A thorough catalogue of the historical circumstances that brought Hitler to power will probably fill a mini private library. But the gist of the story was the deplorable economic conditions the Germans found themselves. It is a simple fact; out of desperation a third of the German electorates vote for him. Even that was not enough it was through political machinations and backroom dealings that propelled him to absolute power. To suggest that our economic conditions currently is at par with what the Germans experienced between WWI and the rise of Hitler will be overreaching. On the other hand, there is no shred of a doubt that our economic situation is very bad. I am pretty certain that it is only a handful of people who will disagree with me. But I never knew it is in such complete shambles that people are scrambling for lifeboats, and others reaching for straws.

Desperate people turn to deploy desperate measures, which end up in total disaster. And this is exactly what The Emperor was asking us to do in his article posted at this website on 09/04/2012 entitled ‘Qaddafi — A Role Model For Ghana’s Future Leaders’, which was also dripping with pathos couched to stir our emotions. The Emperor is a writer who does not shy away from controversy, and I love his determination and granite character. But I couldn’t disagree with him more on the theme of the above mentioned article.

Obviously, I was not surprised when I read the piece, because the economic prospects in the country seems to be over our heads, and a lot of people are yearning for solutions that will only exchange their soul to the devil for a temporal reprieve. A drowning man will always cling unto a straw that doesn't even exist. The character I used in my introduction, Hitler, was a wonderful statesman initially to his countrymen through the help of his economist and banker/intellectual gangster henchman Dr. Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht. His achievement in a short space of time was so mesmerising. Even Churchill in 1938 wrote in London Times of November 7th that – “were England to suffer national disaster should pray to God to send a man of the strength of mind and will of an Adolf Hitler.” Eventually Churchill had to eat his words when he realised that Hitler was the worse monster to have come from the pits of hell. In the end he said, and permit me to paraphrase: if Hitler should invade hell he will manage to come to an accommodation with the devil to defeat him.

If you are looking for a Hitlerian type don’t look any further Gaddafi was a perfect specimen, and I can’t believe we are so desperate that we have to commit this national suicide of opting for such a leader. He would have turned the whole continent upside down; he just did not have the combination of resources and manpower. Even with the little he had he was a military menace to his neighbouring Egypt and Chad, besides his adventure in Tanzania. In addition to the pain in the neck that he was to his neighbours he was the tyrant of the tyrants. All opposition to his regime were crushed. Those who were able to escape were pursued in foreign dominions and assassinated. Not even Hitler could achieve that. Any Tom Dick and Harry will not miss the moon when given that kind of absolute power to turn any economy around. And I will remind The Emperor of Sun Tsu, the veritable Chinese sage, who said “If a leader is tyrannical, and in terror of his men is a sign of supreme incompetence.” Now let me touch on one single thing about this man that has captivated the minds irresponsible liberals all over the world – The Green Book. Anybody who takes his time to carefully read the Green Book will come out with no shred of a doubt that it’s an Utopian intellectual boyish nonsense, written by a megalomaniacal mind seeking attention. To think that you can run the world financial system on the basis of interest free baking is not only ignorant, but a ridiculous proposition bordering on insanity, and perhaps an enemy of humanity. Though, I wouldn’t suggest that there is nothing in that book which is good; so was Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

The Emperor asserted that he nationalised the oil industry in Libya and through that he made his country prosperous. On the other hand, I can assure him that Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar and many more are fabulously richer and they did not have to nationalise their oil companies. For my life nothing upsets my sensibilities like hypocrisy. He abrogated the constitutional laws of his country and adopted the Sharia, which I don’t object to so long as the people want it. However, to pick on one trivial thing, the Sharia is against the consumption of alcohol, nonetheless, when he was kicked out and the rebels ransacked his palaces those that his children occupied were full of alcoholic beverages. This is just like saying do as I say but not as I do – a bit of animal farm being played over again before our eyes. And to show also how a big liar he was, the so called adopted daughter he claimed was killed by U.S. bombing in 1986 is still alive and well and trained as a medical doctor. All this came to light after his fall. There is a truly genuine African leader that future Ghanaian politicians can live up to in the person of Mandela. He came to power with one mission on his mind: to heal his country and bring them together. And he accomplished that with impeccable skill rare in African leaders within a short space of time and retired gracefully. Though South Africa still faces a lot of problems, he came to do his part and left the stage peacefully. Now there are only a handful of people in South Africa, including the Boars who will genuinely hate Mandela. And I think this is the best legacy a leader can leave his people. After all running a country is not like swinging a magic wand around like many uninformed people think. What is now happening in Libya? The country is fracturing gradually. The bitterness of those who were at the receiving end of Gaddafi’s stick vis-à-vis those who benefited is making it very difficult to bring the country together. And it is a sorry situation for the Libyans. Is this what we want for our country? If so, then I don’t want to be part of it. It is George Santayana, the American philosopher, who said “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Philip Kobina Baidoo Jnr. London baidoo_philip@yahoo.co.uk