Hannibal Gaddafi’s arrest: Libya’s bold and condemnable reaction

By Ilobi Austin
When I read about the atypical reaction of the Libyan authorities to the brief arrest of the youngest son of the country ruler, Muammar Gaddafi by the Swiss authorities, I was impressed and unimpressed at the same time.

As the story goes, the authorities in reaction to the said arrest, had caused to be moved, a $7b cash deposit of some of her wealth to another country and had likewise placed embargo on it oil export to the country which accounts for 20% of it total oil import-which is sold in some three hundred stations equally owned by the Libyan government.

My admiration stemmed from the fact that an African nation was actually the one slamming an economic sanction on a so-called more developed economy and just like our big brothers from the west who demands actions on certain points, demanding in this case, that an unreserved apology be tendered for the inconveniences caused the young man during his brief arrest. Then, there is the more important information of Libya’s ownership of as much as three hundred gas stations outside the continent of Africa and more significantly, in a developed society. By every standard, this is flattering and one hopes that the Nigeria’s equivalent of their oil corporation owns such investment outside the country.

But leaving the above aside and dwelling on the core subject, you are tempted to ask if there was no better diplomatic way of handling such issue other than disruption of oil supplies and accounts closure here and opening there? Is such a reaction to the issue justified and befitting of a nation’s reaction to such matters. Are they indirectly asking that Hannibal Gaddafi’s misconduct be tolerated because he is the son the president and therefore, above the law at home and abroad or is that the standard reaction of the country to any situation in which it perceives a maltreatment of any of it subject by foreign authorities; even if such a treatment is justified as is the case with this?

With the type of reprehensible issue involved, one would have though that the Libyan establishment would have sought an out of public view resolution of the matter in other to take the edge off the negative public relations that was bound to follow such stories especially, where it has to do with the first family. A spoke person for the family since it is a private affairs of the family, should have apologized to those personally affected and the Swiss establishment making it clear that the boys misconduct was alien to the entire family and the father in particular who is where he is today due largely to self restraint even when calculatingly provoked.

That it went the way it did to defend the actions of Mr. Hannibal who had the temerity to assault some of his domestic staff in a most callous way exposes more than they would loved to do about the reward and punishment mechanism back home. It is obvious that the Gaddafi’s are not bound by any law at home and having stayed too long in such an environment, can no longer characterize the society that tolerates delinquents like himself and a strictly law governed one.

I see the Swiss government capitulating not because they are not convinced about the rightness of their action in arresting and charging the young man but because of their national economy and citizens who would needlessly be put through some distressing experience unlike their equivalent in Libya who one way or the other, is less bothered about the obvious loss of revenue. It is like telling a Nigerian that our Soludo built war chest called foreign reserve has disappeared without a trace- thank God, what is the use anyway?



But make no mistake about this; the Libyan experience is not an isolated one. It is a microcosm of what transpires in most nations of Africa with oppressive regimes where he rulers are cursed with brainless idiots and kleptomaniacs as offspring. In Nigeria, the EFCC is still trying to make sense of transactions involving such characters in the recent past.

Ilobi D Austin; a social commentator writes from Warri.
ilobidominic@gmail.com; visit www.winnersdomain.blogspot.com today!