2014 to today: Has Gaddafi’s death helped Libya?

PUBLISHED DECEMBER 2, 2020

On the 20th of October 2011, the world was stunned by the news that the dictator of Libya has been killed. Muammar Gaddafi and his cohorts were caught hiding in drainage pipes after fleeing from attack. It was an end to a horrific reign of terror, but one may ask was that the end Gaddafi deserved?

He had led an autocratic Libya for 42 years and squashed any other political power while maintaining total dictatorship over the country and He allegedly funded international terrorism. Gaddafi was also known for killing many people he deemed were his enemies and labeling his own people “rats” and executing them and injuring a thousand others in the process.

Yet there are two simple questions to ask: Has Gaddafi’s death made Libya better? Is Libya happy now?

To answer these questions we need to go back exactly ten (10) years back to Libya during the peak of Gaddafi’s rule and compare it with present day Libya.

Gaddafi carried out the world’s largest irrigation project

By now you would have already known of how hot and dry some parts of Africa is, especially the parts that have Desert. Farming in those parts was a problem and a headache and access to potable water were much of an imagination. The Gaddafi system left on one of present-day man's structures of improvement: the Great Man-Made River Project to make water accessible to the entire nation. As is known, Libya is in a desert area and Gaddafi's arrangement to enable each resident of access was the Great Man-Made River Project.

Education and Healthcare was free and accessible

Under Gaddafi, education and medical services were free for all. A reaction to this case by Masareef Edareeya, a Libyan resident asserted the nature of education and wellbeing was horrifying yet that does nothing to the way that it was free. No framework is wonderful except for most are flawed and still costly. Gaddafi ensured his framework was financed and even Mercy Corps verified the reality in its Beyond Gaddafi: Libya's Governance Context. That is more than the supposed pioneers" can say for their nations.

Newlyweds received $50,000 from the government

Gaddafi's legislature had a law accommodating a monetary award to newly-weds to purchase their first apartment to help start a family. Cases are that the process was repetitive and regulatory to the degree that relatively few individuals tried to finish it yet the $50,000 was there if one finished. Again Mercy Corps affirmed Gaddafi gave lodging to newly-weds. Reprimanding the award on grounds of repetitive cycles is an ill-motioned attack at assaulting what Gaddafi represented.

Libya had no external debt and had reserves of $150 billion most of which were frozen globally

Libya was indeed a booming economic center under the rule of Gaddafi.to put this in the appropriate perspective, the self-acclaimed capital of democracy and capitalism had a debt of 18 trillion USD, Libya had NONE. This goes to prove beyond any iota of doubt that Gaddafi even though portrayed to be a murderer and dictator, had a love for his own country and did all he could to keep them out of debt.

With these strong and irrefutable points, let's see what is the situation of current-day Libya.

Libya is in Chaos

Today’s day Libya is simply sorrowful. Multiple tribes who were once united under the “Dictator” now struggle for power and influence and authority over the nations already dwindling-oil. Three different parties are in a perpetual power struggle. ISIS has taken control of Sirte- Gaddafi’s hometown.

When he was in power, Gaddafi did his best to give monumental facelifts to some cities in the country and when he fell from power, ISIS saw the time as a ripe opportunity to exploit the towns and expand their barbaric empire. It’s noteworthy that al-Qaeda tried to do the same thing while Gaddafi was in control but could not succeed.

Libya’s Black Gold

Libya's definitive salvation lies in its oil. This could finance the revamping of the nation and spread the riches sufficiently wide with the goal that enough contending groups can meet up to force a harmony. Lately, oil yield has multiplied from 250,000 barrels for every day to 500,000 thousand far shy of the Gaddafi-time creation levels of more than 1 million barrels. The boost in oil sales came off the back of military action by the defense chief of the former internationally recognized government, General Khalifa Haftar. He assumed responsibility for key oil offices in the east. Toward the West's amazement, Libya's National Oil Corporation boss positioned in Tripoli permitted Haftar and his partners to sell the oil. The move makes a joke of the UN-sponsored GNA's capacity to lead the nation, put it under their influence and own the oil. Haftar had wouldn't back the GNA and in this improvement has outsmarted them and set further question marks against their authenticity. The action by the GNA to give control of the nation's oil back into the hands of these people just proves how hopeless it will be to think Libya’s oil might save them someday.

Power Struggle

If there is one thing that divides Africa apart more than anything it’s the mad hunger for power by some of its citizens. This has woefully become the case in Libya. As a result of the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, several groups have been in a perpetual struggle for rule over the once peaceful country. Three political powers, hundreds of groups, and multiple tribes are still in a struggle for control. This has resulted in tribal wars that led to the loss of life and destruction.

Recently in March, The UN hastened to form GNA (General National Congress). A government that would see to it that peace is restored in the country and the struggling factions are brought together. But since its formation and since its leadership arrived by boat in Tripoli, it has since struggled to be relevant and has brought no change in the current state of things.

The two questions asked at the beginning of the article can then only be answered by the reader. Has Gaddafi’s death made Libya later? Is Libya Happy now?

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