After a seemingly “landslide victory” of his
campaign against the Libyan “dissidents and rebels “for democracy and true freedom,
as a result of his “rigging” of the campaign through the deployment of home
grown methods, as against internationally accepted methods of protest for
protest, Col Gadafi, the, before now, dreaded tin god of the Libyan estate had
had a smooth run, lasting a period of 42 years, monopolizing, through the reign
of raw terror against oppositions, the authority to distribute the common wealth of the people of
Libya, as he deemed fit.
His conviction of his invincibility was such
that he could afford, unlike our own
dear Abaca of years gone-by, to travel to far corners of the earth on state visits
and return to meet the peace of the grave yard condition of his empire intact. .
No doubt, a measure of the confidence he reposed on the loyalty and efficiency
of his personal guards that is a mixture of male and females said to be
virgins, and expected to remain so during the duration of their service, which
primarily entailed the neutralization of all oppositions and threats, to Gadafi
and his clan’s interest and safety.
But all that changed when the two men in
Tunisia and Egypt failed to contain the uprising against their ruler-ship of their respective countries , the way he would
have done, and in the process getting themselves sacked; A situation that then emboldened
fellow long suffering Arab folks in places like Yemen, Bahrain and his Libya.
Unlike the rulers of the other nations, he was
not prepared, as nothing had prepared him in the forty two tears of his reign
for any form of internal uprising by ordinary civilians with no arms. He
started out by trying to identify the real sponsors of the rebellion. He first
accused the west of trying to take over his country for the purpose of
cornering the resources of the nation—a veritable propaganda weapon in the
region for dividing the ranks and files of opposition. He got the, silence is
the best answer rejoinder. He moved to capture the interest of the west by
accusing their worst enemy al qaeda of being responsible due to his
un-corporative stand towards them; it was too belated as what was at stake,
known to the public, was at variance
with the interest and goal of the terrorist group.
Headlong, he confronted the “rebels” who were,
initially making appreciable advances towards Tripoli, the capital, as a mass
movement. His loyal forces pushed them back as far as Benghazi, their
operational base, where he had had it in mind to summarily crush them. His fellow
Arab leaders saw through his campaign and for once, backed a western proposed “no
fly zone” resolution against a fellow Arab state, one that was intent on committing
mass murder, without arm-twisting.
Uncharacteristically in recent times, France
for interest of her own took up the
leadership of the intervention force from the west, ahead of the traditional
leader of such enterprise, America; to curtail the no hold bare military exercise
of the gadafi forces. On Saturday 19th, the first of the
intervention air strike meant to enforce the no fly zone began by the third
day, the so-called well trained and ready forces had had their advancement not
only halted but have already started embarked on a retreat out of Benghazi while
the rebel forces have intensify their activities under the “big brother” watch
of the allied forces.
No one is fooled by the so-called humanitarian
concern reason given by the west for their intervention. There are wars and
crisis in different corners of the earth against sit tight rulers like is the
case in cort d ivoire where elections have already produced a leader
but which has not attracted enough interest beyond threat of sanctions and the
likes. The real issue is to get rid of gadafi and enthrone a more pliant leader
in the country. It is known that they have only a scant tolerance for him since
he financially settled the families of the victims of the American airline that
was bombed over Lockerbie by people of Libyan origin, in the 1980s. these
suspect had ran back to Libya only for him to provide them shelter against the
displeasure of the united state.
As far as the current no fly zone exercise
goes, it will only come to an end when gadafi is out of the way. They will
rather expand the scope than leave Libya to gadafi. Gadafi is a fading star, yes,
a fading star as he was once a star to his people when he led them in revolution
against imperialist driven government, some forty two years ago. They will
throw him out when they have identified a personality acceptable to them and to
the majority of the Libyan stakeholders. He is still there because such a
character has not been spotted.