The Legon Centre for International Affairs and Diplomacy (LECIAD) has held it second public lecture for the 2016/17 Academic year. The lecture was delivered by Professor Horace Campbell from Syracuse University and the current occupant of the Kwame Nkrumah Chair of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana. As a prolific author and a student of PanAfricanism, he is researched, written and lectured on Africa's emancipation and the need for the continent to chart its' developmental route. Some of his well-known publications include “Rasta and Resistance: From Marcus Garvey to Walter Rodney and “Barack Obama and 21st Century Politics: A Revolutionary Moment in the USA. Professor Campbell delivered his lecture on the topic “NATO and the Destruction of Libya: Reviewing so called Humanitarian Intervention (R2P)”. He opined that the 2011 Libya Campaign was far from demonstrating NATO’s abiding strength, rather exposed its manifold, and growing weaknesses. Expanding on his thesis, Campbell noted that the NATO-led destruction of Libya was predicated on falsehood and not on “humanitarian grounds to protect innocent civilians’. To support his claims, Campbell cited statements from the US president and the British Parliamentary Committee of the House of Commons among others. According to President Obama, the decision to militarily intervene in Libya was the worst mistake of his Presidency. The British have lamented the waste and suffering in Libya stating that: intervention was political which has resulted in economic collapse, inter-militia and inter-tribal warfare, humanitarian and migrant crises, widespread human rights violations. He postulated that NATO's involvement was for geopolitical interest and not humanitarian reasons thus the motive from the onset was regime change which included the killing of Gaddafi. He recalled how immediately after the "murder" of Gaddafi; NATO bombings ended and Western media portrayal of NATO’s intervention as an unmitigated success. However, the evidence from Libya indicates that the involvement of NATO leaders in the war churned out death, refugees and extremists contrary to their ‘Responsibility to Protect’. He, therefore, denounced the limited debate in Africa on the ongoing farce in Libya and charged African Academics and institutions to get involved in this discussion because the faulty data from NATO funded institutions were used as justification for their involvement which eventually overrode the African Union's position on the Libyan crisis. In conclusion, he called on the AU to seize the opportunity to reintroduce and demand the implementation of its original roadmap towards rebuilding Libya. The Chairperson for the occasion was the director of LECIAD, Professor Henrietta Mensa- Bonsu. Notable dignitaries present were the Namibian High Commissioner to Ghana, the Tunisian Ambassador to Ghana, Former Director of LECIAD, Professor Kwame Boafo-Arthur, Staff and officers from the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (GAFCSC), Representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, and Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre.
LEGON CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS AND DIPLOMACY.
