By George W. Ntambaazi
The late Col. Muammar Gaddafi (69) has been called all sorts of names. From a ‘Mad Dog’ of the Arab world by former US president Ronald Reagan, autocratic dictator and tyrant by mainly Western Press, to Brotherly leader, Guide of the Libyan revolution and King of Kings by the African fraternity.
The fallen leader courted controversy that turned his passionate friends into instant foes. Ironically, little or no credit has been given to the man, who at only 27 years, with modest education and military gene changed the course of his country, after toppling a monarchy in a bloodless coup.
His numerous misdeeds and human rights abuses render absolute silence on the significance of a man who before the first NATO air strike in March, 2011 made Libya a middle-income country. As a fact, the quality of life for the average Libyan is far better than most of other African Nations.
In Uganda, Gaddafi was more humanly close to us given his generosity through funding projects including the magnificent Gaddafi Mosque on old Kampala hill, empowering cultural institutions including Toro Kingdom palace, awarded education scholarships, investments in banks, housing and telecommunication businesses that employed many Ugandans. He had an on and off relationship with virtually all Ugandan leaders from Idi Amin to Yoweri Museveni.
I visited Libya in August 2010 as a participant in the International Youth Conference. Travelling from Germany, authorities almost refused me from making this trip.
I was only luckily saved by the surprise presence of three other participants at the airport, three German nationals and one Libyan, who were in the queue scheduled for the same flight. The numerous inquiries made it difficult to travel, and we endured an unplanned night in Frankfurt as authorities made further consultations.
We were however booked on the flight the next day. Given Gaddafi’s controversial figure in Europe, it was an open secret that Libya was no potential destination. After beating all odds, and landing in Tripoli early morning, we were welcomed by secret security operatives and, as a rule submitted our passports to Airport authorities with a scanned copy of Arabic translation and only to receive them back a week after the conference.
The road from the Airport to the city center (think of Entebbe – Kampala road), we were impressed with the magnificent housing units (highway flats) and an eye catching urbanized scenery.
We were informed that the new constructed and fully furnished houses were occupied by civil servants, expatriates and fresh university graduates. Like most western nations welfare systems, the policy was specially meant to help get a soft landing after their studies or on their jobs. We were held in confinement in the luxurious Rixos hotel.
Of significance were other unknown facts to us in Libya. Education is free to all citizens, a house with electricity, running water and a television set is a right, medical care is subsidized by the government. Petrol was so cheap. Libya had no external debt and its reserves amounted to $200 billion now frozen globally.
If a Libyan was unable to get a job after graduation, the government paid the average salary of the profession as if he or she is employed until a job is found. Gaddafi carried out the largest Great man-made river project (4071 km) to make water available in the desert. It is one of the biggest and most important international engineering projects in the field of extracting and conveying ground water.
It conveys huge amounts of water from the depth of the desert to the inhabited, fertile coastal areas. Water is distributed to cities, villages, populated areas, grazing lands, and industrial and agricultural projects. As a policy, a portion of Libyan oil sale is credited directly on all bank accounts of all Libyan nationals. Libya even qualified for the 2012 African cup of Nations amidst trouble at home.
However, just after two days, we noticed reality of lack of free voice and widespread fear and insecurity. Locals would not speak with us foreigners particularly on politics or governance issues. You could see all the sycophantic praises of the Jamahiriya leader. No one could leave the hotel without permission.
We were shocked because, contrally to the programme, no official conference discussion ever took place. Participants only cris – crossed in the hotel corridors, whispering to each other and could only meet during serving of enormous buffet meals every few hours. You could easily see the government spy network at play.
Being a month of Ramandhan, the official closing ceremony, which also, surprisingly doubled as the official opening, on the day before departure, started after midnight. We waited for hours for the Leader, only to be informed by his son Seif-al-Islam that he could not be able to meet us, due to other official commitments. We were then taken to a theatre, where the only shows were about praises of the leader. Poor me, not used to hot desert weather, sneaked back into the bus and dozed off.
The tragedy of Gaddafi’s seemingly brutal and summary manner of his death in a sewer-pipe, as he attempted to flee Sirte, his home town, against NATO backed rebels attack, on the 20th October, my birthday is hard to believe. May his soul rest in peace
Mr. Ntambaazi temporarily lives in Osnabrueck - Germany.
