By Shelly Nambozo

24^th Oct 2011: The killing and ultimate humiliation [even in death] of the hitherto all powerful former leader of Libya Col. Muammar Gaddafi shores up at least 10 great lessons for African despots in my mind.    

1. Revolutionary leaders don’t leave power – but they are kicked out of power and yes they expire like canned food.
2. Great revolutionary leaders don’t really fight till the end. They are cowards who love life like most human beings. The great leader was attempting to escape when his convoy was bombed!
3. One day you could be ‘Ssabalwanyi’ and the next day dragged around your home town by a mob, like a chicken thief.
4. Gaddafi described himself as a fighter from the dessert. In other parts of the world, they describe themselves as “Generals who fought in the bush”. But they’re out of touch with the people. That’s why the Colonel asked one of his tormentors “what really did I do to you?”
5. All the earthly wealth you acquire illegimately for your clan could all go up in smoke. I wonder how the revolutionary leader and his family felt seeing “revolutionary fighters” swimming in his pool or lying on his bed. Or destroying his many palaces?
6. Involving your family, particularly your sons, in your pursuit of power is a very selfish move.  They cease to be individuals and are forever associated with your evil. Like the Gaddafi clan, your entire clan could be annihilated.
7. Even the small unarmed “coachroaches or rats” – OR indeed “matatu players and fleas” have a future
8. Gaddafi described them as “alqaeda”. In other parts of the world, they are described as “treason suspects”. The people of Libya – the majority without military training, took up their arms and fought hard because their peaceful protests had failed. They had to fight to live or die. There was no turning back.  “Treason suspects” could one day fight to survive.
9. You could one day plead for mercy from the people you once dismissed as “The dregs of society, the stone and rock hurlers, the great unwashed of the slums”
10. Even if it is “unAfrican”, people do celebrate the death of dictators!  END.  Please login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.

shelly.nambozo@gmail.com