge ourselves of such appetite we get purged and flushed down the drain, this was what apparently happened to Colonel Muammar Ghadaffi and still awaits those who allow power to control them. To all Nigerians we need to rise up and demand rightfully what’s ours, the bible says the Kingdom of Heaven suffers Violence and the Violent takes it by force, TIME TO STOP TALKING AND START ACTING.

God Bless Nigeria. Amen

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© Ahaiwe Ikenna Joshua

All thoughts and ideas are entirely mine.

Criticisms are highly welcomed, I thrive on them, and they make me better.