I saw in the news recently that the Libyan prime minister was kidnapped – abducted by gunmen inside his official residence. I only repeated that to emphasise the absurdity of the situation.
Ali Zeidan was at his residence at the luxurious Corinthia Hotel in Tripoli, the country’s capital, when a group of gunmen went in and seized him, removing 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 it!
I know the western world has always seen countries in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and South America as inferior, but please understand that Libya is a standalone 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 assume that it’s a country that stands on its own like any other. Can you imagine Barack Obama being abducted from the White House? Or Enda Kenny from Steward’s Lodge? Goodluck Jonathan from Aso-Rock Villa? David Cameron from 10 Downing Street? I could go on and on, but I would be very surprised if the answer to any of these was ‘Yes’.
My question, then, is that Libya’s head of state has been kidnapped, doesn’t the level of security (or lack thereof) in a country that’s been supposedly ‘liberated’ frighten everyone as a matter of fact? Sure, 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 there really that far-fetched that it can’t happen to anywhere else?
Libya was a country that had a semblance of normalcy in its infrastructure. I emphasise the words ‘semblance’ and ‘infrastructure’ because the place was governed by a dictator. Like I’ve said before, I’ve lived in a country under military dictatorship and it’s in no way pleasant. Dictatorship being bad, however, is it worth destroying an entire country just to get rid of its dictator?
Yes, Libya became a country where the prime minister was friendly enough to grant Christiane Amanpour an interview for CNN, but it’s also a whole lot more unsafe than when Gaddafi was there. In place of his single army of terror, there are now many militias who terrorise the citizenry. 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?
Olajide Jatto is a software engineer and writer based in Dublin.
