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MUAMMAR ABU MINYAR al-GADDAFI AND DAVID MARK’S MAD MAN COMMENT
By Louis Brown Ogbeifun | April 1, 2010
Official Jana news agency and BBC news reportedly quoted Gaddafi as saying that Nigeria should be split along religious and ethnic lines using the Yugoslavia’s and the Pakistan’s model. His initial position was that Nigeria should be split into North and South. To him, this remains the panacea to the incessant sectarian violence in Nigeria. The truth is that Gaddafi and his likes have longed worked for the Islamization of Nigeria without success and since this has been impossible they are gradually working towards the balkanization of Nigeria along religious and ethnic lines. They are fanning embers of ethnicity to win those ethnic chauvinists to support this cause. This revelation has only blown the lid off the plans of the Gaddafis. It has shown that most of the crises in Nigeria are sponsored by very powerful individuals from within and without.
Those living in glass houses should not throw stones. When they do, such stones should not be thrown into a hugely populated area because the entire populace will show their angst in various forms. Some will pelt the glass house with rotten eggs, others with tomatoes while others will go further to use expensive shit (courtesy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti of blessed memory). The comment on Nigeria by Gaddafi amounts to throwing stones into the heart of a huge population from a glass house and the reactions have been negatively overwhelming to the helmsman of Libya. Now he is complaining of the names people call him. For someone who says he believes, and persistently pursues the agenda of a one United Africa to now preach balkanization of another country shows share incoherence of thoughts and ideology. This is perhaps why David Mark called Gaddafi a mad man. So, why is he complaining?
There is no mistaking the fact that Gaddafi is a religious bigot who has even carried his extremism into the heart of other nations with the intent to destroy and kill innocent citizens. He has canvassed destruction of other countries on the platform of religion. He has wittingly sponsored and supported mass killings of people as typified by the Lockerbie disaster. In November 2009, Gaddafi took his conversion programme (dawah) to the heart of the Vatican by attempting to convert about 500 Italian escorts to Islam. So, Gaddafi’s initial position matched his reckless ambition to Islamize the world. His path to his second modified position was taken as a result of reactions from across the globe over his meddling in another nation’s affairs.
The hatred for Nigeria is unprecedented and has a long history. Libya has deported more Nigerians than any other country has done. Many Nigerians have been seriously abused and debased in the den of Gaddafi than every other nation. The deportees in 2000 alleged that over 500 men and women died in the deportation attacks on Nigerians. The recent event has shown that the repatriation of Nigerians has nothing to do with illegal status of those deported but share hatred for the people of Nigeria. The only offence of Nigeria has committed against Gaddafi is that Nigeria has persistently opposed Gaddafi’s inordinate ambition to rule over the entire Africa as the emperor of an African Union. His latest utterances on Nigeria have confirmed that unlike the Statesmen in Europe seeking to strengthen their regions, he is a man after the pursuit of an Islamic Africa with him as the president of presidents.
In 2000, Panafrican News Agency in 2000 quoted a top Libyan government functionary as saying “Eudy described the repatriated Nigerians as gangsters, saying: You know them better. The people we are sending back have no legal stay. These people are smuggled gangsters”. Let us even assume that those deported had no valid papers to stay in Libya, must they be debased before deporting them? Must they be referred to as gangsters? Rather than apologize for what they did to Nigerians, Eudy justified their sins against humanity. So if a Libyan top government functionary can refer to those Nigerians as gangsters without qualms and it so pleased Gaddafi, why must Gaddafi be angry over the comment of David Mark? The words of the Acting President as quoted in the Trust Newspaper say it all, “He (Jonathan) said he was surprised that Gaddafi was angry over Mark’s response which was targeted at him alone (Gaddafi) but his comment (Gaddafi) injured 140 million Nigerians”. In September, 2009 arisenigeria wrote a protest letter to the Libyan leader of extra judicial killings and maltreatment of Nigerians in Libya.
To those clapping for Gaddafi, they should know that in the history of mankind, there is hardly any nation that has been split on religious lines that enjoys peace thereafter. The Yugoslavian and Pakistani experiments have not brought peace to the regions in question. If people must part ways, those involved must be the people to agree and say so. Any impositions from outside will only breed anarchy. If the will of the Gaddafis prevail in the case of Nigeria, the world must be ready to deal with a human tragedy of unprecedented magnitude.
When Gaddafi proposed his theory about Nigeria, tongues wagged; he was called names and the Senate President was also quoted as calling Gaddafi a mad man. Some others believe he is suffering from extreme senility. Whichever way one looked at Gaddafi’s split theory, he has made his point by letting out the cat out of the bag on what his likes are planning from outside about Nigeria. Let it not be lost on us also that the United States and her allies are already planning how to intervene in a future factionalized Nigeria.
There is no doubt that Gaddafi has done well for his people. He conjured green in the desert and has in place housing, education, health and food for his people. What the world expect from him and others preaching the demise of Nigeria is to preach religious tolerance, unity and engage Nigerian leaders to do what they have done for their own people. Afterall, they meet and talk on bilateral issues.
What Nigeria needs is good governance, employment generation, uninterrupted electricity supply, housing for the masses, effective health and educational systems, poverty reduction, equity of every man before the law and true federalism. Nigeria has advantage in her size. Nigeria from 1914 though a contraption of Britain, we can live together with good leadership in place afterall United States of America is a very large country but their leaders overtime have made things work for the good of the people.
Irrespective of these comments by the Gaddafis, Nigerians should see the comments as a motivation to change our paradigm rather than get drowned in these talks of negativism. The comments are clarion calls to up the beats of our political leaders to become effective democratic drivers that will deliver dividends of democracy to Nigerians. They are also reminders that as a people, we have made life too comfortable for our rulers. They are also reminders that now is the time to hold our leaders accountable in all facets of governance.
Looking inwards, there are so many ills we need to correct in this country. In the North, we were told that Sharia will bring sanity and peace to the people. As at today, we have more open confrontations, killings, sectarian crises that have claimed lives than the pre-Sharia era. In Sharia dominated states, those who steal goats and commit minor offences have their hands chopped off when the pen robbers, treasury looters and corrupt public officers who steal billions of naira walk the streets as free men and heroes. This cannot be said to be justice.
As a people we are denied the right to freely choose our leaders. Political parties that are supposed to be a mirror of the larger administrative structure lack internal democracy. Even as a family, they deny themselves the rights of true family members. When party members win primaries to represent their parties, the parties decide overnight to switch the victory in favour of those who lost, like the Rotimi Amaechi case. How can such parties who are unfair to their own card carrying members be fair to other Nigerians who are not members of their political parties? How can those who do not believe in fair play and justice give justice to Nigerians?
It is common place to see elections rigged and people who stand in the way of election riggers assassinated with impunity. When election riggers mount the saddle of power, they will plot to remain there for life. They milk the treasuries dry and foist unemployment, poverty, hunger and disease on Nigerians in order to protect their hegemonies. Our politicians do not sit to plan for Nigerians. They have turned their nocturnal caucuses to avenues to plot who holds what positions and who shares what booty. They superintend over how to undo their opponents, share the loots of the country and rig the forth coming elections. This is a very serious misnomer that must be seriously challenged.
Education and health care have been brought to the lowest ebb since our independence and it does not seem to bother our leaders. Recently, one of the examination bodies (NECO) recorded less than a 2% pass in its November/December 2009 examinations.
It is only in Nigeria that the President is the property of the immediate family even when the country’s resources are used to maintain them. Appointments are based on sheer political sentiments instead of merit and rationality. Each time EFCC speaks, it is like the modern day corruption is far bigger than what it was during the 1999-2007 Obasanjo’s era.
The baseline for economic development is the availability of electricity on continuous basis. This is a mirage in Nigeria. The Niger Delta that oils almost all the economic activities of Nigeria is like a war thorn area with the people living in abject poverty and squalor. As I write this article, kidnapping for ransom is the order of the day in some parts of Nigeria. In all the six geo-political zones, the socio-economic woes are the same. So, what is wrong with us as a people that we are unable to manage our huge resources to the benefit of the larger society?
Time has come for us Nigerians to rise and tell our leaders to do the right thing. We must say no to election rigging. Once we are able to be the ones to elect our leaders through open and transparent electoral system, then we shall also have the right to call for their sack if they are not serving our interests. Nigeria has the capacity to be great again only if we as a people refuse to play along tribal and religious sentiments.
Irrespective of what the Gaddafis think of us as a nation, we should prove them wrong by retracing our destructive footsteps as a people in order to re-invent Nigeria. The truth is that if our past and present leaders treat Nigerians fairly by developing Nigeria in line with modern day states, will anybody be waiting to propose service of songs over Nigeria?
Therefore, rather than ruminate over what others want to make of our bad situation, time has come for us to wake up. Let us see it as a tonic to galvanize our inner energies into beneficial attainments. The Civil Society Organizations have started the push. They should sustain the struggle for a just and equitable Nigeria and never looking back until justice is done to all Nigerians irrespective of their stations in life.
Nigerians that are being used to divide the rest of us in exchange of a pot of pottage should realize that hunger, poverty and disease know no tribe, gender, colour nor religion. Let everyone know that time has come to stand up to fight for and protect our inalienable rights to qualitative education, right to choose our leaders without molestation and intimidation, right to qualitative health care, right to good life, right to food, housing and employment for all Nigerians. We must not be compromised on these issues because only on these platforms can our ideal dreams be realized. Nigeria like dry bones must rise again. That is if we are determined to make Nigeria walk alongside other developed nations.
Notes
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/32/051.html
http://muslimahmediawatch.org/2009/11/conversion-perversion-gaddafis-attempt-at-dawah/
Topics: Uncategorized |
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