Its funny how tables can turn overnight. The once strongman of Libya was captured like a chicken early today when he was trying to flee from the overwhelmed city of Sirte, his birthplace which has been his hiding place since he was deposed in August this year. This once reverred messianic persona who throd over the landscape of Libya like a collosus is now killed and has left the realms of the living.
There are lessons that we should learn from the mistakes and mishaps of others but most often than not, we do not get down to learn these lessons. Gaddafi was alive when Liberia's Samuel Doe was captured and butchered like a goat in the 1990s when Prince Yommie Johnson and longtime Liberian war-lord turned President, Charles Ghankey Taylor led a splinter of rebellion against his regime. Even the Ecowas Monitoring Group co-sponsored by the Nigerian government under the leadership of President Ibrahim Babangida could not save the then famous Sergeant Samuel Doe.
In the wake of the Arab Spring which spread across the Arab Magreb in Africa, Gaddafi saw how Ben Ali of Tunisia and his old friend, Hosni Mubarack were swept by the whirlwind. He never took notice to quietly stand down and take a deserved rest. When the youths in his country began the uprising which led to his eventual removal and now death, he called them mad dogs and insisted that Al Qaeda was leading the "rebellion" and went as far as saying that the youths had taken some drugs which has led them into some kind of delusion. Now we know who was being deluded.
There are other sit-tight leaders still hanging around the African continent and in the Arab bloc. In Africa, Cameroon's Paul Biya is approaching the 30 year mark, Eduardo dos Santos in Angola is been there about the same time. Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe is in his 31st year as the only President to have led the republic since independence. A dynasty of succession of leadership of sort is taking root in Togo with Eyadema Jr now in the saddle after his father passed away after over 30 years. I believe that Gaddafi was also not unaware of the pranks that Ivorien former President Laurent Gbagbo tried to play after losing the election to Allasan Quattara late last year. He was eventually captured after some months of dilly-dallying. Despots and autocratic leadership will always end up in shambles. If you always want to be a leader by hook or by crook, you will be hooked by a crook as well.
Gaddafi's demise should sound a clear signal once again to all undemocratic and authoritarian leadership across the African continent and the world at large that in today's world, there is no hiding place for the wicked.
A word is indeed enough for the wise.
There are lessons that we should learn from the mistakes and mishaps of others but most often than not, we do not get down to learn these lessons. Gaddafi was alive when Liberia's Samuel Doe was captured and butchered like a goat in the 1990s when Prince Yommie Johnson and longtime Liberian war-lord turned President, Charles Ghankey Taylor led a splinter of rebellion against his regime. Even the Ecowas Monitoring Group co-sponsored by the Nigerian government under the leadership of President Ibrahim Babangida could not save the then famous Sergeant Samuel Doe.
In the wake of the Arab Spring which spread across the Arab Magreb in Africa, Gaddafi saw how Ben Ali of Tunisia and his old friend, Hosni Mubarack were swept by the whirlwind. He never took notice to quietly stand down and take a deserved rest. When the youths in his country began the uprising which led to his eventual removal and now death, he called them mad dogs and insisted that Al Qaeda was leading the "rebellion" and went as far as saying that the youths had taken some drugs which has led them into some kind of delusion. Now we know who was being deluded.
There are other sit-tight leaders still hanging around the African continent and in the Arab bloc. In Africa, Cameroon's Paul Biya is approaching the 30 year mark, Eduardo dos Santos in Angola is been there about the same time. Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe is in his 31st year as the only President to have led the republic since independence. A dynasty of succession of leadership of sort is taking root in Togo with Eyadema Jr now in the saddle after his father passed away after over 30 years. I believe that Gaddafi was also not unaware of the pranks that Ivorien former President Laurent Gbagbo tried to play after losing the election to Allasan Quattara late last year. He was eventually captured after some months of dilly-dallying. Despots and autocratic leadership will always end up in shambles. If you always want to be a leader by hook or by crook, you will be hooked by a crook as well.
Gaddafi's demise should sound a clear signal once again to all undemocratic and authoritarian leadership across the African continent and the world at large that in today's world, there is no hiding place for the wicked.
A word is indeed enough for the wise.
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