The Libyan leader’s spectacle at the United Nation is not Africa’s proudest moment on the world stage.

If Africa has anything going for it anywhere up and down the continent, there wouldn’t have been a concern. Just like Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad before him, Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya provided the proof that every continent in this world has its own mad men.

Qaddafi’s show was a reminder of an African era long forgotten by the world. That was when the likes of Idi Amin Dada, Emperor Bokassa were calling the shots in Africa.

Things have changed. Though not by far. The African leaders of today still make mockery of themselves but just at the local arena. They still call themselves Kings of Kings, Emperors of the Sea, and other appellations that manifest an exaggerated sense of importance. What no African leader has done in recent time is to call himself the Conqueror of the British Empire or the Neutralizer of the Western Imperialists.

Why they have not done that of late is that the poor and impoverished people of Africa can now differentiate between bull shit and bull droppings. Thanks to the internet and satellite TV, the wonders of the world are no longer thousands of miles away. Those African leaders who are in the habit of saying that the wonders of the world do not exist are now denied any credibility. Those who love to pump their ego with propaganda are now expected to do more than fell a tree with their mouths.

In a way, it is proper that Qaddafi is the last of such leaders. He has presided over an oil rich country of 3 million people for 40 years. During that period, he has used the resources of the country to terrorize his neighbors, his continent and the world. Meanwhile, a man like Qaddafi will not have lasted five years in a country like Nigeria.

After several mutations and transformations, Qaddafi is currently wearing the cap of an African leader. Beyond being the president of the African Union, in his current reincarnation he has been in the forefront of those championing the establishment of a single African state.

Foolery has no end! Qaddafi cannot organize his neighbors but wants to run the African state. He loves to poke his fingers into the eyes of his perceived enemies. Unfortunately for him, the same enemies of his do his pedicure, build his couch, and produce his TV, his refrigerator and his planes.

Tearing the UN foolery is a great drama. Reminding Europe they were the ones who kicked the Jews out of Palestine was a quaint reminiscence. Call for President Obama to be president for life is buffoonery. For a man who just came out international rogues’ cage, one would have expected some humility. But buffoons know no such thing.

My hope is that Qaddafi’s foolery should not be the beginning of a new era of African stupidity on world stage but rather a proper end to it.

Like other African dictators before him, Qaddafi will get the same epitaph that an Australian newspaper wrote following the death of Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin Dada, the Last king of Scotland.

In the editorial, The Sydney Morning Herald wrote that “Amin’s tragedy, like that of so many Africans, was to have admired a civilization whose external trappings he strongly desired, but of whose internal workings he had no idea, while at the same time he was partly enclosed in the mental world of a primitive tribalist… he was a product of multiculturalism, African style, and able to use relatively advanced methods to achieve brutal, primitive end. Like every African dictator, he was confusion’s masterpiece.”