THE tragic termination of 42 years of Moammar Gadhafi’s dictatorial regime in Libya yesterday by the NATO army, for many watchers of the iron fisted era, was not only a relief to the oil rich country, but also for the entire Africa and Arab countries.
The cataclysmic journey of the inglorious regime of the North African maximum leader began following the on going mass uprising sweeping across the North African/Arab countries starting with ousting of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia and Hosoni Mubarak of Egypt.
This wave of revolution, which is now popularly referred to as “Arab Spring” has not only spread to Libya, but in its wake has catch on with the leadership of the people of Bahrain, Yemen and Syria.
These revolutionary actions which initially began as some form of mass protest, following the sit tight attitude of some of these unwanted regimes and their leaderships have increasingly assumed unprecedented military engagement unsurpassed in civil war situations. But among the countries of North Africa and Europe that have become victims of the recent revolutionary uprisings, no other has suffered more military and civil onslaught than Libya.
Following the recalcitrant actions of Gaddafi, he drew the ire of members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, NATO, whose military arsenal led by America combined with the fighting Libyan rebels to oust the regime. In the course of prosecuting this war, Libya has lost monumentally in material and human terms. According to unconfirmed reports, Gaddafi lost some of his sons, closed aides, and infrastructural facilities in the course of the senseless war.
Reported yesterday, firstly, that he was seriously injured while trying to escape from the besieged city, and shortly after, that he was shot dead as the shooting and bombing ravaged his village of Sirte. His death, relieving and sad as it were, provides another critical platform for the assessment of what Gaddafi and dictatorship represent for Africa, Arab and the entire world.
Gaddafi’s gruesome death in the hands of NATO army, will continue for a long time, to serve as a deterrent to others of his types across Africa and Arab. The leaderships of Tunisia, Bahrain, Cameroon and Zimbabwe among some other dictatorial regimes across the continent should learn to leave the stage while the ovation is loudest.
Reviewing the death of Gaddafi, fiery Nigerian critic, political scientist and poet, Odia Ofeimun reasoned that the late Gaddafi, though an authoritarian built his country.
Ofeimun said: “He was very authoritarian, but he built his country. He should not have allowed the war in the first place. By allowing the war to take place, it meant that he wanted the work he did for his country to be destroyed. He built his country. Libya has the highest human development index in the whole of Africa.”
But the tragedy that befell Gaddafi in Ofeimun’s view remains his obduratic addiction to power. He asked: “How can a man, who has stayed in office for 40 years, also want his sons to take over from him?”
Another scholar, professor of political economy and Director General of the Centre for Black African Arts and Civilisation, CBAAC, Tunde Babawale sees Gaddafi’s death as a “ relief not only to Libyans but also, the whole of Africa.”
Babawale said: “Gadahafi’s death should serve as a lesson to other African countries like Cameroon, Yemen, and Bahrain. The leadership of these countries must know that judgment day is a matter of time. And the lesson for all of us is that we should not celebrate anybody’s death, but learn from mistakes. It is also important that sustainable democracy should be put in place by the transitional council so that the villain of today should not become heroes of tomorrow.”
