Congratulation Libya for toppling Gaddafi but this is a first step on a long and tough journey ahead!

The AU refused to recognise the new government emerging in Libya after the toppling of Gaddafi. That is hardly surprising; most African leaders own a debt of gratitude to the Libya dictator with who they have a lot in common and never cared about the long suffering Libyans masses.

Gaddafi was considered the "big boss man" in the AU who bankrolled many countries' fight for independence and the continued stay in power of many of the continent's leaders. The other two key players in Africa's fight for independence were China and Russia; two countries with no democratic values to talk about! So most African leaders have been made in the image of Gaddafi, Chinese and Russian leaders in which the interests of the leaders and their cronies are more important than the interests of the rest of the populous. For all they care, the rest of the people may just as well be slaves!

President Zuma and many of his fellow AU leaders are more concerned about Gaddafi than the millions of Libyans he has terrorised and deny hope and dignity all these 42 years! If the truth be told President Zuma is more concerned about Mugabe and his cronies than he is about the rest of Zimbabweans and about Malema and the other ANC leaders than about the rest of South Africans.

As much as we the people would like to believe than we can hold our leaders to account; that is the one thing we have failed to do. In Africa, as is the case in all other countries under totalitarian rule, it is the leaders who hold the people to account. It is the tail that wags the dog!

One had hoped that the post independence leaders would be more concerned about the public good than the self centred leaders before them. Alas that has not turned out to be the case. President Museveni of Uganda has turned out to be just as oppressive as the rest, for example. He was critical of African leaders’ blind support of Idi Amin whilst he fought to depose the dictator but courted their approval as soon as he became President. Then he was one of them in more than the immediate sense of being a fellow leader; he too discarded the democratic values, banned multi-party system for example, that he had been fighting for to consolidate his own hold on power.

After the AU’s rebuff of Libya’s National Transition Council; it would be good if the future leadership in Libya would break the Gaddafi mould and show they care about the suffering masses of Libya. If would be even better if they can play a key roll is fostering the same values on the rest of Africa’s leaders just as Gaddafi help foster the tyrannical streak.

On the other hand the new leadership in Tripoli may have welcome NATO and the West’s help in defeating Gaddafi. When the dust has finally settled the leaders will find themselves under increasing pressure from the people to deliver on the economic and political front. It is then that they will find the temptation to silence their critics and opponents by denying them democratic rights and freedoms irresistible. The leaders will not get any sympathetic hearing from the West; they will be forced to court AU for that.

Whether or not Tripoli’s new leaders “kiss and make up” with the likes of President Zuma, Mugabe and the rest of the AU leaders will confirm whether or not Libya has broken the African mould of totalitarian government and joined the league of free and democratic nations.

I am not a betting man but if I had to; I would put my money on Libya becoming just another failed African country ruled by corrupt, incompetent and self-serving leaders. There are two reasons why true democracy will never take root in the desert of Libya. First of all, Libyans have known anything else other than tyrannical rule and are therefore are likely to want nothing else. In the heat of the uprising against Gaddafi it is ease for everyone to talk of freedom, democracy, justice, etc. But when the dust of all the bombing and shooting has settled it will become clear that what each and everyone were fighting for was to replace Gaddafi’s dictatorial rule with one of their own. So whoever can muster enough support will emerge as the new dictator.

It is a common mistake to think that the demise of a tyrant like Gaddafi and a few of cronies is enough for a democratic system to grow and thrive. A well established dictatorship like that of Gaddafi will have spawned tyrants at every level of society; they are the weeds who will choke off the seed of democracy, they have an invested interest in maintaining the status quo.

The second reason why the uprising in Libya is not likely to deliver the free, democratic and prosperous nation Libyans had been hoping for is to do with the ordinary Libyans themselves, they are not worthy of such a government. It is one thing to have the right to vote but quite another to make that vote count by holding those holding public office accountable to the public. Whereas the Egyptian public have shown a continued interest in what they wanted to see happen following the toppling of that country’s dictator, for example; the Libyans have not shown the same passion. People get the government they deserve.

Congratulations to the people of Libya in taking the significant first step in building a free and democratic nation in toppling the tyrant Gaddafi. This is not the first time Libya has taken this tentative step only to be disappointed; one hopes that will not happen this time round.