Ali Bongo and the 40 Thieves

Chido Nwangwu writes about recent coup d’état in Gabon culminating in the sack of President Ali Bongo, who was controversially re-elected on August 26.

Central Africa is the den of despotism. It has, for almost 60 years, been the barnyard of autocratic geriatrics and playgrounds for the mostly Frenchified African rulers. 

France, among the worst of the colonial and post-colonial oppressors and exploiters of Africans, has become the most disliked and repudiated European country in Africa! 

Britain held that terrible medal of shame and injustice! 

On August 30, 2023, the latest military coup in Gabon reminded us of the domestic strife and atrocities imposed by those presidents-for-life in the Central African economic bloc, CEMAC. 

Gabon has substantial notoriety and corruption records. 

It’s a long time member of the den of despots and despair in the geopolitical area known as Central Africa

While the soldiers in Nigeria’s neighboring Niger Republic seized power and kept the deposed president under “house arrest” only a few miles away from the other home/residence of Nigeria’s immediate former president Muhammadu Buhari. 

Buhari is a veteran and key figure in a number of military coups in Nigeria. 

While the recent military coup in Niger has caused major anxieties and characterizations of the regional ECOWAS and its new Chairman, Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu as being relatively clueless. Especially for Tinubu whose educational sojourn to Chicago State University has become a major embarrassment even for Tinubu who seems  perennially engaged in one form of mendacious fix, or another, monthly. 

In Gabon, familiar stories of the shameful evidences of the crassness of the Bongos are emerging— less than 50 hours of being booted out of office. The squandering of the massive resources of their oil-rich country is raising concerns.

Clearly, the grossness of the greed of these dictators and their tenure elongating, votes rigging schemes are fit for some Nollywood and Hollywood movies. 

Already, a part of the reason I decided to caption my analyses of the coup in Gabon, Ali Bongo and the 40 Thieves, is that the pillaging of the country has many thieves, some of those are natives and many are original French citizens, not just ‘honorary French Africans’. 

President Ali Bongo’s removal is being celebrated by citizens of Gabon. He became the leader following the death of his father Omar Bongo, in 2009. Omar ruled for 42 years. Ali was into the 14th year of his presidency for the controversial August 26, 2023 “election”. It simply means that the Bongo family ruled Gabon for 56 years!

As the dust and debate and tensions escalate across the Sahel region and the Central African areas of the continent, the latest questions are: What’s the best way forward amid the rash of military coups? 

Do corrupt and incompetent politicians make it easier to topple governments?

-Dr Nwangwu is Founder of the first African-owned, U.S-based newspaper on the internet, USAfricaonline.com.

Follow him on Twitter @Chido247u