john mashaka & Dr. Shayo in action together

African Union's Social & Economic Roadmap under Muammar El- Qaddafi

By John Mashaka and Dr. H. Shayo

On February 3, 2009, African Union leaders made history by electing one of the longest serving dictators, Libyan leader Colonel Muammar El-Qaddafi as the 2009 term patron. This victory brought close to home, a man known as a terror sponsor, to his long time dream of forming the United States of Africa. With the Union he envisaged same currency, Identity cards and military for the entire continent. Good for him that is now the African “King of kings”. In the meantime, we must weigh the democratic, economic, security and diplomatic ramification of placing such a man at the helm of a sensitive body like the African Union.

Having ruled Libya close to 40 years, the world is yet to see the Qaddafi’s economic achievements. Despite the country’s massive wealth of natural resources, Social services based on his socialist ideologies are no better than they were in 1970’s. The country has been a landlocked economically for decades due to his supposed involvement in terrorism; roads are in terrible shape, hospitals are no different from many others third world countries. In short, there is no economic progress Qaddafi has brought to the Libyans.

Qaddafi has ridiculed democratic rule, and democracy itself. He has been supporting militancy at the expense of his countries positive standing in the world, and time is now catching up with him, and Qaddafi knows this. He also knows, and has for quite some time now that, time to ride on a different wagon is long overdue. The cold war in which his camouflaged militaristic ideologies died with the collapse of the Berlin wall, the protection he enjoyed during cold war in which democratic rule was an enemy to communism went down with the cold war.

It is quite disgusting, shameful, and embarrassing to know that, African leaders brought a man of Qaddafi stature into its leadership. The leaders have showed their level of ignorance, hypocrisy and little regard to the continents well being. The move was nothing less of forum meant for clowns such as Qaddafi, who entered the Ethiopian capital like a monarch instead of a leader eager to bring hope and change into the poverty stricken continent. The ignorant African leaders simply served as stooges, for the flamboyant and wicked Qaddafi, who has a hidden selfish agenda of becoming the continents ruler.

Qaddafi’s hasty unions with Arab nations back then hit a dead wall, when his true intentions were realized. Tunisia, Sudan, Syria, Egypt, Chad, Malta could not proceed with the proposed union once they realized that Qaddafi was after all covering his leadership quest under the cover of integration. It is embarrassing to know that, some of the African leaders who ascended into power through ballot and mandate of the people (democratically) could waste their time to elect a man who has ruled his nation with iron fist for more than 40 years. What a betrayal for Africans who have suffered and still suffering from dictatorship, and oppression?

Perhaps some of the African leaders who elected Qaddafi had no prior knowledge of this horrendous past or they had did not want to do their job as it should be. We will assume that they did not know Qaddafi’s long mindboggling resume of terror. They did not know of Qaddafi public executions of his opponents. They did not know of the imprisonments of dissidents inside his country. They did not know of Pan Am Flight 103 bombing of 1988 which his agents carried out. They did not know of his bombing of the French UTA airline over Niger. They did not know of his sponsorship of several African Civil wars such as the Liberia civil war.

Qaddafi sponsored Charles Taylor, Iddi Amin of Uganda and many others. The same Qaddafi invaded a sovereign nation; Chad in 1980-1987. He went into war with Egypt in 1977. He raided Sudan in 1985 and destroyed their broadcasting station. Need I say more? I wonder what African leaders saw as an extraordinary to an extent of electing Qaddafi to head their most powerful body.

The same Qaddafi has proposed militaristic approach towards solving African problems. He has publicly supported leaders from Guinea and Mauritania who grabbed power though barrels of a gun. Qaddafi comments regarding Darfur would make someone question his mental stability. Qaddafi said, that, Sudanese president El-Bashir, should not be blamed for the Darfur crisis, because the killing of black Africans in Sudan is the act of Israelis. He adamantly believes and has evidence that, it is the Israelis killing blacks in Sudan. Libyan, Strongman believes on the militaristic approach as the main solution to African problems, and not diplomacy. This is the chief diplomat of the African continent.

A few months ago, Libyan government started to compensate the victims of PANAM 103 bombing victims, meaning the country carried the responsibility of its involvement in the bombing. It is the international pressure that pushed Qaddafi to yield to the demand of compensating the victims. A leader who has been at odds with the west diplomatically for decades is now the Africa’s chief diplomat, main economic representative, and security main strategist. Qaddafi is now the force for peace in Africa!

While handing over African Union leadership to Qaddafi, Tanzanian president, Jakaya Kikwete, did something quite remarkable and commendable when Qaddafi attempted to convince his stooges to reinstate leaders of Guinea and Mauritania, who got into power through military coupe. President Kikwete stood for what he believed was right; he stood as a pan Africanist and a leader with love for the continent, and spoke from heart with passion and courage telling his fellow leaders to be careful.

“I urge you my fellow leaders to be realistic when dealing these kinds of issues. It is very simple for the military to stage citizens in the streets to cheer and support them. And that should not be the basis of making decisions in this organization.

You can do anything as long as you have a gun, and can attest to this because I have been in the military. Under military leadership, you can hold a referendum and garner 99.9% of what you need. Therefore, my fellow leaders, we must respect foundations of this organization. Military revolutions have never been good, and we must strive to eliminate them. Let’s not go back into the 60’s and 70’s. If you want to be a leader, please go to the people and to seek their mandate.
If you want to be a president, resign from the military just like I did at young age, and now I am a president. Furthermore, these people always say that they are going to be in power for a short period of time, which ends up being decades”

Clearly, what President Kikwete was trying to say was that, we can never solve our problems through militaristic approach. Democratic process and diplomacy stands bigger chances, of uprooting the social and economic problems the continents is suffering from. This answers the question why African continent is not making progress, despite her massive wealth of natural resources. Africa has been unable to make progress because her leaders cannot think of the past to strategize for the future.

In recent years, Qaddafi has gone full throttle trying to mend fences with the West after he realized that he was losing more than he was gaining by continuing to cling on his militaristic approach. His ranting tirade against the west pushed his country decades behind many Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, which are more open to the world. In his image makeover effort, he has cooperated with world powers by giving up his stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in exchange for diplomatic cooperation and lifting of trade embargos that were imposed on his country. He has also agreed to denounce terrorism in order to bring Libya back into the global arena.

Qaddafi, Africa’s chief diplomat, termed the piracy headache in the Indian Ocean as a natural response to western greed. The newly elected African Union chairman Muammar Gaddafi, further said that he believed piracy was a way of counter defense against the greedy Western nations, rejecting the idea that Somalia piracy was a crime.

“It is a response to greedy Western nations, who invade and exploit Somalia’s water resources illegally,’’ he said. “It is not a piracy, it is self defense. It is defending the Somalia children’s food,” Col Gaddafi argued. He pointed out that some countries, particularly Western nations, were penetrating into a Somalia’s sovereign water territory, against the international law. European, the US and China fleets are entering in the sovereign Somalia territory, because Africa doesn’t have strong and modern defense to push them back, Col Gaddafi said. Nowadays, Somalis are reacting for justice and trying to defend their country against the unfair exploitation of resources, but Western countries have labeled it as piracy, Gaddafi explained.

His sentiments are not different from our southern friend “Bob” Robert Mugabe, who has been holed in his little spider hole waiting for his time to get to join Charles Taylor, another dictator who destroyed his country and the lives of his people.

The leaders, who elected Qaddafi to African Union presidency, are people who have been elected by the people to lead them into finding new ways of solving their problems. They knew clearly well of Qaddafi’s long resume in the world stage. They knew of his long resume of dictatorship, terrorism, atrocities, suppression of free speech and oppression.

They knew of Qaddafi’s quest to make Africa his grand project; the United States of Africa, with him as the supreme ruler.

Many scholars argue that, African continent would have better off under colonial rule than the current wave of her leadership. In 1980 Zimbabwe gain her independence from the British colonial rulers. It was a young, and a highly developed nation with Africa’s most educated population. Until very recently, Zimbabwe was the Africa’s bread basket. Today, Zimbabwe is a typical example of African curse and misery. Just like Qaddafi, Robert Mugabe is blaming the west.
African leaders of the 50, 60, 70 and even those of the 80’s? Where is Kwame Nkrumah? Where is Mwl. Julius Nyerere, Where is Nelson Mandela, where is Haile Selaise, where is Tom Mboya, where is Steve Biko, where is Patrice Lumumba? Where are they, because Africa has been sold. Africa’s new breed of leadership has no continents best interest in mind. Africa’s natural resources are being depleted at an alarming rate by the very dishonest leaders we elect, leaving the continent with wide craters and bare land.

Most of these leaders in one way or the other jumps into power through some dubious means, either through, barrel of gun, vote rigging, oppression or well cooked corrupt methodologies. And their main intent is to a mass massive wealth in the shortest time possible regardless of what it takes.

Even though President Kikwete, applied diplomacy while responding to Qaddafi’s militaristic approach, his calculated response sent a chilling message to his comrades. He basically told them to re-evaluate their, social, economic, and political approaches. He realized that the African continent was boiling with rage, poverty and hopelessness stemming from decades of mismanagement, and was high time for the current leaders to read signs of the times before the simmering cauldron busts into fumes of destruction.

African continent has no room for progress as long as people like Qaddafi, suffering from credibility ailment continue to lead us. We must wake up and use the power of ballot to uproot the likes of Qaddafi across the continent. This is the only way we are going to rise from the ruins of poverty, ignorance and economic handicap we are in today.

Our message to African leaders “the moment of victory is often the moment of greatest danger. In the heart of victory, arrogance and overconfidence can push you past the goal you have had aimed for, and by going too far, you make more enemies than you defeat. We call upon African leaders not to allow success to go beyond their heads, bearing in mind the fact that, there is no substitute for strategy and careful planning”
God bless Africa