Libya-Protests - For the third time in Colonel Gaddafi's 42 years of coercive governance, I saw him visibly worried. The first was in 1981 when, at the height of a hateful diplomatic row with the West, the United States of America shot down two Libyan aircraft for challenging its war planes over the Gulf of Sirte. Naturally, as an African, I felt pity for Gaddafi. The second incident was in 1986 when the US again launched a more devastating attack on Libya's military installations and the presidential palace. Over 100 people, including his adopted child perished in the bombing that touched his house and other residences in Tripoli and Benghazi. Poor Gaddafi, he lacked the means to wrestle the superior fire-power of America's arsenal, even though it was difficult to justify the rationale for the unprovoked attack.

And now, a running revolt, which has completely put him off balance. Since violence erupted on February 20, Gaddafi has become the most uncomfortable leader on earth. In an uncoordinated speech earlier on, 69-year Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi referred to protesters against his administration as "rats". I watched Gaddafi use that word most frequently in his one hour, fifteen minutes frail speech.

To those who took him seriously, he would have made some sense, making nonsense of an otherwise serious national calamity and reducing his countrymen to mere rodents. I was wondering if his eight children were not among the "rats", in a country he has administered as a personal estate in almost 42 uninterrupted years.

Colonel Gaddafi would be taking his destiny too far if he thought Libya was so invulnerable that it could resist the revolution running across the Arab world. All through the Arab world and indeed across Africa, the story is the same, the lack of freedom, good governance and better living conditions. Citizens in virtually every state of the continent suffer the dehumanizing effects of unemployment and corruption, human rights abuses and the use of impunity.

On the contrary, Libya presents a more horrifying situation than obtained in Tunisia and Egypt before their two presidents were forced out of office. Gaddafi's crimes against humanity and terrorist plots are innumerable. The world still laments the June 1996 Abu Salim massacre of over 1,200 political prisoners who protested against prison conditions by the Gaddafi regime.

A closely knit county that looked impenetrable, the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya is synonymous with Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi. He came to power in a military coup that toppled King Idris al-Sanusi in 1969. Since he assumed office, Gaddafi has had a firm grip of his country in spite of attempts to topple his regime. He introduced a number of cultural reforms in his Green Book that customized the system of administration in the country.

But then, with too many enemies and long-drawn diplomatic rows, Gaddafi found himself on the flip side of history, neck-deep in controversies. In 1973, Libya invaded northern Chad, suffered humiliation until eventually flushed out. The international community forced him to return the Aouzou Strip to Chad in 1994, after 21 years of illegal occupation. In 1984, the United Kingdom severed diplomatic relations with Libya after a British policewoman was killed during anti-Gaddafi protests outside the Libyan Embassy in London.

To add to international isolation of Gaddafi, the UN in 1992 imposed sanctions on Libya over the country's refusal to hand over two Libyans suspected to be involved in the bombing of a PanAm airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland. It was not until 2003 that UN sanctions were lifted and Libya returned to mainstream international politics after Gaddafi agreed to pay compensation to victims of the Lockerbie air disaster, and also agreed to drop plans to develop weapons of mass destruction.

Gaddafi has been implicated severally, as a major sponsor of rebel movements in African countries. Tripoli is notorious as a training camp for dissidents during the conflicts in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cote d'Ivoire, Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. There is hardly any conflict on the continent where Gaddafi's name does not feature prominently and negatively too. So could it be said that the Libyan strongman is now receiving returns on his diabolical investments?

At the African Union, President Gaddafi does not enjoy the confident of his colleagues. His moves and suggestions have always proved suspect. Such was the situation that played out at the 9th ordinary summit of the AU held in Accra, Ghana in 2007. Gaddafi so dramatically canvassed the proposal for an African Union Government that it gave him out as obnoxiously ambitious to head a United States of Africa. His actions and dictatorial tendencies changed the pattern of discussions at that session, to give more time for humane reasoning to an otherwise laudable proposition.

Today, Libya is on the brinks; Gaddafi is jittery with an uncertain future as the situation moves from mere civil protest to full-scale civil war. Gaddafi has used maximum force, military precision and aerial bombardment to stop those "rats" that have tormented him for two weeks running. He has accused al-Qaeda of running behind the rebellion, but it is difficult to draw a hairline between al-Qaeda and Gaddafi. Over 1000 people were reported killed in just a week of military assault on defenseless citizens. More than 100,000 Libyans and other nationals have fled the country into neighbouring Egypt and Tunisia. The exodus continues as yet another 140,000 stranded at the boarders face imminent humanitarian crisis.

Once again, Gaddafi has played into the hands of his adversaries. Although in his characteristic show of bravado, he tries to play down obvious challenges, claiming that all his people love him. But growing international concerns leaves him with just the option to quit. The myth around him has been broken and the "rats" have shown unequivocally, that they would not stop menacing Gaddafi until he leaves office. This is a hard-held, non-compromising situation.

Gaddafi carried a self-centred revolution that changed the history of Libya, subdued dissenting voices and ran an administration that caged his people for 41 years. To the extent of his dictatorship, it was difficult for anyone to imagine that President Gaddafi would one day be brought to his knees. The times have changed and Libyans have taken their destiny in their hands. This is a big lesson to all sit-tight African leaders who by now, should realise that they are sitting on a time-bomb, waiting to explode.

Last Tuesday the UN Human Rights Council suspended Libya for using excessive force against protesters, the first time the Council is taking such an extreme stance against any member nation. From Washington, US President Barack Obama has announced a freeze of Libya's $30 billion assets in the United States, while Canada also keeps on hold, further transactions around the country's 2.4 billion assets. And in Brussels, the European Union has summoned an extraordinary summit for March 11, to discuss the deteriorating situation in Libya and unrest in other parts of North Africa and the Middle East. The UK on its own has cut foreign aid to Tripoli. The international community must sustain this level of diplomatic pressure to force Gaddafi out like the Ben Alis and the Mubaraks of Tunisia and Egypt.

The heat is on, Libya burns from Benghazi, Zawiya, Misrata to Nalut. It is only a matter of days that his resisting loyalists will be crushed and Gaddafi will have no hiding place.

Azikiwe is the author of Africa: Conflict Resolution and International Diplomacy

Ifeoha Azikiwe

Daily Champion/04/03/2011