Daily Independent (Lagos)
Tunji Ajibade
14 October 2008
opinion
America walked into Libya days back. Condolezza Rice called her visit historic. The American Secretary of State was not wrong. It's the first time an incumbent Secretary of State came calling in Tripoli in more than five decades. The saying that there's no permanent enemies and no permanent friends is a major dynamic of international relations. Once again, it's manifest.
Libya used to be Americas public enemy number one. Libyan leader Muamar Gaddafi had proved to be a toothache to six American presidents. In turn, Washington had taken a look at Libya's activities and tagged the North African state a sponsor of terrorism. President Ronald Reagan called Gaddafi "the mad dog of the Middle East." But now America has come calling. Not even America's talks with North Korea after a prolonged stand off between them has proved quite as remarkable as its current friendly relation with Libya. The handwriting had been of the wall for quite a while however. Rice's recent visit had its root extending way back to 2003. That year, Washington announced it was restoring diplomatic ties with Tripoli. There are reasons for this and they shall be looked at below.
Way back in 1972, America recalled its ambassador from Libya. That was after Gaddafi renounced agreements it had with the West and hurting rhetoric against Western governments flowed out of Tripoli. Things soon went from bad to worse. When its embassy was sacked and burnt by mobs in 1979, Washington decided it had enough. It was cutting off diplomatic ties with Libya, it announced to the world. Relations between these two countries reached a nadir in 1986 when the Reagan Administration said Libya ordered the bombing of a discothËque in Germany. In that incident, three people were killed. Then in September 1988, a Pan Am Flight 103 airliner was bombed out of the sky over Lockerbie, Scotland. Two days after, Reagan stood before the American people and accused Libya of master minding the death of over one hundred people on board the airplane, many of the them Americans. Swift reprisals followed.
Two places in Libya were ordered bombed by the American president. One of them was Gaddafi's Bal al Azizia house. Symbolically, when Gaddafi received Rice, it was in his rehabilitated house; it was a statement on the new phase relations between Tripoli and Washington has entered.
Significantly, it was not with the Americans that this new phase started with. It did with the Europeans. Years had passed since EU member nations joined America to impose sanctions on Libya. But talks went on underground and there was a rethink.
More recently, France's Nicholai Sarkozy came out boldly to represent the new thinking among EU members as regard Libya. The ebullient president came to Libya. "We cannot afford to leave Libya alone, we need each other," he pointed out to his critics back at home. The Libyan strongman reciprocated. When he came calling in Paris, Frenchmen were embarrassed. For the African leader was allowed to do as he pleased in the capital of a Western nation, characteristically taking over streets and avenues in Paris with his long convoys of security operatives and generally behaving like a Middle Eastern king. It was symbolic of how much eager European leaders were willing to accommodate Gaddafi. Most EU members are now closely linked unilaterally or multilaterally to Libya. New dictates on the global scene led to that. Much of it, as usual, economic rather than anything else. They are getting it already as EU members literally have pipes that extend from Europe to North Africa, bringing in oil and gas from the Libyan oil fields.
The Americans were latest to arrive. Always worried that nations they are uncomfortable with have weapons of mass destruction, White House was happy when Libya dismantled its secret nuclear weapons program, destroyed its stockpiles of chemical weapons and agreed to pay compensations to the families of victims of Pan Am Flight 103. In return for the last of the gestures, America agreed to compensate victims of its bombings in Libya. Today, the Bush administration regards the man who had proved a hard nut for past American leaders rehabilitated. The clues to White House's turn around are many. One, Gaddafi has shown himself willing to be accommodated. Surely, this contention-weary, aging leader wanted to be remembered differently by history. Two, he could gain in influence in his region if he dropped the toga of a pariah, Gaddafi had calculated. He does play a role in the unfolding Sudan-rebel crisis. And he's been isolated for too long, having very few friends. He could have a new image, more friends better say both in Africa and beyond when he maintains better relation with the more influential nations in the Western world. And there are the economic or investment benefits for his nation too. Gaddafi has re-positioned himself and his nation.
As for Washington, it loves leaders that are willing to come on board with it. Both the U.S and Libya knew they could not continue in the paths of the 1970s and 80s. They needed each other. With matters such as energy, global security and so on so paramount, there's no point fighting a man that's no longer willing to fight, President Bush must have concluded. In any case, why give Gaddafi the cold shoulder at this time when Russia is prowling, seeking for new friends at a time Russia-American relation is taking the shape of another cold war? Besides, oil from Libyan deserts will save Americans the hassles of depending solely on Saudi Arabia. A part of what the U.S goes to the Middle East to get is now available in the Near East. And it's not only Gaddafi that is fight-weary. Bush too is. With Libya coming under American canopy, that's one nation off State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism. That's one state less to worry about. This is important for the Americans in a situation where talks with North Korea is moribund, it continues to stare at Iran eyeball to eyeball, piles up more bills in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan where it fights war on terrorism as well picks quarrels with Russia over nuclear shields for former communist nations.
Leaders in sub-Saharan Africa such as Nigeria's need to re-position their nations to attract the benefits just as Gaddafi did - even though, unlike theNorth African leader, they may have no quarrels with Western nations.
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