Lagos — Apart from South Africa, Libya is one country the Western world takes very seriously. Not because the Caucasian race shares any abiding genetic similarity with this predominantly Arab nation or because Libya is a redoubt of democratic values or yet because she is a foremost promoter of free market capitalist society.

If anything, Libya has done enough to incur the wrath or provoke its own disparagement by the so called 'international community, not least her nebulous affectation for 'terrorism' as demonstrated by the Lockabie tragedy and its abhorrent corollaries. Please note also that Libya is a frontline Islamic country which shares all the clamorous, incendiary tendencies which define most Islamic and Arab countries such as the ones we find in the Middle East and the Indian sub-continent. Let it also be stated at the outset that, against Western capitalism, Moumma Ghaddafi, the Libyan leader furnishes a counterfactual or counter-canonical economic doctrine of 'Arabic socialism' as enshrined in his celebrated, if 'shadowy' The Green Book.

Those who have been privileged to lay their hands on the said book, claim that it is to Libyans and their imitators what in part the Holy Bible is to the Christian West. Ghaddafi's Islamised secularist Writ uncovers the blueprint for economic wellbeing and societal harmony; it is a religious as well as a moral compass detailing the minutiae of everyday social intercourse hinged as it were on principles of egalitarianism, equality, hard work, humility, patriotism and classlessness.

And what better way to demonstrate the conceptual validity and the soundness of a theory than its practical actualisation? Libya as a nation is a veritable laboratory of its iconic leader's vision and enviable nationalism. In spite of his great achievements in statecraft, Colonel Ghaddafi has refused to promote himself to the position of a General like most uniformed cretins in sub-Saharan Africa do with nauseating frequency.Ghaddafi is said to always go about his state duties without the invidious appurtenances of high power-outriders, a long convoy of siren-blaring carapaces, dark-goggled goons and lickspittle of power, all of them high on the ambrosia of officialdom. For effect, the 'man of the people', Libya's own 'savant-leader' or philosopher-king only tolerates one or two female security detail to guard him.

In addition, the country enjoys a very high standard of living with social infrastructure such as roads, hospitals, electricity and even employment performing excellently. Every citizen lives in his own apartment as housing is highly subsidised by government. Libya equally boasts one of the most formidable armed forces in the world and has a growing solar-powered automobile industry as well. In terms of climatic conditions, Libya is a seductive blend of tropical sunshine and the Mediterranean temperate coolness.

Hence, for most Africans bitten by the bug of wanderlust, it is a half-way house between the African Hell and the European heaven. To be sure, Libya has in recent memory assumed the allure and charm of a personable bride surrounded by a bevy of hags; to change the metaphor, Libya has shone like a million stars in an African galaxy dimmed and overcast by a chronic epidemic of visionless, egocentric and rapacious leadership characterised by sit-tightism, cronyism, fetishism as well as a dependencist mindset, in countries defined by mediocrity, coups and countercoups, electoral heists, succession/legitimacy crises, war, famine, piracy, illiteracy and ignorance.

Nigeria takes the cake among these colonial grotesquerie and post-colonial pariah-states. Very recently over 300 Nigerians living in Libya were deported from that country for a variety of reasons.

Apart from the standard allegation of illegal entry or/and the violation of immigration laws, these deportees were accused of various anti-social and criminal activities carried out in Libya. We do not wish to enter a caveat for these unfortunate compatriots of ours here or put up any form of defence for them. What appears more productive under the circumstance is to remonstrate over the Cain-like refugee status of most Nigerians scattered all over the global space.

They are intensely hated. Usually, they are victims of xenophobia in foreign lands even when they strive to be on the right side of the law. It is even alleged that whenever Africans from other countries commit criminal acts overseas, they always claim to be Nigerians, thereby further battering the already tainted visage of this doddering African behemoth. Indeed, the Nigerian green passport is an evidence of criminality, a stigmata of deviance. Hence, however highly-placed you think you are, you will be roughed up and your sanctity routinely and meticulously violated. Why does the world hate or detest us so?

Are we the final fulfilment of the Hamite curse? Shouldn't we come under the empowering and protective cover of 'Ethiopia' that spreadeth forth her hands? What, in fact, do other nations find so intolerably detestable about us? Is it because we are the most populous nation in Black Africa? Is the rest of the world therefore envious of our demographic strength?

Or is there some strange alchemy about our disparate ethnic composition which predisposes us towards criminality and lawlessness? Why, indeed, is our country, "good people, great nation", such a slaughter-house of dreams and a zone of self-destruct that our brothers and sisters would prefer to flee it either on foot or camel-back through the 'Ghost Road" - to borrow Pat Baker's novel's title - that is, the Sahara Desert en-route Europe, rather than remain at home to live their dreams? Come to think of it, Nigerian émigrés who travel out through the Sahara desert face all kinds of dangers including hunger, disease, armed robbery, abduction, ritual killings, murder and slavery.

In spite of these problems, they would rather die on the road trying to escape the hell that is their country than stay put and subject themselves to the death-in-life or living-death otherwise known as life in Nigeria, the sixth largest oil producing country in the world. Ironically, Nigeria is a latter-day paradox of blessing as curse. Or how else does one explain the country's interminable free-fall and abysmal showing among the comity of nations, in the face of stupendous oil wealth?

Simply Nigeria's ruiners, sorry, rulers have stolen the collective patrimony of all Nigerians, thus leaving the working classes high and dry. Thus amid this socio-economic desert where only the cacti of despair, helplessness, misery and death thrive, Nigerians seek educational advancement and economic empowerment abroad.

Besides, others leave the country as a way of running away from justice when crime has been committed; others due to unhealthy rivalry and ambition among peers, and yet, others emigrate overseas in order to fulfill personal and family needs or, even to project their tribes or ethnic groups especially in a country where material comfort and riches are the preconditions for political relevance. Whatever the reason(s) for the deportation of the over 300 Nigerians from Libya might be, that unfortunate development seems to highlight, among other things, Nigeria's poor international rating or respect. Second, it exposes the weak basis of our nationhood and the parlous state of our economy.

Third, it points up the yawning chasm between the Haves and the Have-nots. Four, it dramatizes government's neglect of its endangered citizens and nationals home and abroad. Five, it calls into question the effectiveness of our foreign missions and the utter failure of diplomacy. Six, it shows the risible failure and the symbolic impotence of the "rebranding" evangelism of the current administration.

Seven, it showcases Libya's growing influence and power in African and world affairs and the corresponding diminution of Nigeria. With so much love in her heart, Libya has indirectly chastised Nigeria and counseled her to re-engineer her political economy with a view to making her people good and the country great. Recently, it was reported that government was putting in place a social security scheme for all Nigerians.

This is commendable, provided the said scheme is not dead on delivery owing to high-stakes politicisation of the most basic needs of the Nigerian citizenry. President Olusegun Obasanjo once told the Nigerian community in Libya to return home to help rebuild their plundered homesteads. One wonders what Yar'Adua would tell those luckless deportees.