socialmediaman:
If all these were true, then why did Libyans fight for him to leave?

Tomorrow someone will come out and say under President XYZ of Nigeria who was voted out, education, healthcare, business loans, housing etc were free and available to all Nigerians.

Libyan never complain about gadaffi they were instigated to complain by NATO and the world police BECAUSE GADAFFI REFUSED TO SELL OIL TO THEM
FYI ALL COUNTRIES AMERICA HAVE HAD TO "HELP" NEVER GOT WHAT THEY WANTED AFTER THE WAR FOR EXAMPLE
KUWAIT,IRAN,IRAQ,AFGHANISTAN,LIBYA,EGYPT, ALL WISHED AMERICAN NEVER STEPPED ON THIER SOIL
AMERICA IS LIKE THE BLACK DEATH RAVAGING ANY COUNTRY THEY PASS THROUGH

socialmediaman:
Very informative. I knew Ghadaffi's achievements were hyped, he couldn't have done all that and people still wanted him out at all cost. This is just impossible! Humans are not that stupid.

Trust me bro, I was for a time Gaddafi's greatest fan. Copied in below is my response to a discussion that took place elsewhere.

I am sure your intervention here, much like mine, is not simply an attempt to assassinate Gaddafi's character but to give a more holistic appraisal of his reign. I first encountered the maverick he was during my youth in Nigeria. We lived in a town close to the border with Republic of Benin <<Guess which one >> - so I had the 'good fortune' of spending 6 hours with other poor souls, at the side of a major highway, as we waited and waited in vain for this African hero (who was much admired and derided ) to drive past. Of course being of a radical bent, that particular episode did not put me off completely. In the years that were to follow, as I grew older, I touted the credentials of this leader because my politics was also largely about "socking it to imperialism".

As was expected of me, I dismissed a lot of the concerns that were voiced about his excesses, because doing otherwise would have been considered heretical. Much later; not even Gaddafi's ambivalence towards the 7th Pan-African congress (Kampala) which he tried to dictate terms to, compelled a more objective take. The brother who dissuaded me from honouring a call to go off to Libya for military training is still alive and can attest to the conversation we had, which caused me to reconsider my views for the very first time. I owe it that brother for removing the blinkers from my eyes; although I am somewhat disappointed that, like so many from the same period, he has become some kind of evangelical pastor today.

Oh I know what went down in the Caribbean! I also know about Gaddafi's involvement with Anti-Jewish right-wing fascists groups in Canada. Where he evidentially failed in his quest to dominate Caribbean politics, he succeeded in changing the landscape of West Africa by funding macabre insurgent groups like the ones headed by Charles Taylor and others in Liberia; the rebel movement lead by Freddy Sankoh in Sierra Leone; the renegade-turn-president in the Gambia...and so on. Even now what most people fail to understand is that, Nigeria's Boko Haram has his imprint written all over it - as a result of weapons stolen from Libya. Would the wars in Chad and Sudan have lasted for as long as they did, with millions of lives lost without Gaddafi's misadventures? I doubt it! Would Amin have been emboldened to the extent he was, to the point where Nyerere was left with no choice but to clip his demonic wings? I fear not. We are getting into the arena of serious reflection here bro, far away from the simplistic and hackneyed sound-bites armchair revolutionaries would rather peddle.

I am more than willing to outline other contradictions which railed against the Pan-African struggle for true emancipation, even as I concede that he paradoxically did more than most of the other jokers who paraded themselves as leaders. Yes I have no problems accepting the good he did, while calling on his hagiographers to allow circumspection. Let's claim "no easy victories" with our analysis. Let's tell the whole truth, as Amilcar Cabral suggested.

I have decided to revisit my personal journey here, to show that I understand what informs much of the 'pedestrian account' often provided on these pages.

Another post I wrote to address the fallacy of a 'single currency' that is often mentioned as the reason for Gaddafi's demise.

Anyone who has taken time to study Gaddafi's ambivalence towards many laudable projects which he himself championed at one point or another, would understand why the narrative of a "new currency being singularly responsible for his demise" is simplistic. In my view, this does not even tell half the story. Why would the West suddenly get jittery about Gaddafi's call for the adoption of a single African currency in 2009, when there are hundreds of less contentious African Union (AU) approved initiatives picking up dust in the filing cabinets at Addis Ababa (Ethiopia)? What was so special about this particular call to a group countries that seldom operate with unity of purpose, and with diverse and disparate monetary systems which are not easy to integrate in the short term, that it provided the raison d'etre for Western nations to invade Libya?

Is it that we are not aware of the Sino-US rivalry over Libyan Oil investments, or that the Arab spring which had arrived in Libya provided another NATO ally (Britain) with an opportunity to re-activate a BP Oil deal which had stalled?

What about the duplicity of the main NATO aggressor - The French government - who had been wrong-footed when Gaddafi refused to opt for its overpriced Dassault’s Rafale fighter jets and Areva’s nuclear reactors ("The Libya War, or How to Sell Rafale and Eurofighter Jets".

More specifically; what about the nature of Gadaffi's relationship with Sarzoky, which resulted in Libyan funds going towards the 2007 Presidential election campaign in France, and the simmering exposé which was going to topple the French seat of government? (Note: "France's second-largest public television channel has aired an audio excerpt from an interview with Muammar Gaddafi in which the late Libyan dictator repeatedly claimed that he financed Nicolas Sarkozy's presidential campaign in 2007" ("Gaddafi claims over financing Sarkozy presidential campaign reappear on French TV"

If we stay with France for a bit longer, we would understand the intersect between the 2012 elections - which were only months away; the prospect of losing power - which was regarded as an existential threat by the corrupt political establishment in France; and the insurgency in Libya - which, ultimately, served as a 'tipping point' to be exploited by teh NATO-cabal of imperialist powers.

No bruv - Gaddafi's downfall goes beyond the issue of African empowerment, a subject which he had equivocated on for at least 40 years before his last major fallout with other Arab states.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"So what explains Sarkozy's about-face vis-à-vis Libya?
His sudden support for the anti-Gaddafi rebels can be attributed to two main factors: opinion polls and the closely related issue of Muslim immigration.

Sarkozy's sudden zeal for the cause of democracy in Libya comes as his popularity is at record lows just thirteen months before the first round of the 2012 presidential election. With polls showing that Sarkozy is the least popular president since the founding of the Fifth Republic in 1958, he is betting that French voters will appreciate his efforts in Libya to place France at the center of the world stage and reinforce what Charles de Gaulle once famously called "a certain idea of France" as a nation of exceptional destiny.

Further, Sarkozy's main rival is not Gaddafi, but rather Marine Le Pen, the charismatic new leader of the far-right National Front party in France. A new opinion poll published by Le Parisien newspaper on March 8 has Le Pen, who took over from her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, in January, winning the first round of next year's presidential election.

The survey gives Le Pen 23%, two percentage points ahead of both Sarkozy and Socialist leader Martine Aubry. On the basis of this opinion poll, Le Pen would automatically qualify for the second round run-off with one or other of the two mainstream party leaders.

Le Pen, who appeals to middle class voters, is riding high on voter dissatisfaction with the failure of the mainstream parties to address the problem of Muslim immigration. Since taking her post three months ago, Le Pen has single-handedly catapulted the twin issues of Muslim immigration and French national identity to the top of the French political agenda. In recent weeks, Le Pen has been a permanent fixture on prime-time television to discuss the threat to France of a wave of immigrants from Libya.

Gaddafi has already pledged that Europe will be "invaded" by an army of African immigrants: "You will have immigration. Thousands of people from Libya will invade Europe. There will be no-one to stop them any more," he warned on March 6 in an interview with the French newspaper Journal du Dimanche.

During a visit to Italy in August 2010, Gaddafi demanded €5 billion a year from the European Union to stop illegal immigration which "threatens to turn Europe black." At the time, Gaddafi asked: "What will be the reaction of the white Christian Europeans to this mass of hungry, uneducated Africans? We don't know if Europe will remain an advanced and cohesive continent or if it will be destroyed by this barbarian invasion. We have to imagine that this could happen, but before it does we need to work together."

Furious Europeans have compared Gaddafi's demands for cash to stop illegal immigration to a "Mafia extortion racket." But since the revolt in Tunisia in January, nearly 15,000 boat people (more than the total for all of 2010) have arrived on the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, a 20-square-kilometer island that traditionally has been a major gateway for illegal immigration into the European Union."
(Source: "Why France Was So Keen to Attack Libya"-- http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/1983/france-libya-attack)

sebali:

Under Gadafi there was almost zero freedom, d pple saw freedom as d ultimate thing dey needed.
Under Gadafi Libyans were so restricted dat their personal bank accounts were monitored by d govt.

Tell me what is not monitored in the Uk/US.

crixtex:

Yea freedom, buh humans are not truly free, are they?
I read up on d number 10 as well... cud u explain y?

The number 10.
Africa is too unorganised to have a single currency.

You can't count up to five countries in africa that are on the tract to greatness. There is no way countries managed by very bad leaders can have a single currency.

Even nigeria which is the biggest and supposed to be a leading light is still groping in darkness because of bad leaders. Who knows may be nigeria would be borrowing money to pay the workers salaries in the next two years.
Do you think any country would like to have the same currency with a badly managed nigeria? Just like almost all other african countries they have bad 'leader'.

juman:


The number 10.
Africa is too unorganised to have a single currency.

You can't count up to five countries in africa that are on the tract to greatness. There is no way countries managed by very bad leaders can have a single currency.

Even nigeria which is the biggest and supposed to be a leading light is still groping in darkness because of bad leaders. Who knows may be nigeria would be borrowing money to pay the workers salaries in the next two years.
Do you think any country would like to have the same currency with a badly managed nigeria? Just like almost all other african countries they have bad 'leader'.

Yea.. dats true... Africa can never ve a single voice.. buh bro I m still a believer in Nigeria, I urge you to b...

crixtex:

Yea.. dats true... Africa can never ve a single voice.. buh bro I m still a believer in Nigeria, I urge you to b...

It is difficult to believe in a country without direction.

juman:

It is difficult to believe in a country without direction.

lool... buh most pple believe in buhari na... lets ve faith bro

crixtex:

lool... buh most pple believe in buhari na... lets ve faith bro

Lets hope the change would not be fake. This is a country of 54 years deliberately destroyed primarily by military generals.

honeric01:


Tell me what is not monitored in the Uk/US.

Yes everytin is monitored underground..... Bt on d surface every one enjoys apparent freedom.
My friend life is all abt perception

sebali:


Yes everytin is monitored underground..... Bt on d surface every one enjoys apparent freedom.
My friend life is all abt perception

"Enjoys apparent freedom"?

Like?

There is nothing like freedom for someone whose's communication is being monitored right from the day he or she gets his or her SSN.

socialmediaman:
If all these were true, then why did Libyans fight for him to leave?

Tomorrow someone will come out and say under President XYZ of Nigeria who was voted out, education, healthcare, business loans, housing etc were free and available to all Nigerians.

Its like you dont really know this man.