Bongo Drummed Out

If you believed the flood of praise that flowed from French political leaders, you'd think that the late Omar Bongo was one of the planet's great statesmen. President Nicolas Sarkozy said the death of the Gabon president had caused him "great sadness and emotion." Former President Jacques Chirac called him a wise man who greatly contributed to peace and and stability on the entire African continent. Even Sarkozy's Foreign Minister, the sometime blunt-spoken founder of Doctors Without Borders, Bernard Kouchner, declared that France had lost a friend as had all of Africa.
The most prominent dissenting French voice came from a former judge who had presided over one of France's biggest scandals, involving French oil company Elf, and, of course, Gabon, a major oil exporter. Eva Joly won election to the European Parliament last weekend, but that didn't cause her to mince her words. Bongo mostly served French interests, she declared. She pointed out that although Gabon's GDP equalled Portugal's, Bongo built just five kilometers (2 miles) of roads a year and that his country had one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world. "He was not concerned about his citizens," was her blunt and refeshing epitaph.
Through 41 years of ironclad rule, Bongo was France's point man in its post-colonial African policy, known as Françafrique. Manipulating Africa through corrupt leaders and with timely show's of force, France supported friends and punished enemies with little concern about democracy or corruption.
Bongo was a reliable supporter of France at the UN and host to French military units. In the meantime, he took good care of family and friends. Transparency International's French branch estimated that his "ill-gotten goods" included 70 French bank accounts in the name of relatives and 150 prestigious pieces of real estate, including 10 Paris apartments worth more than 150 million euros.
Like a lot of strongmen, Bongo sought the imprimatur of democracy. He claimed to have received 79 percent of the vote in a 2005 election that a weak opposition judged to be a massive fraud. Despite being a country rich in oil, manganese and iron, Gabon ranks 123rd of 177 countries in the UNDP's human development index.
Gabonese may hope for better, but the country is likely to stay in familiar hands. Bongo's daughter was his cabinet chief; his son-in-law was minister of economics and finance, and his favorite son was minister of defense.