Date Published: 03/18/10

Gaddafi has the right to offend me By Nwosu Chukwuemeka O.

By now many of those with their ears to the ground will have heard this song: Divide Nigeria in two, according to religious lines. This statement was Mr Gaddafi’s recent unsolicited solution to conflicts in Nigeria.

I am offended. Nigerians are offended. It is hate speech. It cedes valuable ground to fundamentalists. Be reminded that under the U.N. Charter no member country should threaten the existence of another.

And now Mr Gaddafi? We are happy that you have spoken, you want Nigeria to be divided along religious lines. Your politics is based on pitting one religion against other. But the good people of my country know better, they do not take you serious. Nobody does nowadays. Rather, my country people want you to tell what actually happened to Pan Am flight 103.

Your name and drivel drive sane people mad. Just this morning, my assistant, Kelly, wanted to know if you are Gadhafi? or Qaddafi? or Kadaffi? or Khaddafi? or el-Qaddafi? or Gaddafi? You should have had the decency to provide us with names for the new countries you desire to be created out of Nigeria. You may even recommend three, because Muslim extremists (Boko Harams), do kill other Muslims as well.

Sure, your re-emergence in the internal affairs of my Nigeria will knowing generate mixed response; some of my fellow citizens, especially in the Niger Delta, will ostensibly court your suggestion. In all, your ‘green’ cannot overwhelm our ‘green white green’.

Well, it’s damned good thing that as a Libyan, you have the right to offend us. International law has ensured that you can say and pass any judgment on any other state from your Tripoli. It is your fundamental sovereignty and freedom that you are exercising. The law of freedom has given you the right to speak your mind. Seriously, it’s been quite a while since we heard your voice. Waiting for Libya to fix Nigeria’s problems, is like waiting for Yemen to fix US roads.

I recall, the last time you were in Nigeria, that was in November 2006, you appeared with more than 200 heavily armed Libyan bodyguards. The size of your delegation was not a problem, we said, – just the sheer amount of weapons and ammunition your beautiful girls carried.

When the airport security maintained that you can only go into town with a maximum of eight pistols if you wanted to enter Nigeria like any other diplomat, you took offense and threatened to fly back home. You angrily set off on foot, intending to walk the 40km distance from the airport to Abuja city. But somehow, you paused and pondered, you capitulated, you retraced you step and obeyed the instructions to go with eight pistols.

That incident makes me want to ask you today: Was it Nigeria you came to divide?

In your controversial first appearance before the UN General Assembly on September 23, 2009, you attacked every United Nations programme, tossing the UN charter to the ground and demanding reform that would give the General Assembly sole authority.

Was it not you who asked the 192-nation General Assembly to adopt a resolution stripping the Security Council of its authority to maintain peace and security around the world and for making all binding UN decisions?

Last year, you called for Switzerland to be abolished and its land and eight million people be divided under linguistic lines between Italy, Germany and France – because the Arabian mafia see Switzerland as world mafia.

What came out of all these?

I know Colonel is on a terrible path. At 70, Colonel should be more interested in issues that unite, rather than divide nations. You should stop casting stones. It is high time you abandoned your weapon of mass destruction. You speak freely but you prevent Libyans from speaking freely. Freedom of speech, press, assembly, association, and religion should be promoted in your country. Your neighbours know you better; from the perspective of your fellow Arab leaders, you are too quixotic and unpredictable to be taken seriously.

Even as head of the African Union, Colonel was without credibility. We shall not get befooled by the odd man and his ideas. Nigeria is not perfect. Libya is not perfect. No country is. We have had our high points and our low points. But there is one thing I know for sure, we will defend our unity to our dying days because we are proud to be Nigerians and nobody will ever make us feel otherwise.

Chukwuemeka Nwosu is Editor, Haaba Communications Limited, Lagos. www.haaba.com