Gabon: Clinging On

GABON

Clinging On

Citizens of Gabon tuning into the national radio station early in the morning on January 7 were in for a surprise.

A small group of junior military officers took control of the broadcaster and called for a revolution to oust President Ali Bongo, the BBC reported.

Bongo, 59, suffered a stroke in October. He’s been recovering since then in Morocco. But apart from a New Year’s message recorded in that country, he hadn’t been updating his people about the status of his health.

The officers said his “pitiful” appearance in the video from Morocco inspired them to seek power for the good of the nation, according tothe BBC.

In a matter of hours, Gabonese security forces found the officers, killing two and apprehending seven more. And on Tuesday, Bongo finally returned home to swear in a new cabinet and boost his chances of clinging on in office, the BBC reported.

The incident reflects the staying power of Africa’s long-serving rulers and their families, the Economist wrote. Bongo took charge in 2009 after the death of his father, Omar, who was dictator from 1967 until then.

But the botched coup also reflected growing frustrations in the oil-rich country, a former French colony on central Africa’s Atlantic coast.

“For all its lack of preparedness, the attempted takeover carried a political message, one that highlights the deep distress of the people of Gabon,” Amadou Ba, a Paris-based analyst for the Institute for European Prospective and Security, told France 24.

As the price of oil has plunged in recent years, so too has economic growth in Gabon. Bongo and the country’s rich elites have absconded with much of the country’s wealth. Now, however, as the economic pie has shrunk, the country’s two million citizens have fallen deeper into poverty. The pressure is rising in the country.

As usual, the elites appear clueless. In a move illustrating the gap between Gabonese leaders and ordinary folks, officials cut the Internet, set a curfew in the capital and closed the country’s border with Cameroon, Voice of America wrote. Gabon imports much of its food from Cameroon. The fact that people might go hungry didn’t seem to bother those in charge.

“Mr. Bongo needs to return to Gabon and do something positive for the country,” the former American ambassador to the country, Eric Benjaminson, told the New York Times prior to his arrival this week.

Bongo’s case is not unique. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buharispent much of 2017 in foreign hospitals even as his country battled the Islamic State-affiliated Boko Haram. Algerian leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika is 81 and increasingly looking feeble. In 2017, the Zimbabwean army deposed Robert Mugabe, then 93, only when they could no longer hide that he was unfit to handle his responsibilities.

It’s hard to leave power. But those who persist in refusing to leave eventually find themselves out in the cold.