AFRICA: Why Libyans are not fleeing to Europe

WHY LIBYANS ARE NOT FLEEING TO EUROPE

For some years now, there is a systematic exodus of African migrants across the treacherous Sahara desert and the Mediaterrranian sea on their way to Europe. Though those African migrants claim to be refugees seeking safety in Europe, the truth is that they are economic immigrants escaping imposed poverty and seeking a better life in Europe.

Whatever the case, those Africans have a right to seek safety whether from political persecution or deliberate economic deprivation. Interestingly, these migrants are not from those north African countries of Tunisia, Libya or Egypt that experienced the Arab Spring. Instead they are from territories located deep inside the African continent; West Africa, Central, Sudan and Horn of Africa. These migrants are vulnerable to the evils of human traffickers, harsh and hostile weather conditions and natural calamities at sea but they are not about to give up.

While Europe is humanely struggling to find a lasting solution to the calamity, African governments are dead silent. They are only priding themselves during national budgets by revealing the figures of remittances from their respective citizens who reside in Europe and North America without bothering to know how and why those people ended up there. They have instead coined a special name for them, Diasporas.

Elsewhere, economic migrants from East Africa, the Great Lakes region, and some countries from Southern Africa are crossing crocodile infested rivers, trekking mountains, lakes, and other illegal border crossings in an attempt to reach South Africa in search of a better life. Their governments are silent over the calamity but only hypocritically boast about how they liberated South Africa from apartheid. Actually, for a number of these countries, their governments are far worse than the so called white South Africa's apartheid.

These African leaders are quick to blackmail their citizens by repeatedly citing Libya as an example of how external interference can cause trouble. They blame "foreign inteference" and NATO in particular for the post-Gaddafi chaos in Libya. Whatever the consequence, NATO helped oppressed Libyans to get rid of the Gaddafi menace. The fact that despite their proximity to the Mediaterrranian Sea, Libyans are not among the Africans who are craving to reach Europe, is enough testimony that Libyans are not worse off than most African countries. The so-called post Gaddafi turmoil in Libya is not a consequence of NATO intervention but a direct result of Gaddafi's four decades of entrenched military dictatorship. NATO and the west only helped to rescue Libyans from the Gaddafi bondage.

Therefore, all African individuals and groups who are struggling to free themselves from entrenched dictatorships should not shy away from seeking help from the west and elsewhere. Libya is better off now than it was under Gaddafi. That freedom to decide on governance and to express dissent including fighting is what Gaddafi had denied Libyans for decades.

INFORMATION IS POWER AND THE PRIBLEM OF UGANDA IS MUSEVENISM