Pharaohs of ancient Egypt were reputed to have employed advisers, whose job was to continuously drum it in their ears: "Remember Pharaoh, you are but human." This constant refrain, was meant to restrain them from playing God in administering the affairs of their people. In years thereafter, and even today, this critical practice, appears to be missing in the lives of leaders, especially those who want to rule the world, or at least impact on it in their peculiar manner. History is replete with them. Adolph Hitler of Germany, Benito Mussolini of Italy, Ferdinand Marcos of Philippines, Jean-Claude Duvalier (Baby Doc) of Haiti, Augusto Pinochet of Chile, Abdul Nasser of Egypt, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, Idi Amin Dada of Uganda.

All these men, though in varying degrees, wielded influences within their countries at the time they were in power, that tapered towards playing God. Of course their styles were different, but the public understanding of their actions, was similar - they were men, who wanted to dominate the world, their world, some by raw display of power, others by sheer control and manipulation of the thought process of their people. Their actions not only resulted in most cases to outlandish and even bizarre outcomes, but profoundly shook the entire world. Some came with religion, while others came through politics or combined both. However the domino effect were same - the world listened.

Though most of them are now history, even though the impacts and most times scars they created, still remain as reference points to confirm man's desire to control his environment, there is no doubt that the future would still have a lot of them to contend with willy-nilly, despite the influence of civilisation. This is the context many people are now looking at the renewed wave of activities within the African Union (AU), with the ascension of Libyan leader, Col. Muammar Ghadafi, to its leadership. But does the Libyan leader fit into the profile of these men of power and influence? No doubt. Would he succeed in seizing Africa as they seized their environments? Time will tell. But the fact remains, at least on the surface that he is working at it.

A Measured Emergence

What was the real reason why former President, Olusegun Obasanjo visited Libya recently. Has it got anything to do with the events that culminated in the current rumble within the AU, where his host Ghadafi is already in conflict with his colleagues, even before the ink, with which he etched his name on the vital documents as the new chairman of the organisation is yet to dry? Obasanjo was the guest of the Libyan leader during the last Muslim Sallah celebration, Eidel Kabir. Though the real reason, which not a few observers suspect may never be known, events of last week, may remain a reminder of that historic encounter. Though spruced with the drama that came with it when Obasanjo returned with his remarkable Sallah meat, and publicly fed Ogun State Governor, Gbenga Daniel with it, the real intent and agenda have always remained quite suspect.

No doubt, not a few observers may refer to it in times to come, as more chapters open in what is sure to rekindle the name of the Libyan leader in the minds of those who might have forgotten him so soon, but if the former Nigerian President lived up to his billing as a strong voice on such matters, then it is taken for granted that he must have discussed Ghadafi's pet project of uniting African leadership under one umbrella, with him. And the unfolding events thereafter, may not be out of place.

Gadhafi was elected penultimate Monday as leader of the AU, a position long sought by the eccentric leader, who appears desirous of pushing his oil-rich nation into the international mainstream after years of isolation.

Once ostracised by the West for sponsoring terrorism, he has been viewed through various prisms over the years. He has reportedly been trying to increase both Libya's global stature and its regional influence - mediating African conflicts, and allegedly sponsoring efforts to spread Islam on the continent. He has also been seen as a dictator, human rights abuser, a nationalist, who has done a lot for his country and an expansionist, who wants to extend his influence beyond his present frontiers. But his newest project at the moment is ostensibly that of pushing for the creation of a single African government.

Some African leaders have since offered what some see as tepid praise for the choice of the strongman who grabbed power 40 years ago, in a 1969 coup, and has become the longest serving African Head of State ever since. This is despite being described by rights groups as a poor model for Africa at a time when democratic gains are being reversed in countries such as Mauritania and Guinea. However, in other quarters the Libyan leader is hailed as a man who has led his country well, leading them to prosperity, hence, the little opposition to his authority back home.

Master With His Pipers

Details of how Ghadafi climbed to his present position despite the misgivings of some of his contemporaries still remain hazy. But there is no doubt that his role as a master that pays his pipers well, remains one of the obvious factors. For instance, Ghadafi was said to have come to the AU event with 15 cars and two bags full of gold as a gift for his colleagues, who were in attendance, which observers see as helping him to get his present position with relative ease.

His personal outing was no less been informing of the status he seems to believe should be accorded him. In fact, he was said to have attended the session dressed in a gold-embroidered green robe and flanked by seven extravagantly dressed men who said they were the "traditional kings of Africa" and reportedly told about 20 of his colleagues what he planned to do with the idea of 'the United States of Africa.'

"I think the coming time will be a time of serious work and a time of action and not words," he had said shortly after the election.

The chairmanship of the African Union is a rotating position held by Heads of State for one year and gives the holder some influence over the continent's politics but carries no real power.

Diplomats who attended the closed-door meetings in which he was chosen, said several countries vigorously opposed him, seeking alternatives from Lesotho and Sierra Leone. However, the AU's chairmanship rotates among Africa's regions, and a North African had not chaired the continental body since 2000, when Algeria held the chairmanship.

Meetings to select the chairman are held in private. The leader is usually nominated and then chosen by consensus. AU officials would not give details of the proceedings, including which countries objected.

Even in public the reception to his appointment - and the acceptance ceremony in which he invited two of the traditional kings to speak - was measured.

"I think his time has come," Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf had told journalists at the event. "He's worked for it. I think it's up to us to make sure it comes out best."

Still, Gadhafi appeared to cast his selection as a victory.

"Silence means approval," he said during his acceptance speech. "If we have something and we are silent about it at the next summit it means we've accepted it."

Implication For Africa

Gadhafi was handed the chairman's gavel by Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, and outgoing AU leader, to applause from other leaders.

Some members of the AU were, however, said to be uneasy with the man, who has long promoted stronger union within the organisation and previously outlined his vision for a continent-wide government.

Richard Dowden, director of the Royal African Society, said: "This says a lot about what African leaders think of the African Union. It was hoped that it would give great new leadership to Africa, create a sense of pan-Africanism even if they were not going to unite politically. Now it has got all these aspirations to be a club of democrats - and this is a man who has been a dictator for 40 years. I think it says something about what African leaders think about their own aspirations to create a continent of democracy and transparency and accountability, the sort of things that they would like to aspire to.

But Ghadafi, insists that he has something to offer the continent within the period. "I hope my term will be a time of serious work and not just words. I shall continue to insist that our sovereign countries work to achieve the United States of Africa," he told his colleagues at the event.

He admitted that African leaders were "not near to a settlement" on the issue. His words: "We are still independent states. It is your decision to respond to the call for unity, to push Africa forward towards the United States of Africa.

But at the closed-door debate earlier on Monday, Ghadafi failed to receive full backing for the idea.

Leaders reportedly decided instead to consider ways of expanding the mandate of the existing AU Commission, which would be renamed the AU Authority. Debate on the issue was said to have been so intense that the Libyan leader had to walk out on the meeting without saying anything, and was followed moments later by the other leaders, with an agreement to resume debate later in the day.

Even though details of the change of name for the AU appeared remains hazy, its modalities, reports say formed part of the focus of the dispute.

South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, was quoted as telling reporters after the event that proposals for strengthening the union would be considered only over the next three months. "The aim is to strengthen and expand a bit on the functions and responsibilities of the Authority. The Executive Council tabled proposals and actually requested to be accorded three months within which to look at the exact nitty-gritty of this AU Authority. There is an acceptance that the end goal of the founding fathers of the Organisation of African Unity and the AU was that Africa would be united. The day will come where there will be a single authority in charge of Africa," Motlanthe said, adding that it was too early to tell how Ghadafi's leadership would affect the AU. "It's early days and early hours, so it's hard to say. We'll have to see as the year progresses," he reportedly said.

In the palpable tension arising from the summit, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, was said to have proposed turning the body's leadership into a troika, which would mitigate Ghadafi's influence even though he was believed not to be enthused about the Libyan leader becoming the face of Africa in the international arena.

Though Libya and its allies in the matter, comprising mostly some North African countries and other smaller ones in the continent are said to favour immediate unification, a position Gaddafi says is the only way forward for the war-ravaged and drought-stricken continent, others like Nigeria, South Africa, Ethiopia and Kenya are believed to seek its gradual implementation.

It is indeed difficult to ascertain the direct impact of Nigeria, arguably one of the most influential voices in the region in the events that led to Ghadafi's emergence as the AU leader, even though it has clearly made its position known on the USA project. This became more so with the absence of President Umaru Yar'Adua at the meeting. In fact, there is the opinion that the Nigerian President deliberately stayed away from the event, in order not to be caught in the crossfire. His recent two-week vacation was said to be partly to avoid being part of the election.

According to one of the sources, visas for the President and his aides had actually been obtained from Ethiopian authorities and in fact his advance party had left for the venue before the sudden change in plan.

"There had been a prior commitment by the President to attend the summit before the vacation issue came up. Although the President is on a working leave, he could still have attended the AU summit if not for the disagreement with Ghadafi," the source reportedly said.

Yar'Adua was said to have feared Ghadafi would have had his way over the USA idea now former South African President, Thabo Mbeki, said to have ardently worked to keep the project and the Libyan leader's excesses in check, was out of the way. "The President felt that with Mbeki out of the equation, Ghadafi was most likely going to have a field day in Addis Ababa with regards to the issue of United States of Africa. Yar'Adua had believed United States of Africa could be decreed into existence by Ghadaffi without resistance from those who are taking his money and the President did not want to be part of that charade. Yar'Adua belongs to the group of African leaders who have consistently argued that as desirous as the United States of Africa proposition is, it can only evolve after a process and not something leaders can gather in one forum to pronounce, as Ghadafi seems to believe. Yar'Adua had argued at last year's meeting in Addis Ababa that he for instance has no power to come to cede Nigerian sovereignty away without the people of the country agreeing to such a proposal and the necessary amendment effected in the Constitution.

"He was also said to have posed the question to his colleagues whether any of them could cede the sovereignty of their country and it was learnt that only Senegalese President Wade responded that he could cede the sovereignty of his country because the constitution of Senegal grants him such power," recent reports stated. Matters were not helped, according to the report, when Ghadafi was said to have instigated the coup plot in Guinea at a time Yar'Adua, as ECOWAS Chairman had taken a hard-line posture against the military leaders.

However, Yar'Adua's spokesman, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, debunked the allegation, saying his boss could live with Ghadafi's new position.

He was however quoted as affirming Yar'Adau's position over the controversy. "I recall that it was in Ghana two years ago, during the heated debate on this same issue, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia put the matter very clearly. He said while all African leaders desire to have a United States of Africa, there are two schools of thought as to how such could happen.

"He said there is one school that believes a house should be built from foundation and another that believes you build a house from the roof. President Yar'Adua belongs to the first school because he is well aware that a United States of Africa is not something you achieve by the mere pronouncement of one man.

"But as I said, it will be incorrect to say President Yar'Adua went on vacation to avoid Ghadafi. He wishes the new AU Chairman well and looks forward to meeting him at the mid-year summit in June or July," Adeniyi was quoted as saying.

From Fiend To Friend

Before now, Ghadafi had remained the face of the African devil, in the eyes of Europe and America. Labelled a terrorist, the frosty relationship between him and the Western world got to a head with the bombing in 1988 of the Pan Am flight 103 plane over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 107 people, in which Ghadafi was held responsible. What followed was another decade-long of intense diplomatic row that saw the Libyan leader and his country virtually made a pariah in the international community. On the other side, Ghadafi remained defiant, even after barely escaping death by the whiskers, following the bombing of his palace in Benghazi, by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1985.

But at a point when it appeared all hope was lost for redemption in the relationship, a truce was brokered, following Ghadafi's acceptance of responsibility for the bombing and agreement to pay compensations for the families of the victims of the disaster. In exchange for the arrangement, in Libya agreed to pay $10million compensation on each of the deceased, and dismantling of the nuclear programmes it was developing, the sanctions imposed on the country from the West would be lifted. The process has since been completed and exchange of high profile visits taken across board to underscore the new profile of Libyan-West relationship. Since then, Ghadafi, has remained the darling of the West, a relationship, said to have been boosted with the fresh discovery of high quality oil in the Mediterranean. All these seem to have counted in favour of the Libyan President and imbued him to explore new grounds, hence his renewed vigour in pursuit of the African project.

High Dream, Difficult Task

There is every belief that Ghadafi's new project may be with the blessing of the West. In fact, the thinking is that his attempt to become the head of the continental body, had always met the brick walls as a result of the intense pressure from the West, particularly America to scuttle it. That he has eventually triumphed, seems to imply that the situation, has changed. Though the deal with the U.S. was struck with the former President, George Bush, there is no reason to believe that much would change in that direction under the new President, Barack Obama. Indeed, if anything, it might well become more robust, given Obama's desire to extend American handshake to countries that unclench their fists. Ghadafi, had since done that, hailing Obama's emergence recently. "The black people's struggle has vanquished racism. It was God who created colour. Today Obama, a son of Kenya, a son of Africa, has made it in the United States of America," he was quoted as saying.

Before turning his attention to the unification of Africa, Ghadafi, had focused his attention to doing same for the Arab world, a project he seems to have abandoned for the current one. But for Chinwizu, a critic and writer, the ascension of Ghadafi to leadership, may do more harm than good to Africa.

In an article posted on the web way back in September 2006, Chinwenzu attacked Ghadafi over what he called an attempt to 'arabise' black Africa - a position informed by a statement credited to the Libyan leader at a meeting of the Arab League in 2001.

The article entitled 'Why black Africa should resist Arab domination of AU' quoted Ghadafi as saying at the summit that "the third of the Arab community living outside Africa should move in with the two-thirds on the continent and join the AU 'which is the only space we have.'"

"I should like to point out that Gadhafi's invitation to his fellow Arabs is nothing but a declaration of race war on Africa. It is an invitation to more Arabs to invade and colonise Africa. Indeed, it is a call for the final phase of the 15 centuries old Arab lebensraum war on Afrikans - a war to Islamise and conquer all of Africa, from Cairo to the Cape and from Senegal to Somalia, and to then enslave or Arabise all the conquered Afrikans. In order to make that clear, it is necessary to first put his invitation in the context of the traditions of Arab melanophobia and negrophobia, and of Arab expansionist ambitions and conquests that go back to the time of their Arab prophet, Muhammed." With his present pre-occupation, this fear may have been assuaged.

While rights agitators in Nigeria avoided making comments regarding the aggressive spread of Islam through Arabism, they agree with Dowden that Gadhafi's rights records are enough ground to deny him headship of the AU. They also argued that his election says a lot about other African leaders.

Shina Loremikan, of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), says the Libyan leader heading the AU "is a strong indication that all is not well with the continental body, because we find it hard to explain why a ruler of Ghadafi standing should be elected leader of a body supposedly championing democracy and human rights on the troubled continent."

Campaign for Democracy (CD) President, Joe Okei-odumakin, said "election of Ghadafi tells it all about the disposition of the so-called African leaders. If a man of such standing is heading the continental body, then we wait to see what moral right it would have to curb oppression and the resurfacing slide into autocracy and arbitrariness in some of the African countries," she said.

To Dr Fred Aja Agwu an international relations expert with the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) Lagos, told Daily Independent that there was nothing to cheer about Ghadafi's election. "this to suggest that Gaddafi being the chairman of the AU is not something to celebrate, it is not something to be enthusiastic about because Gaddafi doesn't generate any hope for Africa in terms of African nationalism. His African nationalism is tainted by Arabism so to that extent I don't think it is a big deal. It is not something to cheer about or celebrate; it's not something that will engender hope in terms of African regeneration," he said.

The don dismissed the USA project, arguing that it would not be achieved under Ghadafi. His words: "You see the so-called United States of Africa is still part of the design of Gaddafi for a territorial space not in the literal sense of if anyway. Everybody knows that it will be difficult to have a United States of Africa (USA).

Lets begin from the democratic point of view. Africa is put asunder by conflicts over political succession, poverty and identity politics. Now Gaddafi since he came to power has not done anything to democratize his country. Gaddafi since he engineered the transformation of OAU to AU has never done anything remarkably different from his previous effort to see that the divisions in Africa - ethnic divisions, the religious divisions and cleavages - are closed or even narrowed. Take Dafur for instance, he is one of the trans-Saharan leaders that have frustrated the capacity for the international community, beginning from the African Union, to implement the responsibility to protecting Dafur. For him genocide does not exist in Dafur. For him no war crime has been committed against humanity.

He is one of those who are into frequent denials of the obvious in Dafur. So, the question is if it is now possible for trans-Sahara African leadership, which Ghadafi is an influenced member, to make a difference in resolving many of this divisions that have afflicted Africa. I don't think that the whole idea of the United States of Africa will be possible under his vision. It is not something that is realisable at the moment because the continent is still far from modern political temperaments and socio-economic development, which are some of the necessary conditions for unity either politically or economically."

Dr. Adewale Aderemi, disagrees slightly. He argued that Ghadafi's new position could be the beginning of renewed efforts to rekindle the great dream of early pan-Africanists, who demanded a single government for the entire African continent long before Europeans achieved theirs.

A Research Fellow at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Aderemi, however told Daily Independent, that though the Libyan leader might put the process in place, he might not realise his dream just yet as there were many hurdles on the way to achieving an African government.

His words: "There has to be a total regional integration first. I suspect that Ghadafi is most interested in the realisation of a United States of Africa.

In my opinion, he may not realise this just yet, because it is a very ambitious project; there are a lot of hurdles to overcome before a United States of Africa can come into being - it would involve a complete regional integration."

Though the Political Science Teacher expressed support for the project, he noted that it could not happen in the next few years.

"Gaddafi's ambition is, at best, futuristic," he said.

Other analysts believe however that there are a lot of attractive options the Libyan President would be bringing to the table to entice his colleagues towards voting for the pet project. One, even though his democratic profile is not to be chaired, the manner he had handled his country's economy, giving prosperity to his people, seems to be a huge advantage, especially for those, who may be tempted to believe that he could do the same for the continent, if he eventually succeeds not only to achieve his dream, but to head it.