“Gabon and Cameroon have perennial presidents. We have known these countries with just one president since our childhood − Omar Bongo and Paul Biya. They are like Baba the Permanent Pre-novice.” The man who described himself as a “permanent pre-novice” used to worship with The Redemptorists when they were neighbours in Bodija, Ibadan. Contentions such as the thought in quotes appear to be about to change forever. It had not been Omar Bongo in Gabon since 2009 and, from henceforth, it may not be Bongo at all in that country anymore.
Gabon has just entered into the boat of coupist countries, and not even the blank-looking soldiers, who chased Ali Bongo away from his presidential throne, know where they are sailing to. They do not know the waters ahead of them and they do not seem to have the requisite navigational tools. For now, and from what the eyes can see, those Gabonese soldiers who seized power simply look confused. They are not sailing, they are in the boat riding the waves.
Most people in their late forties and early fifties will remember Omar Bongo and Paul Biya. They were permanent features on Organisation of African Unity (OAU) almanacs back in the day. The two men were among the African presidents you could name easily in Social Studies junior class examinations because they were as constant as the Northern Star. They were always in the news even though their names were not as mellifluous as those of Dennis SasoNguesso of Equatorial Guinea; Mobutu SeseSeko of Zaire, and SekoToure of Guinea.
Omar Bongo’s predecessor, Léon M’ba, was hardly known by our generation even though he had a long presence on the Gabonese political scene until his death in November 1967. He even survived a coup because he was the apple of the French’s eyes. Reports said he was in serious cahoots with Charles de Gaulle, whom he told that “All Gabonese have two fatherlands: France and Gabon.” After M’ba came the Bongos − Omar and Ali − into the life of Gabon and our consciousness. After about forty years as president, El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba said he was still the president because had not seen a capable or worthy successor. He ruled Gabon for 42 years until he died in 2009 in Spain. He was just shy of 74 years.
Since death does not negotiate, it took Omar Bongo off the scene to pave the way for his son, Ali Bongo. He was a member of the Gabonese National Assembly and a minister of defence before being elected president. Being the son of the former president, he simply transmuted from “the presidency” to “the president”. His election in 2009 was a mere formality. But subsequent elections were not because, in 2016, he won by a very narrow margin. Afterwards, he was accused of severe human rights abuses and violations, including arrests following outcry and protests over allegations of huge election irregularities and rigging. In 2023, Ali Bongo won again with a better margin, but it was pyrrhic because it cost him his office and his freedom. His country’s military shoved him aside, annulled the election and put him under house arrest.
Embattled Ali Bongo made a video after he was ousted by the soldiers. In it, he made a frantic request of friends around the world. Perhaps, these include the ordinary citizens of Gabon. He asked these “friends” to “make noise, make noise” because he had “been arrested”. From his undesired position, he did not demand for the kind of noise entertainers demand from their fans. Those musical artists and their ilk ask only for “some noise” but Ali Bongo wanted more. He wanted a raucous outing that would put the military boys back in their barracks and him back in his palace. As a good, loving husband and father, one of his immediate worries was that he was not aware of the position of his wife and son.
Well, the people of Gabon made noise. As a matter of fact, they are still making noise and they want to continue making noise. The thing about the noise being made, however, is that it is not the type Ali Bongo would have loved to hear. The noise is not the negative hysteria he wanted but cries of joy. It is rather the noise of the real people who, until the coup, had been under the bondage of the Bongos for many decades. The jubilant Gabonese people made noise in exhalation upon the realisation that they had been let out of their cage of 14 years. They are no longer the objects of pleasure for the Ali Bongo family. That was the noise
President Ali Bongo can easily pass as one of those willing tools in the hands of imperialist France. He was just a continuation of the legacies of his father, Omar Bongo; and grandfather-in-office, Léon M’ba. Charles de Gaulle loved M’ba so much that he restored him to power after he was ousted in a coup in 1964. He was such a good boy to France that President de Gaulle tagged him a loyal ally whereas protesting Gabonese people saw the same M’ba as “President of the French.” France has never hidden nor has still hidden its desire to perpetually keep the Gabonese and indeed other African countries it colonised in servitude. The country is not masking its brutality to unwilling countries.
France and its allies therefore install and remove presidents at will. In some cases, they make the putsch they engineered look so beautiful that the people would come out more confused than they were before the coup. The nearly 2.5 million people of Gabon are dancing to liberation songs in Libreville today, not knowing what France will serve them tomorrow. Not up to 50 per cent of the Gabonese population knows any other president other than Bongo and a little under that figure have been in poverty for decades. Gabon’s population is under 2.5 million people. That is how sad it is!
Millions harbour the belief that many African countries make democracy look like a rotten apple. Some African democracies come very far from the rear in terms of quality of leadership. Gabon, Togo, Senegal, Guinea, Zaire, and Congo Brazzaville are a few examples. These countries have not enjoyed true leadership. They have been deprived for too long.
Nigeria is an example. Nigeria comes in here because as bad as we see Gabon to be, the country is still rated by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as being more developed than Nigeria. The country’s GDP per capita is put at $14,000 while that of Nigeria is pet at $4,900. Leadership has remained a nagging sore in Nigeria, and it is not getting any better. Younger Nigerians who see the streets of Europe and their streets will wonder what their fathers who had led at one time or the other have been doing over the years. The majority of Nigerians who are 35 years and below will readily agree that democracy in Nigeria is timutimik’ègbin da sí’nú (a mattress stuffed with rubbish).
There is a huge need for a paradigm shift in many African countries. Why do we benchmark our democracies with the worst form of military regimes? Is Gabon truly a democracy? When we take the definition of democracy as we have known it to be as “government of the people by the people and for the people”, is Gabon a democracy? What is the difference between Gabon and a monarchy? Autocracy?Totalitarianism? Does anyone remember NnamdiAzikiwe’s concept of diarchy? It is getting darker.
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