Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba has defied doubters after years in his father’s shadow and dispelled rumours of his demise resulting from ailing well being with the announcement Sunday 9 July 2023 that he’ll run for a 3rd time period.
The 64-year-old Bongo, who suffered a stroke 5 years in the past, has been the topic of fevered hypothesis round his well being — additional fuelled by his uncommon public appearances or stay broadcasts.
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However the third time period problem has put paid to among the doubts surrounding the president, who got here to energy in 2009, taking on from his father, Omar Bongo Ondimba, the oil-rich West African nation’s ruler for 41 years. Small and stocky, Bongo turned identified variously by his initials of ABO, Ali B — or, much less flatteringly, as “Monsieur Fils” (Mr Son).
He was born to a teenage woman, Josephine Kama, within the Congolese metropolis of Brazzaville, which on the time was nonetheless a part of France’s quickly shrinking colonial empire. As a result of he was born overseas and out of wedlock, Bongo for years fought rumours that he was a foreigner who had been adopted.
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Amateurs of pop psychology eager for indicators of filial insecurity would you’ll want to pounce on a document that Bongo made in 1977 as an aspiring funk singer. Now a YouTube curiosity, the album options top-class musicians, lavishly produced by associates of James Brown, with the title “A Model New Man”.
In these days, Bongo known as himself by his start title, Alain Bongo. Inside three years, although, shepherded by his charismatic father, he deserted the trail of leisure and entered politics, a “new man” in profession phrases. He renamed himself Ali Bongo, changing to Islam like his father.
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Oil wealth
Bongo senior, who took workplace in 1967, had the repute of a kleptocrat — one of many wealthiest males on the earth, with a fortune derived from Gabon’s oil. He was additionally a pillar of “FrancAfrique” — a now much-contested technique by which France certain itself to its former African colonies by way of cronyism, usually tainted with corruption and rights abuses.
As a younger man, Bongo labored as his father’s trustworthy lieutenant, travelling the globe and increase intensive contacts in the US and the Arab world on the time of the second oil growth.
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In 1989, he was appointed overseas minister aged simply 30 however needed to step down two years later when a brand new structure stipulated that cupboard members needed to be at the very least 35. He was again in authorities by 1999, heading the defence ministry. There he remained till shortly earlier than the beginning of the election marketing campaign attributable to his father’s demise in 2009.
Did Bongo shock them?
The handover to Bongo junior was not a shock, given the years of grooming and his ambitions, regardless of some opposition within the ruling Gabonese Democratic Get together (PDG) and the shadow of corruption left by his father.
In 2016, he was narrowly re-elected for a second time period by a number of thousand votes, beating opposition challenger Jean Ping after a marketing campaign marred by bloody clashes and allegations of fraud. Pitching to a rustic that had been run for many years by his household, Bongo tried the troublesome activity of posing as an agent of change — packing every speech with phrases comparable to “renewal” and “innovation”.
He unveiled a string of initiatives, together with diversifying the economic system, opening up markets to Asian buyers, trimming the state sector, and constructing an enormous marina within the coronary heart of the capital, Libreville. “He made all these massive bulletins, however did they result in something?” requested one unemployed Libreville resident, who gave his title solely as Jean.
One in all his enduring achievements, although, was to foster the atmosphere, notably making a wildlife park that surrounds the capital. He offered himself as a champion of the atmosphere, a pacesetter of a rustic coated 88 per cent by forest and which the World Financial institution has described as a “chief in net-zero emission initiatives”.
Bongo turfed out a string of long-standing officers and changed them with a youthful technology — “he needed to thrust back his father’s ghost and train management,” a diplomatic observer stated. However to his detractors, Bongo lacked the appeal and communication expertise of his father. He attended a few of Brazzaville’s high faculties and studied regulation in France however didn’t be taught any of Gabon’s native languages — a significant drawback.
Bongo spends on luxurious life
His lavish spending, particularly on luxurious automobiles, additionally raised eyebrows in a rustic the place oil wealth contrasts with widespread poverty. However in October 2018, he suffered a stroke whereas on a go to to Saudi Arabia. Months of absence and official silence adopted. Hypothesis about his well being and health to control had been additional infected when he returned dwelling.
His public appearances had been uncommon, and the instances when he spoke stay outdoors the confines of the presidential palace had been rarer nonetheless. His supporters say that though he nonetheless experiences stiffness in the correct leg and arm — which prevents him from transferring about simply — it has not affected his means. In 1989, Bongo married Sylvia, a Franco-Gabonese, with whom he had 4 kids.
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© Agence France-Presse
