Libya: Better Or Worse? By Olajide Jatto

I saw in the news recently about the Libyan Prime Minister being kidnapped. The leader of the country was abducted by gunmen inside his official residence in the country. I only repeated that to hammer in the absurdity of the situation. He was at his residence in the luxurious Corinthia in Tripoli, the country’s capital when a group of gunmen went in and seized him to take him to an unknown destination. They said they held him on corruption charges. They decided he was corrupt, they decided to abduct him, and they did!

I know the western world has always seen African countries and some Middle Eastern, Asian and South American countries as inferior but please understand that Libya is a stand-alone country, self-governing and with citizens who have fundamental human rights to live, let live and have some form of happiness.

No matter how puny Libya is thought of, it should be safe to say or assume that it’s a country like other countries. Can you imagine Obama being abducted from the White House, Enda Kenny from Steward’s Lodge, Goodluck Jonathan from Aso-Rock villa, David Cameron from number 10 Downing Street, I could go on and on and I would be very surprised if the answer to all these is yes. My question then is, now that it has happened, doesn’t the level of security in a country that has been ‘liberated’ frighten anyone or everyone as a matter of fact. Yea, the point can be raised that Libya is thousands of miles away but can’t we all take a minute to consider how Libya got to where it is? Is what happened to them really that far-fetched that it can’t happen to anyone?

Libya was a country that had a semblance of normalcy in its infrastructure. Emphasis on the words ‘semblance’ and ‘infrastructures’ because the place was governed by a dictator. Like I’ve said before, I’ve lived in a country under military dictatorship before and it’s in no way pleasant. Dictatorship being bad however, is it worth getting rid of the entire country to rid it of dictatorship when the alternative is worse? Yes, the prime minister is now friendly enough to grant Christiane Amanpour an interview but a whole lot more unsafe than when Gaddafi was there. In place of Gaddafi’s single army of terror, there are now many militias who terrorise the citizenry of the country. How much cajones must you possess to go and take the country’s leader and carry out a smooth operation? Now, imagine the country having may more groups like that jostling for power? How can that be a good thing? Dear international community, is this the freedom you promised to the Libyan people?