Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities for there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Romans 13:1-2
One of the many accounts on the end of the life of illustrious Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, was captured, deposed and killed on 20 October 2011 was during the Battle of Sirte. Gaddafi had been found hiding in a culvert west of Sirte and captured by the National Transitional Council forces and brutally killed shortly afterwards.
The reports recount that the NTC initially claimed Gaddafi died from injuries sustained in a firefight when loyalist forces attempted to free him; however graphic video of his last moments show rebel fighters beating him and one of them sodomizing him with a bayonet before he was shot several times as he shouted for his life.
October 2017 marked the sixth-year anniversary of assassination of Africa’s most vocal and hugely unpopular head of state and government.
While he lived, Muamar Gaddafi, popularly known as the Brother Leader, was viewed through largely western lens and viewed by his African peers with suspicion, as a megalomaniac who had visions of grandeur, and probable whims of being supreme ruler of the African continent.
The fire of such fears in African leaders were fanned by Western hegemony. Gaddafi’s death marked the fall of the longest reigning dictator in the Arab world but also the end of the ambitious ideological system that he dreamed would supersede all rivals. While much of the world sees him as an eccentric and brutal demagogue, Qaddafi has tried for decades to portray himself as a statesman-philosopher.
While he lived, the little green book, written by Gaddafi, declared Prophecies that transcend his strong and often loud philosophies he blasted every time he was in front of a microphone.
“I will not go into exile to any foreign country. I was born here in Libya, and I will die here. This country was a dessert, and I turned it into a forest, where everything can grow.
No one Love this land more more than its citizens. If Europe and America tells you that they love you, be careful. They love the wealth of your land. The oil and not the people. They are helping you to fight against me but, it will be more wise for you to fight against them because they are fighting against your future and progress.
My message to you the people of Libya is, they are helping you to kill me but you will pay the price because you will suffer. And my message to you America and Europe is, you will kill me, but be ready to fight a never ending TERRORISM.
Before you realise your ignorance, terrorists will be hitting you at your doorstep.”
Such were the rumblings of Africa’s widely known and disliked, despised and sometimes shunned son of the African soil.
It is widely reported that life in Gaddafi’s Libya was similar to the lives of many Middle Eastern citizens in oil-rich region, however a bird’s eye view of Norway reveals that citizens there enjoy a myriad of social development benefits such as free college education, free health care, 30-hour work week,6 weeks paid vacation, free child care and $16 per hour minimum age.
Norway is indisputably a most paradisiacal place on earth, but for the extended snowy climate. Imagine for a minute then, a place in Africa and with more than these being the norm and in Libya under Colonel Muamar Gaddafi. As Gaddafi went around the world ranting about a strong African Union that was formed as a federal system.
As Gaddafi made these overtures on a stronger African Union, inside Libya there are reports of a utopia-like lifestyle that would make many people from the west desire to migrate to the north African predominantly Muslim country.
The reports among other benefits of living in Libya are:
1. There was no electricity bills in Libya, electricity was free for all its citizens.
2. Banks in Libya being state-owned therefore loans were given to all its citizens at a 0% interest by law. No interest on loans.
3. A home was considered a human right in Libya. Gaddafi vowed that his parents would not get a house until everyone in Libya had a home.
4. All newlyweds in Libya received $60,000 Dinars (US$50,000) from the government to buy their first apartment.
5. Education and medical treatments were free. Before Gaddafi, only 25% of Libyans were literates. At the time of his death, the figure stood at 83%.
6. Libyans that took up farming as a career, received farm land, a farming house, equipment, seeds and livestock to kick-start their farms – all for free.
7. If Libyans could not find the education or medical facilities they needed in Libya, the government funded them entirely to go abroad for it.
8. In Gaddafi’s Libya, if a Libyan bought a car, the government subsidized 50% of the price.
9. The price of petrol in Libya is $0.14 per liter.
10. Libya had no external debt and its reserves amount at $150 billion – was frozen globally upon Gaddafi’s death.
11. If a Libyan was unable to get employment after graduation from college, the state paid the average salary of the profession as if he or she was employed until employment was found.
12. A portion of Libyan oil sale was credited directly to the bank accounts of all Libyan citizens.
13. A mother who gave birth to a child under Gaddafi, received US $5,000 as child benefit upfront.
14. Forty loaves of bread in Libya cost $ 0.15
15. Twenty-five percent of Libyans have a university degree.
16. Gaddafi carried out the world’s largest irrigation project, known as the Great Man-Made River Project, to make water readily available throughout the desert country.
Analysts have asked “if this is called “dictatorship,” what type of leadership democracies have?
In numerous African countries, oil and mineral wealth when not shared or allotted through state-controlled redistribution of government earnings through them to the citizens. It is a sure way to end poverty and definitely a powerful sign of democratic culture.
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