Muammar Gaddafi’s divisive message, again!

Mulugeta Alemu

1 February 2008

Just before flying to the headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa for the organisation’s 10th ordinary session, Libya’s ‘great leader’ unloaded jabs at African leaders for what he pointed out as their sluggish approach towards a union government. He even threatened to take his attention and investment away from Africa and direct it to the Arab world and Mediterranean areas. His proposal on the United States of Africa faced serious challenge in the last AU summit in Ghana where it was decided that the issue be considered first by a working group. The report of the committee is expected to be discussed in Addis Ababa. His public threat and denouncement comes as a last-ditch attempt to influence this deliberation.

Gaddafi’s eccentricities from the AU high table are often predictable and easy to understand. Ever since he captured power in the 1969 revolution, Mr. Gaddafi has tipped toed countless contradictions. Traversing a complex  jigsaw of ‘isms’, Libya’s long serving leader keeps on writing a messy script on leadership and diplomacy. During his revolutionary periods, Gaddafi’s inspiration was not drawn from the panafricanism of Nkrumha but from the Arab nationalism of Gamal Abdel Nasser.  In 1972, he set out to establish the Federation of Arab Republic. His new-found zeal for pan-Africanism emerged during his isolationism by the West during which he deftly developed his connection with Africa as a secure arena of recognition and influence. African Union’s meetings proffered platforms where he felt great, acceptable and sometimes mainstream.

But his thinking on a swift creation of union government is unrealistic. Few countries in African even conduct proper trade among themselves. There are still divergent political visions and orientations among the 53 states. Against all the denials, the linguistic split between the Anglophone and Francophone is still significant.  Moreover, the manner in which Gaddaffi delivers his message has been notably divisive. Gaddafi and his envoys are apathetic to the way the union is organised.  Neither are they interested in reasoned debate and discussions. They rather chose to buy support from weak and small African countries. Numerous countries such as Guinea, Togo, Borkinafaso, Mali etc have benefited from Gaddafi’s financial largess. Prior to the Addis Ababa submit, Gaddafi hosted a congregation of African government to draw them to his program.

The thousands of young boys from Conakry to Freetown who flock to see him during some of his now common visits do so not for his uplifting panafricanist vision or mission but by a sheer bewilderment of a filthy rich Arab leader who often literally litters them with payouts while passing through their streets with his camel entourage and women bodyguards. Unlike the countries of the first generation of panafricanist leaders, Libya is not a great host for African countries. Even while Gaddafi is engaged in the high talk about Africa, thousands of Africans are forcefully expelled from Libya. Many fear that, if Gaddafi is allowed to have his way with his outlandish views, the Union’s credibility will be seriously impugned. In the past his attempt to scrubber and derail the process of establishes the AU had pitted him against a number of countries.

So what does we make of his politics of threat now? For some, it is simply a cold blackmail which may work among countries where Libya has certain influence. But many will tell you that the worst potential of Gadaffi’s threat to the AU is over and whatever he is throwing now is just a face saving tack. EU countries such as Italy, Spain and France are actively grooming Libya to be a buffer zone against Africa’s illegal immigration. Thus Gadaffi’s new vision of ‘great Mediterranean union’, for all that is worth, is a buzz concept created in France’s Minstere des Affaires etrageres not in Sirte. For sometime to come, however, we have to get used to ‘the great leader’ who enjoys seeing African leaders in the opposite side of the isle.