Bongo: Are We Seeing The End of The African ‘Big Man?

Finally after 42 years in office, the world’s longest ruling president Omar BongoOmar Bongo of Gabon is dead. His death however raises a lot of questions that critically need to be looked at if Africa and indeed much of the developing world want to make a step forward in democracy and leadership.

He came to power during the days when African presidents {read Big Men} called the shots and most African countries were barely a decade-old since independence from Western colonial powers. Fair elections were unheard of and military coups were widespread from one corner of the continent to the other, more so West Africa where the late Mr. Bongo hails from. The president’s word was law regardless of whether it was enshrined in the constitution or not.

Even on his death, accusations and investigations in France hung over his head over embezzlement of public resources and his immense undeclared wealth. Sounds familiar, huh? Mobutu Sese SekoMobutu Sese Seko of Zaire [DR Congo} was one other such rich president while his subjects were very poor all through his regime from the mid-1960s till his overthrow in 1997. Like Mr. Mobutu’s Zaire, Gabon is very rich in natural wealth but those who benefit from it are the political elite and a few of their cronies. Seems Mr. Bong was in very rich company.

He may not have had the extremes of Mobutu, Charles TaylorCharles Taylor, Idi AminIdi Amin, Jean-Bedel Bokassa or Mengistu Haile MariamMengistu Haile Mariam in terms of gross human rights violations, but he sure was in their league of despotic rule in terms of suppressing democratic space and running their nations as if they were personal business ventures.

Still, in Africa we have leaders who have been in office for a very long time, and still go into elections just as a formality to endorse them. Hosni MubarakHosni Mubarak of Egypt, Robert MugabeRobert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Zine El Abidine of Tunisia, Yoweri MuseveniYoweri Museveni of Uganda among others. In Libya, I can’t even remember when I last heard of an election there. Some of these leaders may not be necessarily bad or despots in the extreme sense of the word, {like Gaddafi, El Abidine, et al} but there are other people whose ideas should be given a platform as well.

If Togo’s Gnassingbe Eyadema went and now Omar Bongo is gone, I believe a time will come when we will have more Botswanas and Mauritius’s and Rwandas in Africa. It seems like nature is doing what the ballot or the bullet {God forbid!} has not been able to do in ridding us of oppressive leaders, and slowly but certainly, the African Big Man is becoming extinct.