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Posted June 4, 2006
President Sirleaf’s visits To Libya
Have two Motives
A brief
Analysis by Thomas Kai Toteh
From all indications, it is no doubt,
Liberia is desperate in her post war condition, and needs help from any
wealthy nation in order to get back on her feet. The only country in Africa,
next to West African superpower, Nigeria, capable of competing with
developed nations in dispensing economic aid to post war Liberia is Colonel
Ghadafi’s Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.
President Sirleaf, cognizant of Libya’s
economic capability in Africa, is not leaving any stone unturned to get the
Libyan leader to form a major part in Liberia’s reconstruction program.
Colonel Ghadafi, prior to Liberia’s civil war had invested his country’s
resources in Liberia. President Sirleaf’s effort could also be viewed as
rekindling Colonel Ghadafi’s investment interest in Liberia.
In the 1980s, the Libyan leader, as a
manifestation of his African solidarity with the Liberian revolution headed
by Samuel K. Doe, opened Liberia-Libyan holdings, which owned the
Pan-African Plaza opposite the Monrovia City Hall. The Libyan government,
under the dynamic leadership of Colonel Ghadafi, also opened a union glass
factory in Gardnerville during Samuel Doe’s regime.
However, the Pan African Plaza owned by the
Liberian-Libyan holdings and the Union Glass Factory were abandoned by Libya
after Colonel Ghadafi accused the late Samuel K. Doe of being a stooge of
imperialist nations, especially the United States of America. The late
Samuel K. Doe and Colonel Ghadafi’s feud resulted in the severing of
diplomatic relation between the two countries.
The two leaders, after a near fist fight,
became bitter enemies and thence the late Samuel K. Doe began witch hunting
opposition politicians suspected of having ties to Libya while Colonel
Ghadafi, on the other hand sought the loophole to undo the late Samuel K.
Doe’s regime.
Colonel Ghadafi known as a mastermind in
Africa’s violent regime change or what political radicals consider a
revolution saw the political weakness of his foe, Samuel K. Doe. Samuel
Doe’s relationship with America was deteriorating. Samuel K. Doe’s “Let pay
the US debt” massive campaign culminated in a dead end of a cordial
relationship between him and the late Ronald Regan.
As a result of his political
quandary, both on the home front and between Libya and the US, Samuel Doe’s
regime was caught in the middle, making it an easy target to violent regime
change conspiracy at home and abroad.
So, when Charles Taylor, who
was jailed in Plymouth County House of Correction in Boston, Massachusetts
on embezzlement charges, broke jail and mysteriously fled the US to Libya,
Colonel Ghadafi seized the opportunity to train him and his accomplices,
equipped them and facilitated the armed struggle in Liberia, an allegation
that Murmar Ghadafi has yet to rebuff.
Today, as Libyan trained
rebel leader, Charles Taylor sits behind bars in Freetown, Sierra Leone on
war crimes charges, the Libyan leader is angry with Nigeria’s Olusegun
Obasanjo for his role in turning Charles Taylor over to the Liberian
government, claiming that the Nigerian leader betrayed African solidarity
and his act was an unacceptable precedent that threatens all African
leaders. Still, the Libyan Leader went on with his condemnation in a
somewhat threatening tone, “Handling Taylor over to the ICC would undermine
Africa’s credibility and seriously harm Nigeria, which could no longer be
considered a haven.” Colonel Ghadafi blamed Nigeria’s Obasanjo for turning
Charles Taylor over to the International Criminal Court (ICC), but in
reality, President Obasanjo did not turn Charles Taylor over directly to the
War Crimes Tribunal, but instead, he turned him over to the Liberian
government under the leadership of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who
later turned the Liberian ex-dictator over to the ICC.
Thought Colonel Ghadafi did
not point his finger directly at President Sirleaf for her role in giving
Charles Taylor in to the UN War Crimes Tribunal in Sierra Leone and said he
did not support the ex-Liberian dictator’s policy; President Sirleaf does
not seem to take Ghadafi’s stand in Charles Taylor’s saga for granted.
As a former radical
politician and one of the master planners of the Liberian democratic
revolution, President Sirleaf is moving quickly to establish a close tie
with Libya in a move to pre-empt Colonel Ghadafi’s protest against the
so-called “betrayals of African solidarity and undermining Africa’s
credibility.”
The world’s most feared
military ruler singled out Nigeria as the hypocritical African nation right
now, but the Liberian leader, aware that Nigeria is not an easy target for
destabilization, does not want to rule out the possibility that Liberia,
being the weaker nation could face the consequences for betraying an African
leader.
Coincidentally, Liberia is
emerging from her political turmoil at the time the United States no longer
considers Libya a hostile nation, thereby putting Liberia’s present
administration foreign relation at no risk with either Libya or the United
States. This is the blessing for Liberia that President Sirleaf wouldn’t let
go in the cause of reconstruction and security. In view of the fact that
Liberia’s tie with the US can not be viewed anymore by the Libyan leader as
a stooge of imperialists, President Sirleaf intends to use this opportunity
to plead with Colonel Ghadafi to let bygones be bygones with the Charles
Taylor’s crisis.
In doing so, President
Sirleaf is killing two birds with one single stone: She is going for
investment and at the same time closing all destabilization holes. Above
all, the motives for the president’s constant visits to Libya are in the
best interest of reconstruction and stability in Liberia and African
solidarity.
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