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The death of Gabon’s President Omar Bongo has passed the mantle of Africa’s longest serving leader to Libyan leader Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi. Born in 1942, Colonel Gaddafi seized power in a bloodless military coup in 1969, and has been the de facto leader of the North African country since then, overseeing the rapid development of his once impoverished country. He was the youngest child born into a peasant family, and was known to his friends as “al-jamil” or The Handsome at young age.
Now the chairman of the 53-state African Union, Gaddafi led a small group of military leaders on September 1, 1969, staging a coup d’état against King Idris I, while the King was in Vouria, a Greek resort, for medical treatment, eventually seizing control of Libya. Gadaffi, unlike other military revolutionaries did not promote himself to the rank of general upon seizing power. In his long stint as Libyan leader, Gadaffi has rubbed shoulders with the West, gained and given favours back. On 30 August 2008, Gaddafi and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi signed a historic cooperation treaty in Benghazi. Under its terms, Italy will pay $5 billion to Libya as compensation for its former military occupation. In exchange, Libya will take measures to combat illegal immigration coming from its shores and boost investments in Italian companies. Gaddafi has emerged as one of the most popular African leaders. Besides being the Chairman of AU, he has fronted for the formation of a United States of Africa and also emerges as one who enjoys a reputation among many Africans as an experienced and wise statesman who has been at the vanguard of many struggles over the years. He has also earned respect from some world leaders including the iconic Nelson Mandela, for transforming Libya into one of the most vibrant economies in the African continent. Previously known for little more than oil wells and deserts and regarded as an international outcast by the West, Libya improved relations with the West in 2003 when it gave up banned weapon programmes and again in 2008 when it agreed with the US to settle compensation claims for attacks including the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing. On August 29, 2008, Gaddafi held a public ceremony in Benghazi in which he was self-handed the title "King of Kings of Africa" with over 200 African traditional rulers and kings as part of a grassroots effort to encourage African heads of state and government to join with Gaddafi toward a greater political cohesion. The title of "King of Kings" was reiterated by Gaddafi at the 2009 Arab League Summit, at which he claimed to be the King of Kings, "leader of the Arab leaders" and "imam of the Muslims" in his criticism of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia prior to storming out of the summit. Now with the crown of Africa’s longest serving leader atop his head, Gaddafi is the head of development agenda in Africa and is keeping the world on tenterhooks as nobody knows who, if any, will succeed him as “King of Kings.” View Gallery
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