Gaddafi and the vision of a united africa - P2

This week we continue to tell the story of Muammar Gaddafi, a controversial and enigmatic pan-African of the 21st Century who resolved to liberate Libya from the monarchy, and reawaken the dreams of Gamal Nasser and Kwame Nkrumah of uniting the nations of Africa to form the United States of Africa.

He was a mysterious leader, one with two faces. One face as a dictator to be rejected and another e as a passionate Pan-African to be cherished. But we will pay homage to his greatness in the Pan-African Movement.

His endeavours to unite the African continent surpasses imagination, and he stands out as one of the greatest advocates of the United States of Africa.

Meanwhile, King Idris’ government was increasingly becoming unpopular because the king centralised Libya’s federal system to consolidate power. As a result, Arab nationalism emerged in Libya.

By the start of 1969, public resentment was at its height and disaffection with King Idris grew out of proportions.

On the 1st of September 1969, King Idris was overthrown in a bloodless coup d’état by the Free Officers Movement (FOM) of Gadaffi.

Gaddafi, now an army lieutenant then formed the Libyan Arab Republic and became the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) of Libya at the age of 27.

He then promoted himself to Colonel and became Colonel Muammar Gaddafi the de facto ruler of Libya.

Over the following years Gadhafi implemented rigorous programmes to achieve his motto of “freedom, socialism, and unity”. In the 1970s his government undertook legislative reviews that amended the Constitution and statutes of Libya to introduce Sharia into the legal system.

The RCC began to rule by decrees, banning all political parties. Gaddafi increasingly became an authoritarian tyrant.

As Gaddafi’s rule became oppressive, his Pan-African sentiments also grew and he was now a dictator who daydreamt and considered himself the King of Africa.

Gaddafi started dressing in strange costumes and he began wearing an insignia showing the image of the African Continent. He progressively became a firm Pan-African who resolved to liberate Africa from neo-colonial economic bondage.

Although he poised as a Pan-African his behaviour caused fierce confrontation with the West.

His leadership was then implicated by the West in the financing of many anti-Western groups around the world, including his participation in the Irish Resistance Army (IRA) freedom fighting in Northern Island; the bombing of a West Berlin dance club; the Lockerbie bombing of a plane carrying 259 people killing all on board in 1988; and the destruction of a French passenger jet, killing all 170 on board in 1989.

Regardless of his Pan African–dictator duality, he was a patriot who used the proceeds from oil resources of his country to build his nation.

Though there was no democracy in Libya, Gaddafi made sure that his people had a high standard of living. It is indeed a paradox as Muammar Gaddafi was despised as a brutal dictator but his people had enough.

Under Gaddafi, education and health care in Libya were free for all. Gaddafi made sure health care and education were subsidized by his government. Moreover, Gaddafi carried out the world’s largest irrigation project turning a desert into a productive field arena. This was the great man-made River Project to make water available to the whole country and ascertain every citizen of access to water and food.

In Libya under Gaddafi, newlyweds received free housing and a $50,000 remuneration from the government.

This was another positive policy to benefit the people from the oil earnings. Again, the country was a well-endowed state without debt compared to even great democratic countries in Europe and in the Americas.

Apart from ensuring his people had sufficient social services; Gaddafi spend considerable energy, time and resources to promote the Pan-African Movement to unite Africa.