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What do you make of the situation in your country Libya?

The situation in
Libya today is not only pathetic, but a challenge to the entire mankind
to stand-up against injustice, against brutal dictatorship. Muammar
Gaddafi is a brutal dictator who has ruled his country for over four
decades (42 years) with nothing positive to show other than attracting
the world’s scorn.

The people of
Libya have been subjugated to a merciless regime for too long, hence
they are yearning for a change and you know indeed change is the only
thing constant in life. I don’t blame them.

The people of
Libya deserve to be liberated from the brutal dictatorship of this
‘God-less’ creature! It is a pity and agonising as well to note that
Libya is one of the richest countries in terms of God-given resources
in Africa, yet there is infrastructural decay, massive unemployment of
the teeming Libyan youth, highest rate of nepotism in the world;
Gaddafi’s sons and relatives own Libya. Indeed, he made his clan, the
Sirte people, first-class citizens over and above every other clan.

Gaddafi used the
‘divide-and-rule’ system to the maximum level to create a state of
fear, suspicion and enmity amongst his people; a father is afraid of
his child simply because he knows the child can be recruited by the
ruthless dictator as a spy against the father. It’s that bad.

Is there any justification for the revolt?

Yes, the popular
uprising is not only justified but long overdue. Like I said earlier,
Libyan people deserve to be liberated from the brutal, merciless iron
fist of the world’s worst current dictator.

What is your feeling about the killings going on in your country?

My feeling and I
want to believe it’s the feeling of any human being, is that of sadness
and bereavement for the merciless and brutal massacre of defenceless
citizens exercising their fundamental human right to protest against
tyranny.

However, what
hurts me the most is the deafening silence of the West – so-called
epitomes of democracy – on this massacre taking place in Libya at the
moment. Indeed, if there is any crisis that has exposed the hypocrisy
and double-standard of the West, especially the US in recent history,
the Gaddafi massacre of the poor citizens of Libya is it. When the
Tunisian uprising began, the West was extremely vocal in condemning the
use of force against defenceless citizens! Again, during the Egyptian
people’s revolt against their dictator, the West was practically
calling for the head of Mubarak; Obama was on air every three hours on
that fateful day, warning, cautioning and even threatening U.S. actions
before Mubarak towed the path of honour and resigned and in the 18 days
the uprising lasted, Mubarak made concessions of momentous proportions,
condoled the bereaved who lost loved ones. He never used uncouth
language talk less of threatening the good people of Egypt with death
if they didn’t stop the protest. Yet, the West demanded he must go.

While for Libya
not only did this devil hire mercenaries to massacre the Libyan
citizens; he has ordered his fighter jet bombers to bomb defenceless
citizens; ordered his goons to shoot any protester in sight.

So far, over 2000
defenceless citizens of Libya have been massacred by this evil monster
and he has the temerity to tell the whole world to go to hell, he will
not resign, rather he will shed every blood in Libya to continue
ruining that country. Yet, all that the West has to say is “We are
watching the awful events unfolding in Libya and will make a decision”
perhaps after the man has exterminated the entire citizenry; shame on
the hypocrites.

Libyans are said to be doing well under Gaddafi, why the revolt?

I’m glad you
qualified the statement with “it is said” because the truth is that it
is all propaganda. Like I said earlier, there is a teeming population
of youth in Libya who are unemployable because they have no skills. The
Libyan educational system does not train you to be productive; rather,
it forces the inculcation of the so-called “Revolution mentality” on
the youth, whereby they become totally dependent on ‘handouts’, food
rations and other basic necessities of life. Yes, as a Libyan, you
don’t have to work to get food to eat; every commune has something like
a cooperative store that gives people of the community basic foodstuff
like wheat, barley, rice, oil, salt. The fundamental question is; “Does
man live on bread alone”? A famous saying has it. “It is by far better
to teach a man how to fish, than to give him a fish daily.” Gaddafi has
denied the Libyan youth the knowledge, the skills of “how to fish”.

It always amazes
me when Nigerians, especially in the North speak so glowingly of
Gaddafi; of “how he takes care of his people”. I only say if only you
knew what and who Gaddafi is; they will make special congregational
prayers to invoke God’s wrath upon this tyrant.

Libya is one of
the most richly oil-endowed countries in the world, with a GDP of
US$70b (2010), with a very small population size (five million citizens
only) yet Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria is by far more developed,
more modern than Tripoli, which has been in existence before Nigeria’s
independence from colonial-rule.

In the city of Tripoli, there are still untarred streets with open-gutters as recent as 2006, my last visit.

Libya has been
exploring and exporting oil long before Dubai discovered oil, yet, in
terms of advancement in every facet of life, Dubai is light years ahead
of Libya, no thanks to Gaddafi’s wicked and warped ideology of
communism. Substantial revenues from the energy sector, coupled with a
small population gives Libya one of the highest per capita GDPs in
Africa, but very little of this income flows down to the lower orders
of society.

A study conducted
in the 90’s showed that from the time Gaddafi toppled the Monarch
(1969-1998); Libya earned a whopping $769 billion as oil revenue, yet,
there is nothing to show for all that money! Well, actually, there are
plenty things Gaddafi did with Libyan’s oil wealth; sponsoring and
supporting unrest, civil wars, terrorism. Former Justice minister, who
recently resigned in protest to the mass-massacre of defenceless
citizens has today told the world that he has proof that Gaddafi
ordered the bombing of the Pan-Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland in
1988 which killed 238 innocent lives.

Gaddafi treats
Libya as his personal estate, hence its resources are his to do as his
whims and caprices dictate. There is the so-called Gaddafi-foundation,
which has in its kitty, a staggering US$150 billion, and it’s solely
controlled by one of his deranged sons, Saif Gaddafi, who is also
reported to be the richest (thief) in Africa.

This foundation is
the conduit-pipe through which Gaddafi funds most of the wars he
sponsors, and his sons (kith and kin) also help themselves with! That
is why when we complain about public officials in Nigeria looting the
treasury, it seems they are saints compared to what Gaddafi and his
progeny are committing in Libya.

Doesn’t it make sense to stop the protest in the face of Gaddafi’s threat that he will fight to the end?

I would like to urge my brethren in Libya to persevere, to keep pushing out the “Evil-Dictator” to liberate themselves.

God Almighty
detests tyranny and injustice, thus God will grant them victory. It is
the supreme-sacrifice Libyans are making today, but history will indeed
record them as those who stood up against tyranny and that is the most
precious legacy any human being will ever wish for.

What is your advice for Gaddafi?

To the “Tyrant”;
may God almighty inflict upon you even one-tenth of the pain,
deprivations and anguish you inflicted upon the peace-loving
almost-to-a-fault people of Libya.

And to the world,
I’m urging every God-fearing human being regardless of creed, race,
tribe or colour to rise up in unison and condemn the brutal massacre of
defenceless, unarmed citizens trying to free themselves from the
shackles of a dictator.

Do you have refugees coming to Nigeria from your country?

As at now, I don’t
know of anyone that is able to escape to Nigeria from the tyrant
because Gaddafi has blocked all media of communication with Libya; no
telephone, no internet. We cannot even get across to our relatives in
Libya; only God knows if they are still alive or not.

Jamal Abdallah
Ahmad Elbaff’s Grandfather, Ahmad Elbaff was born in Kukawa,
present-day Borno in 1887, like his late father. However, he still has
‘blood-links’ with Libya by as his cousins and distant relatives still
live there.