IT IS almost impossible to catalogue the many activities of a man who dominated the affairs of his country for 42 years. Col. Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi was somewhat of a colossus both within and outside his country. Following a slanted vision of greatness, his long rule was to bring happiness and misery to many. He came to power in a bloodless coup in 1969. He was 27. From the outset he determined that Libya was going to be ruled according to a set of rules based on a cult of personality and a network of family and tribal alliances. He abolished the constitution and wrote instead a book ' the Green Book ' in which he espoused an incoherent vision of a socialist Libya.As is often the case with dictators, he began his career as a man of the people and did many good things for them. He was later to transform into an evil genius. He governed his people with iron fist and in his long reign, tens of thousands of his fellow countrymen were killed, imprisoned or expelled. All opposition was forbidden. For a man who claimed to have no formal office, he nevertheless promoted the dynasty of his family. His sons were to dominate practically all aspects of Libyan life from the military to football.The relationship between Gaddafi and the West was love-hate. Following the excesses of the Libyan leader, President Ronald Reagan sent a bombing mission to Libya in 1986. He killed Gaddafi's adopted daughter but failed to subdue the man he once called the 'mad dog' of the Middle East. Gaddafi actively supported the Irish Republican Army (IRA) that was then a thorn in the flesh of the British government. But his greatest act of terror was in 1988 when over the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, a Pan Am Boeing 747 was destroyed by a bomb, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew members. Eleven more people and several houses were destroyed on the ground. Many Americans died in that plane crash. As a result of these unfriendly activities, the West blacklisted Libya. But unpredictable Gaddafi was to unveil a raft of new policies aimed at placating the West. In his last decade in office, he pretended to show remorse for the Lockerbie incident. He volunteered wanted persons including Abdelbaset Mohmed Ali al-Megrahi who was later jailed for life for his part in the bombing. Then he promised to pay compensation to the families of the deceased. Not satisfied with his transformation, he announced that he was destroying all his weapons of mass destruction and that the West was free to invest once again in the lucrative oil business of Libya. Following these measures, western leaders began jockeying for position at his door.Then came the Arab uprising in Tunisia, which soon spread like wild fire across the region. Gaddafi, feeling himself insulated from these disturbances, even boasted that the other Arab leaders lacking the wisdom of his Green Book were themselves to blame for what was happening to them. Like many dictators before him, he surrounded himself with 'yes' men and believed erroneously that his people loved him. When the revolt erupted in Benghazi, he treated the anti-Gaddafi fighters with disdain, calling them rats and cockroaches. In his last days, as town after town fell to the so-called rebels, he was to live a wretched and lonely existence fleeing from one uncompleted building to another. He said he would fight and die in Libya. He did die in Libya, but when the end came, he did not fight. Unable to shoot his golden gun, he was captured inside a drain pipe, a broken man.But what can be said to be the legacy of the man' Undoubtedly he was a ruthless dictator. His curious form of socialism created high living standards for the Libyans. But his regime was a government of one man and his sons. Awash with oil money he dabbled into conflicts around the world and was not averse to the use of terror abroad. But he was not all evil. He actively supported the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. He helped and funded many struggling African countries and was himself a foremost promoter of the African Union. He even began to propagate a revisionist Nkrumah idea of an African high command. A flamboyant and somewhat vain fellow, he crowned himself the 'King of Kings' of Africa.The lesson that Gaddafi has so eloquently spoken to the African continent is that the prolonged rulership of one man even when benevolent is injurious to the health of a nation. It is a wake-up call for all those sit-tight leaders in Africa who are resisting change and misruling their people.This continent is still home to many sit-tight leaders who manipulate their constitutions to stay in office almost in perpetuity. These bad leaders profess democracy but adopt the succession plans of a monarchy. They do not believe in free and fair elections neither do they believe in the regenerative power of democracy. Gaddafi's disgraceful end has called attention to what could happen to all long-serving dictators everywhere.Since his demise, there have been reactions as to the manner of his death. We would have preferred that he was captured alive and tried in open court for his many offences against his people. Admittedly however, he died in war, captured by Misratah militiamen who saw their town pulverised to smithereens by forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi. International opinion should not stigmatise the National Transitional Council for failures of the rule of law and the Geneva Convention as things were in a state of flux at the time of Gaddafi's capture. Moreover, there are examples of the ignominious end of dictators in the West as evidenced by Adolf Hitler, Benito Musolini and Romania's Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena.
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