Former French president is in hot soup currently after it came to light that he received dirty dosh at the tune of €50 million from Libyan strongman, the late Muamar Gadaffi (Telegram July 2, 2014). In proving that Sarkozy actually received the monies, a lawyer for former Libyan prime minister Baghdadi Ali Al-Mahmoudi, Mehdi Bouaouaja was quoted by the Telegraph (March 21, 2018) as saying that “Sarkozy thanked Libyan authorities many times - officials of course, Gaddafi and his close entourage - for the funding.” Such admission shows how the mask has fallen from Mr. Sarkozy? Again, how many European current and former leaders received such legs up from the rulers of paupers and mercilessly got satisfied with it?
When Gadaffi dished out some moola to Sarkozy to finance his presidential campaigns, he wrongly thought he was mending fences for himself and his country. What a fatal mistake! After making away with Gadaffi’s millions of dollars, Sarkozy went ahead to become instrumental in the toppling and demise of his financier.
Another person who duped Gadaffi to end up being toppled and summarily butchered is none other than former Prime Minister Tony Blair who once cheated Gadaffi so as to cough a cool over $1.5bn (£1bn) to compensate the relatives of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing in which a Pan Am flight 103 was brought down killing overall 243 passengers and 16 crew in what became known as the Lockerbie bombing in 1998. Up till now, nobody knows exactly the truth about this tragedy. The Telegraph (Jan., 24, 2015) published a letter in which it quoted Blair thanking Gadaffi noting “the excellent co-operation of your officials with their British colleagues - is a tribute to the strength of the bilateral relationship which has grown up between the United Kingdom and Libya.”
The two scenarios above nicely show how full-on hypocritical and double-faced some friends can be. Again, was Gadaffi the only African potentate to finance France elections? Former Gabonese strongman, Omar Bongo is said to have been a chief financier of many French presidents. The Guardian (30 December, 2010) citing the US embassy in Yaounde in 2009, notes that “Gabonese officials used the proceeds for their own enrichment and, at Bongo’s direction, funneled funds to French political parties, including in support of French President Nicolas Sarkozy” while his people were pauperised and dying of poverty as he served the interests of France. Others implicated in this sabotage for Africa are former presidents Abdulaye Wade (Senegal); Blaise Compaore (Burkina Faso); Laurent Gbagbo (Ivory Coast); and the incumbent president of Congo Denis Sassou Nguesso who used to send briefcases full of money to Chirac. I wonder why Chirac hasn’t yet been brought to book or scrutiny. One may wonder why African thieves-in-chief were able to commit such sacrilegious things without being made accountable for their sins. The simple explanation is that African presidency is the most corrupt and colonised institution that is more powerful than all institutions and systems put together. Practically, almost all African presidents are above the laws of their countries minus a few countries with progressive constitutions such as Ghana, Kenya and South Africa. Therefore, they are legally allowed to do whatever they want with the presidency and the resources of their countries.
When the late Dr. Walter Rodney wrote his masterpiece, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, such situations where the provocateurs that forced him to pen down this bigger than life corpus that seems to have been forgotten recently. However, Sarkozy betrayal of Gadaffi needs to be an eye opener for African dictators who buy their power from their former colonial masters in order to internal colonise their countries and abuse them they deem fit. African stooges may buy their time in office by obtaining support from their johns abroad; the fact of the matter is there is an end to everything under the Sun. The way Sarkozy received the hush-hush money from Gadaffi shows how one can take your money and get rid of you in order to cover his tracks. Who wants his dirty linens on the agora for every eye to see? How many African rulers cheaply and myopically allowed the west to use them as its stooges who paid dearly?
True to form, major lessons we get in Sarkozy quandary is that corruption doesn’t pay. So, too, we learn that African rulers must invest in good governance and rule of law and on their people instead of robbing them and spend the loots in buying pseudo protection. How can such criminal protect them while they can’t protect themselves? Think twice venal African rulers.
Source: Citizen, March 11, 2018.
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