By Seble Teweldebirhan

Addis Ababa, October 25, 2011 (Ezega.com) - For Ethiopians, Libya’s former leader Muammar Gaddafi is no stranger. For more than four decades that he stayed on power, we had the opportunity to witness him come and go with his extravagant security details that crowd the traffic in Addis Ababa. Gaddafi was one of the few leaders of the world who have had an opportunity to witness Ethiopia go through several regimes while still in power: from imperialist to socialist to the current one.

Especially for the residents of Addis, Gaddafi was a regular. As the capital of Africa and the home of African Union, Addis was visited by Gaddafi’s every now and then. He being in town is not the same as other leaders visiting. Gaddafi made big headlines whenever he visited our capital. Since he traveled with a whole army of people, whenever Gaddafi was on the road in Addis, the traffic at times was unbearable.  AU staff used to complain now and then for the crowd he created whenever he was in the compounds of AU headquarters.

In addition to all of that, Gaddafi never fails to leave stories behind whenever he was in Addis. In the last AU Summit hosted in Addis, he made headlines for his attempt to recruit Ethiopian women for flight attendant positions for Libyan Airways. It is not only that he intended to recruit Ethiopian women that made the headline, but also the method he chose to hand-pick the women, which was interpreted in several stories by different newspapers.

Gaddafi also surprised us several times with his comments on the issue of establishing the United States of Africa under the same governing body. As the self-claimed king of African traditional kings, Gaddafi for the last couple of years was committed to uniting the diverse continent under one regime. Whether his intention was to become the leader of the United States of Africa or he had a genuine plan to see Africa become strong and capable of defending itself from the western influence is something we may never know. However, no matter how ambitious and crazy he may sound, Gaddafi was actually someone who presented himself as a proud African.

To the military regime Derg (1974-1991), Gaddafi was a close ally for the most part. He actually had a personal relationship with Mengustu Hailemariam. In Genet Ayaele’s book “Ymengustu Hailemariam Tiztawoch, Kutere Hulet” or “The Memories of Mengustu Hailemariam, Volume Two”, the author asked Mengustu about his opinion of Gaddafi. This was how he answered.

“Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi, or as we use to call him back then Brother Gaddafi is a crazy man. He is never calm. His decisions are often inconsistent. His relationship with us was not good at first since he was helping the rebels. However, after a long diplomatic effort, we managed to make him understand our side of the story and he came onboard. As I said before he is a very emotional person. At some point, he was working to unite the Arab world and establish a powerful Islamic government. His plan was to unite Sudan and Egypt with Libya but he ended up fighting with both of them. He even wanted Ethiopia to join his war. That is why I say he is crazy.”

Mengustu, in his remark about Gaddafi, he sounds that he never took the Libyan leader seriously. He mentioned the man was crazy several times and he even expresses his belief that he might be a racist who hates white people. However, this does not seem to affect the relationship between them. Mengustu mentioned he visited Tripoli and witnessed the glamorous life of Gaddafi. Considering that he was talking about his surveillance two decades back, the Ethiopian former military leader who hardly observed what the people around him were doing to his country, did notice Gaddafi was bad news to the Libyan people.

After the military regime, the Libyan leader continued his on and off relationship with the Ethiopian government. He held the opinion that Ethiopia and the capital Addis Ababa was not good enough to host AU’s headquarters and he continued his effort to move the headquarters to Libya. This annoyed the Ethiopian people and the government. When he become the chairman of AU, many in Ethiopia worried that he might use his power to continue lobbying to move AU’s headquarters from Addis Ababa to Libya.

During the Ethio-Eritrea war, Gaddafi was one of the leaders who tried to end the conflict by negotiations. After some support to Eritrea, concerned with conflicts in the Horn of Africa, Gaddafi had Meles Zenawi in Tripoli for discussions and held several talks with Eritrean president Esayas Afewerki. At some point, he even announced that the two leaders accepted his proposal to end their conflict peacefully.

The relationship between Gaddafi and Addis Ababa took another level when U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, urged African leaders to abandon him and embrace democratic reforms in her last July visit to Addis. In a very place that he showed repeatedly his extravagant excessive luxury life style with house full of bodyguards and Limos, Hillary Clinton announced the stand taken by the US inviting African states, many with long-standing diplomatic and financial ties to the oil-rich Libyan leader, to join the international coalition demanding his exit as the condition for a ceasefire. She also urged them to close pro-Gaddafi Libyan embassies, expel his diplomats and build ties with the Benghazi-based rebel National Transitional Council. However, despite her blunt speech, the AU chose to stick to Gaddafi until the last minute.

Not many leaders, elected or otherwise, go into war to extend 42-year old rule. But Gaddafi is like no other. He really believed he is the only one entitled to such post. In the end, Gaddafi lost his eight-month battle against the revolutionaries who have been supported by NATO. The man who vowed to fight until the last minute and never to leave his country actually kept his word and died in the hands of the very people whom he called rats.

With all the corruption, abuse of power, killings, disappearances and many other human rights violations he caused to his country and his people, the end of Gaddafi’s life is somehow heartbreaking. When he died and was dragged on the streets of Sirte by the angry rebels, here in Addis Ababa, people reacted differently. Although many held the opinion that he probably deserved whatever treatment he got, there are people who argue that the revolutionaries were carried away into excess and diminished not only their value, but also the continent's value in general. A man who led his country for that long and led African union as chair should not be treated that way they claim. The reason is not that Gaddafi did things to deserve any better. The fact is the message sent was a message of revenge - a message that plagued the continent for centuries.

For the most part, Africans do not like their leaders - far from it. For decades, high percentage of African leaders caused nothing but pain and misery to their people. Their sins are many: seizing power by coup, ruling for decades with guns, extending term limits by whatever means necessary, disdain for rule of law, complete disregard for civil liberty, corruption and theft, incompetence, arbitrary arrests and torture. However, when there is a chance to teach the next generation the rule of law, justice and forgiveness, killing them in front of a camera and dragging their body around in the most inhuman way possible will never do the trick. An eye for eye only ends up blinding everyone.

For Ethiopians and the residents of Addis Ababa, after almost 42 years of regular visit, it will probably feel weird not to have Gaddafi in Addis Aabab for the next AU summit. No one will argue that this is a bad thing. Nevertheles, it will look strange when the next Libyan leader actually come to visit us with normal security details and bodyguards who are not women.

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Seble Teweldebirhan is Addis Ababa based Reporter for Ezega.com. She can be reached by sending email through this form.