The Road Not Taken

Daily Independent (Lagos)

27 June 2011

editorial

Recent reports that the beleaguered Libyan ruler, Col Muammar Gaddafi, would agree to free and fair elections within the next three months have turned out to be premature. The idea was first mooted by his son, Saif al-Islam, who was quoted by an Italian newspaper as saying that the elections themselves would be observed by any interested party, including the European Union, the African Union, the UN and even NATO, under whose umbrella the international community has been bombing troops loyal to his father.

Gaddafi himself has given no such undertaking. On the contrary, soon after this report appeared he reiterated his intention to fight the coalition to the last in a taped message broadcast on state television: ‘What you are doing will rebound against you and against the world with destruction, desolation and terrorism. You are launching a second Crusader war that might extend to Africa, Europe and America. We will resist and the battle will continue to the beyond, until you’re wiped out. But we will not be finished.’

The Libyan leader was perhaps emboldened by what appears to be a crack in NATO following a call by the Italian government to stop the bombings which have so far claimed the lives of innocent civilians – up to 856 as of mid-June, according to the Libyan authorities. In the US, President Barack Obama is struggling to convince Republican legislators to vote yet more funds to maintain the air strikes even as he prepares to contest another election at a time when the US economy is still struggling to overcome the fallout from the 2008 global financial crisis. And the African Union, whose position over Gadaffi’s removal has been lukewarm at best, has now come out openly in favour of a ceasefire; according to Jacob Zuma, the South African president: ‘There must be a ceasefire, which is unconditional. The view is that it must include that bombing by [NATO] must also come to an end. That we must have a ceasefire that affects everyone.’ So far, only Britain and France continue to stand firm.

Gaddafi’s determination to remain in power whatever the cost in human life, to say nothing of the future unity of a country now looking more and more to be the next Somalia, is of course tragically familiar within the African context. Not so long ago, we were all witness to the murderous intention of Laurent Gbagbo of Côte d’Ivoire to defy the people’s will and cling on to power, in the course of which he received support from Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, whose own megalomania has destroyed what used to be one of the continent’s more stable economies. And Yoweri Museveni, the former liberator-turned-tyrant, unleashed violence on the opposition and the constitution in his apparent desire to turn Uganda into his personal fiefdom, perhaps with the ambition of grooming his son to succeed him, as happened in both Gabon and Togo.

Given the deep divisions within the continent, it is unsurprising that the AU is unable to speak with one voice, which is why Zuma has been able to thrust himself forward as its unofficial spokesperson, at least as far as the ongoing Libyan crisis is concerned. There is nothing inherently wrong or even sinister in this, especially given South Africa’s economic muscle and democratic credentials, the problem being that it only serves to make Nigeria’s continuing silence all the more deafening. After twelve years of democracy (however ‘nascent’), an economy that is challenged but not dwarfed by that of South Africa, and a population that makes it a natural frontline state (as South Africa itself knows only too well), one would have thought that the unfolding tragedy in Libya presented itself as a perfect opportunity for the country’s leadership to make a mark on the world stage at a time when Nigeria is using all its credentials to press for its ‘rightful’ seat in an expanded UN Security Council.

Unfortunately, this was only to be expected of a country that also dithered over Gbagbo not so long ago, in the process giving the erstwhile strongman of a neighbouring country the fillip he needed to defy the rest of the world. Successive Nigerian leaders have talked endlessly about the ‘giant of Africa’ as the continent’s natural leader and then sit back and do nothing to prove the claim. Given this, it is hardly surprising that there is no evidence that Zuma even bothered to consult his Nigerian counterpart before jetting off to Libya on two separate occasions for the photo opportunities that keep his country in the public glare, the irony being that Zuma himself is not particularly well regarded in foreign capitals. The same cannot be said of the Nigerian president, whose electoral victory was hailed by the international community but who is busy demonstrating to all and sundry why he shouldn’t be taken seriously even in matters African.

AllAfrica – All the Time