In 1951, Libya became a unified independent country within its current borders. Initially, it started as a federal monarchy made up of three distinct regions; Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and Fezzan, each with its own regional government and legislative body alongside a main central government and parliament.

Libya was a federal monarchy made up of three distinct regions:Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and Fezzan  [Getty Images]

However, in 1963 the federal system was abolished giving way to a totally unified country with central political and sovereign institutions.

For almost 42 years, power and wealth were under the control of one absolute dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, and after his demise in 2011, it became a real challenge to adopt a new discourse based on free elections and power-sharing.

The past five years, however, have offered Libyans many challenges as well as opportunities. While this period provided an opportunity to rebuild a new unified state based on a democratic discourse encompassing transparent institutions and rule of law, it, nonetheless, put the whole notion of a Libyan united state under strain. The threat of disintegrationbecame real.

Local actors have been justifying their conflicts under banners of fighting 'terrorism' or standing up to a 'counter revolutionary forces' [Getty Images]

Lack of political consensus among the various political actors, and their inability to resolve regional differences through peaceful national dialogue, resulted in two parallel civil wars raging in the east and west of Libya.

The civil war has been fuelled by detrimental foreign intervention, while the local actors have been justifying their conflicts under banners of fighting "terrorism" or standing up to a "counterrevolutionary forces".

However, the reality of the conflict in Libya is that it is a scramble for power and wealth, ignited by the inability to craft a new social contract determining a fair sharing of power.

The most serious manifestation of Libya's disintegration over the past two years has been the emergence of two separate conflicting parliaments and governments, one operating in the east and one in the west.

Consequently, attempts were made to split the three most important sovereign economic institutions; the Central Bank, the National Oil Corporation (NOC) and the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), by having two functioning central banks, National Oil Corporations and the Libyan Investment Authorities.

The two LIAs even went to the extent of filing court proceedings in London against each other over who is entitled to manage some $67bn of frozen LIA assets internationally.

The disintegration also ran across security institutions. Since the conflict began in 2014, there have been effectively two parallel army, police and security structures, leading many Libyans to believe that the country was in danger of splitting into two.

The lack of real political change on the ground, the feeling of marginalisation among certain groups and regions, and a weak central authority are factors that reinforced this conviction. As a result, demands to return to a federal political system of government became vocal.

A small minority went even further, demanding a separation of the east of Libya, and the right to self-determination, risking the total fragmentation of the country.

The GNA's main executive policies must focus on three main aspects which are security, socio-economic conditions and institution building  [Reuters]

It is against this background of anarchy and fragmentation that the United Nations initiated a national dialogue back in September 2014. This resulted in a new Presidency Council, led by Fayez Sarraj, and the pending Government of National Accord (GNA) provides one of the last hopes of keeping the country united.

The GNA is an outcome of a broad national political dialogue that produced an agreement based on compromise and consensus between the main opposing political and military groups that divided Libya.

This agreement transferred most of the political powers to the new GNA's Presidency Council that has a clear mandate to reunite the country, steer it out of conflict and back on track to complete the post-revolution transitional period.