8 September 2008
opinion
Last week visit of Miss Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary of States to Tripoli has once again renewed global media focus on Libya under the leadership of Muammar Al Qaddafi, (the author of the Green Book which spells out original alternative to the old West/East development paradigms).
Which again brings us to a well-known open knowledge, according to which, the difference between the Western sphere of influence and the Western media area of coverage might not be as clear.
Apparently, the Big Brother ubiquitous camera beams its search light to every corner of the globe, feverishly visited by high profile Western diplomats in search for you-know-it all, (oil-nuclear weapons-terrorists-investment outlets, human rights, almost in that order). Undoubtedly Miss Rice is the first Secretary of State to visit Tripoli since 1957 when Vice President Richard Nixon visited. But so what? What is the big deal about the Big Brother (is it "darling African sister" as Libyan leader flattered Rice) visiting the desert 50 years after (even though President Ronald Reagan visited Tripoli with tornado of bombs in a 1989 mad cow raid of a "mad dog")?
For whatever Rice visit amounts to, it cannot be disputed that Libya has always been there in these past 50 years recording dramatic progress amidst sanctions, the most notable being the construction of the multi-million dollars Great Man Made River (GMR) water engineering project on earth!
In recent years, the global media had created an impression of return of Libya's Muammar Qaddafi to global arena following the dropping of UN sanctions in the wake of the earlier reported deal over the Lockerbie airplane bombing. Yet what we are witnessing daily are the massive in flocks of Western leaders and businessmen alike to Tripoli. The traffic is in the direction of Tripoli and not the other way round. Who then is fooling who? Western leaders of note now scramble for photo-shots with Libyan Arab Jamahiriya leader. British Prime Minister, Tony Blair was in Tripoli in April 2004. Ostensibly this trip was to reward Libya for peacefully renouncing weapons of mass destruction in December last year.
But political observers knew that Tony Blair (politically) that time needed Qaddafi more than the latter needed him after huge creditability crisis at home as a result of wholesome "sexing-up" of intelligence report (read: lying about Weapons of Mass Destruction, WMD, in Iraq) in a desperate bid to justify an unjust war in Iraq. A golden handshake with Gaddafi may convince (or is it confuse?) the British electorate that the "war on terror" was yielding some dividends. With the reopening of the American embassy in Tripoli the same year, it was self evident that it was a matter of time before Washington chieftains would seek for a golden handshake with Qaddafi. Rice's visit to Tripoli must be seen in this perspective. It is the greatest paradox of Western democracies that democratically elected leaders feverishly fete else while 'terrorist' leader to ensure some democratic legitimacy at home.
The most far reaching of the harvest of visits was that of the Italian Prime Minister, Berlusconi. On 1st of September, as part of the 39th anniversary of Libyan revolution, Italy announced a deal of $5 billion compensation for Libyan occupation during Italian colonial rule. The deal in Benghazi was signed in the presence of over 1000 descendants of victims of Italian colonialism. While the speeches of Western leaders in Tripoli have dramatically altered from dictatorship and dominion to business and diplomacy, Qaddafi's rhetoric of independence and respect for African nations' sovereignty remain strident. He was not too eager to be "grateful" to Italy for paying so much as reparation for the pre World War I colonial campaign of violence and brutality. On the contrary, Qaddafi recommended similar deal as precedent for other oppressed nations which were under colonialism.
Similarly, while Condoleezza Rice said US rapprochement with Libya underscores the principle that America cultivates no permanent enemies, Qaddafi insisted that Libya was not courting friendship at all costs but demanding to be "left alone".
While the pictures of visiting Western leaders capture imagination, the unreported flock of unanimous Western firms and investors elude observers. While for instance, Blair talked with Qaddafi Shell, Anglo Dutch oil giant company signed a business deal worth 550 million pounds for gas exploration. Libya expects as much as $35 billion worth of investment between 2003 and 2005 alone. US oil majors as well as European firms are all scrambling for Libya market. Indeed, Berlusconi's reply to the criticisms of the seemingly expensive pay-back deal with Libya is that the deal confers advantage for Italian firms to access Libyan gas which is in huge reserves.
Development in Tripoli shows that sanction imposed on Libya tended to have hit the "international community" no less than it undermined Libyan dynamic growth. Indeed with the frenzy to have a bite of the new Libyan cake by Western governments and firms alike, it was the world that missed Libya not the other way round.
Lessons from Libya are in legion for Africa. For one, the only thing constant in global diplomacy was permanent interest and not necessarily permanent friends or enemies. With millions of dollars in pay compensation for Lockerbie bombing and Libya's voluntary hand over of devices of its infant instruments of mass destruction, western hostility instantly turned to western hospitality. In market economies, there is price for everything including human lives.
Secondly, African leaders who blindly follow Western dictates should know that they hardly matter when the game is over. Both USA and Britain brought considerable pressures to bear on OAU (AU) members to isolate Libya when the UN sanctions lasted. The question is that how many of these dependent African leaders were again neither footnoted nor consulted when same Western leaders and businessmen are scrambling for new Libya? Indeed only Nelson Mandela then President of South Africa truly proved independent by bursting the so-called sanctions and travelled by road to Tripoli to register South African appreciation for the role of Libya in the struggle against apartheid.
Lastly, Libya and Qaddafi have shown that the world will only accept us, Africans for what we insist we are and NOT necessarily what we are made to look like by others. Qaddafi the "terrorist" so defined by others has shown that he's simply a Libyan and African patriot wadding off expansionist policies of Europe and America at the risk of isolation and sanctions. In spite of the sanctions, Libya is top on the top on World development index with mass subsidized housing scheme, full literacy and mass free health scheme. Libya does not implement IMF or World Bank agenda, yet with developed social infrastructure, it is now an investment haven.
At a time, Nigerian leaders globe trot the world ostensibly seeking for foreign investment, Libya shows that with good infrastructure, any country is an investment destination. At a time OBJ gave up on domestic refinery, Libya's refineries were functioning and its petro-chemical industry is alive. Libya is set to move from a non-cultural oil economy to a diversified economy with independent foreign policy. When will Nigerian leaders also take a trip to Tripoli now that those who once discouraged then from going are hitting the headlines with photo news in Tripoli?
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Honest leaders like M Al Qaddafi is what we need to forge a path to true African independence. He visited Pres Mugabe some years back and I hope they discussed and set up useful plans for their countries and Africa in general. Oil is a magnet in his country. Other African leaders should take an example, especially those in the above mentioned country (you know) with a huge buying power and the black gold.