Libya Friend Or Foe?
Strange mutterings by Flt-Lt Rawlings about Libya have left all baffled about the state of Ghana-Libya relations.Something very strange obviously happened to Flight-Lieutenant J.J. Rawlings, the Ghanaian leader, on the road to Abidjan, on his recent visit to the Ivory Coast.
If reports by an Ivorian newspaper quoted by Reuters news agency are to be believed, then something approach- ing the miracle that occurred on the road to Damascus when Saul became Paul also happened to Flt-Lt Rawlings.
Of all the various speeches that he is supposed to have made during his recent attempts at a rapprochement with the Ivory Coast all border on the weird, to put it very mildly.
He discovered in the Ivory Coast that Africans speak foreign languages to be able to communicate with each other, the Ivorians can't understand Ghanaians and vice versa, but then the people of Keta in the Volta region of Ghana can easily understand the language spoken by the people of Axim in the Western region.
So enthusiastic was the welcome he is reported to have got when he arrived in the Ivory Coast that it is quite understandable that he lost his bearings totally while speaking. He told the Ivorians about the shame of spending their "hard-earned foreign exchange on importing water from France".
Seeing that the Provisional National Defence Council of Ghana is of the opinion that until their arrival on the Ghana political scene, nobody had ever had any brains, it is not surprising that they are beginning to think that their exclusive possession of brains spreads outside Ghana and they have to export it to other countries.
INTERFERENCE
For a group that has been so touchy about outside interference in their affairs, it did not seem strange to them that they should be telling another country what to do with their money, that by their own admissions, the Ivorians had earned through their own sweat.Such speeches, strange though they might be, still fall in with the erratic style of the PNDC leader and what he sees as his role of a latter-day Messiah for Ghana and Africa.
The part that does not fall in line and which sounds more like the Saul-Paul conversion is his quoted criticism of Colonel Muamar Gaddafy of Libya without mentioning his name.
According to the Ivorian newspaper, Flt-Lt Rawlings spoke of his displeasure about "some of our Arab brothers who sell their oil to us at very high prices without regard to our circumstances and our special relations with them".
The same unnamed Arab nation was also accused by Flt-Lt Rawlings according to this same report, of using their wealth in destabilising other nations!
Nobody was supposed to have been left in any doubts at all in Ivory Coast that the nation and leader of Flt-Lt Rawlings' criticism was Libya and Col Gadaffy and the surprise in diplomatic circles was said to be total.
PROMISES
One year ago, even lesser and calmer words of condemnation of Libya by any Ghanaian was likely to bring the wrath of the PNDC and its leaders on the unfortunate person's head. In fact, the biggest crime committed by ex-President Hilla Limann, in the eyes of Flt-Lt Rawlings two years ago, was that he openly criticised Libya of trying to destabilise Ghana and the fact that other African countries had made the same criticism rather made Limann's crime even graver.Is it possible that Col Gaddafy is now so displeased with his protege whom he helped install in power that he is actually trying to destabilise him? If anybody should know about the capability of Col Gaddafy at destabilising other nations, Flt-Lt Rawlings is that person and if he in fact did say this, then it has to be taken seriously indeed, for it might very well mean that the danger to the PNDC will come not from the areas they have been looking, but from their old friend, Libya.
As for Libya selling oil at high prices to countries without any regard to special relationships, any schoolboy could have told Flt-Lt Rawlings that right from the start, plus the fact that Col Gaddafy has never been known to deliver on any of his promises of help to any nation. Even the dearest cause to his heart - the liberation of Palestine, every time the crunch has been on and there has been a shooting war between Israel and her neighbours, Col Gadaffy has never sent one soldier nor one plane to fight.
It will be interesting to see whether Flt-Lt Rawlings will repudiate what has been attributed to him or if we are to take this as the official parting of ways between Flt-Lt Rawlings and his mentor; in which case, will apologies be forthcoming or will it be enough to be told Libya is the new enemy?
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