Ghaddafi talks tough as he leaves office

By Linet Awuor in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Libyan leader Muammar Ghaddafi has urged African nations to unite before they are exposed to second colonisers.

The outgoing AU chairman and self-declared Africa’s king of kings, while inviting his successor Bingu wa Mutharaki, said it was high time Africa united and fought forces against it as a bloc.

"There are three powers whose names I will not mention, but hey are competing for Africa either economically by exploiting our resources or even using our militarily. Any vacuum in Africa will be beneficial to them," Ghaddafi warned.

He said the pledges given by foreign countries added up to $10 billion and they somehow needed something in return. Yet Libya alone had invested half of that around Africa.

"We are a very rich continent. We have huge potential. We have human resources. But the challenges are also there, and they are huge and tremendous. We have to be together, otherwise we will be colonised again," said Ghaddafi.

Gaddafi had, in his remark before stepping down, called for a strong and established new mechanism for African Union that will build the United States of Africa militarily, economically, socially and culturally.

And to allay fears of splitting the AU following speculation that he, supported by Tunisia and some countries in Central Africa, wanted his term extended, Ghaddafi said had he known that was the way the AU administration would operate, he would have declined taking up the position.

Ghaddafi said his country would host the Afro-Arab Summit in March in which Libya will be in the leadership for one year.

He said the Arab-African Summit would be held at the end of the year and there was likely to be the African European Summit at the same time, which would be too much responsibility for him.

Ghaddafi expressed displeasure at how administrative matters were run at the AU, saying the AU Commission needed to change its prerogatives.

"I was in these meetings, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, President Jose Eduardo dos Santos of Angola, and Ping were there. A number of observers and journalists asked me who represented the AU there and I did not know what to tell them. I couldn’t say who spoke for the AU and this is what is happening in other international fora like the UN," Ghaddafi said.

"My moral responsibility as the king of traditional kings of Africa and dean of African and Arab leaders remains because as a soldier of Africa, I do not have to be an AU chairman to serve Africans," he said.