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GABON: Ali Bongo Hits The Ground Running
By Ajong Mbapndah L
Succeeding your dad after a forty year reign in a country that is not a known monarchy always comes at a price. For Ali Ben Bongo, it was accusations of rigging the elections, post election violence which threatened peace and stability in the country with special target at French interests to express dissatisfaction at the ignoble role that France is believed to have played in the whole succession battle to replace late President Omar Bongo. Less than two months after taking the oath of office, the animosity which greeted the election of President Ali Ben Bongo seems to be fading paving the way for a promising Presidency which may augur well for the development and progress of Gabon .The bloated cabinet of circa forty ministers in a country of less than three million as was the case when Omar Bongo was in power has been trimmed to about thirty ministries.. The first cabinet meeting following his swearing in saw the elimination loud sounding offices like Ministers of State, and a whole litany of high ranking but unproductive positions used quite often by the late Bongo to appease his friends or minimize political problems.Maximising the usage of state resources by reducing bogus ministries was one of his goals
Accumulation of offices will also be a thing of the past as new government has indicated that Members of Government and Parliament will no longer Chair Boards of Pubic enterprises as was the case in the previous administration. A novelty not only in the youthful administration of President Ali Ben Bongo but probably in the entire Central African Sub region is the obligation of Members of Government to declare their assets within a month to the National Commission for the fight against corruption. Considering instead of service to the people many state officials excel in looting public funds, this measure if well implemented could reap huge dividends for Gabon both at home and abroad.
Expensive but insignificant events like installation ceremonies and tours to their provinces and areas of origin by State Ministers are no longer permitted. For the first time in the history of Gabon a woman is the Minister of Defence and when asked recently about talks to include opposition leader Pierre Maboundou in his government, President Ali Bongo said his emphasis was on using a largely trimmed government to maximize efficiency and not increasing its size.
Also under the radar is Gabon’s bloated civil service. President Ali Bongo has ordered for a census of civil servants which totaled up to 55000 in a country of circa 1.5 million people under the late President Omar Bongo. Prime Minister Paul Mba says the census is “a step the government has taken in order to have reliable records for the most accurate information possible and finally take control of its staff.” The civil service under late President Omar Bongo not only consumed a quarter of the national budget but the system was fraught with gross irregularities and bogus salaries.
As a sign that things may not be the same again in Gabon, President Ali Bongo’s Chief of Cabinet Jean Pierre Oyiba cited in a scandal that resulted in losses of about 40 million Euros to the Bank of Central African States was forced to resign. President Ali Bongo has also placed a ban on wood exports with effect from January 2010.This he said is in fulfillment of a campaign promise he made to preserve the Gabonese forest. Under Gabonese forest laws,75% of exports of untreated wood should be processed on the spot by 2012 , but so far only 40% is processed in Gabon. Ali says the ban will speed up the processing of untreated wood to both finish and unfinished products. Covering about 22 million acres of land, forest products account for Gabon’s second major source of foreign exchange, coming only after oil. It also provides the second highest source of employment for Gabonese coming after the civil service.
President Ali has already visited neighboring countries like Cameroon, Chad and the Central African Repub.jpg)
lic. He has attended the FAO Summit in Rome and paid a state visit to France which is Gabon’s strongest ally on the international scene. Although his victory in the election was contested by opposition figures, President Ali has not paid much emphasis on dialogue with his challenges or appeasing them with political appointments as the late President Bongo was known to do. President Ali says the size of the present government will not be increased. The fulfillment of his campaign promises he believes are the basis for which the Gabonese people will judge his administration and not the size of government. All will be done he says, to ensure that general elections billed for 2011 are free, fair and democratic.
lic. He has attended the FAO Summit in Rome and paid a state visit to France which is Gabon’s strongest ally on the international scene. Although his victory in the election was contested by opposition figures, President Ali has not paid much emphasis on dialogue with his challenges or appeasing them with political appointments as the late President Bongo was known to do. President Ali says the size of the present government will not be increased. The fulfillment of his campaign promises he believes are the basis for which the Gabonese people will judge his administration and not the size of government. All will be done he says, to ensure that general elections billed for 2011 are free, fair and democratic.Emerging from a hotly contested and acrimonious election, all has not been rosy for President Ali Bongo. His decision to ban the exportation of wood drew sharp criticism from leading civil society activist Marc Ona.Quoted by Panapress; Marc Ona said the government neither consulted the civil society nor other actors in the wood manufacturing chain. Worse still he said, there is no company capable of processing wood in Gabon. Despite plans to compensate corporations affected by the ban, the decision was also faulted by the French Council of Investors in Africa.
A decision to suspend some newspapers believed to be critical of the government has also been condemned by the International Committee for the Protection of Journalists. The suspension imposed by the government control watchdog the National Communications Council results from violation of media ethics and inciting ethnic divisions. With suspensions ranging from one to three months, the affected papers are believed to have written articles critical of President Ali before and after the elections. Papers suspended include Le Messager and Le Crocodile suspended for a month, Le Scriboullard and La Nation suspended for two months and Echos du Nord suspended for three months.
However, President Ali Bongo has succeeded in dousing the flames of criticism to his election. He may not have obtained up to 50% of the votes but election monitors believe that of the other candidates, he did indeed fair a lot better than they did. With a stronger educational pedigree and vision far stronger than that of the late President Omar Bongo, President Ali Bongo may well succeed in turning Gabon into the veritable Eldorado that it really should be. The country is endowed with abundant natural resources, which have in the past failed to be used optimally for the development of Gabon. Speaking to Pan African Visions, a non partisan foreigner resident in Gabon said despite claims of rigging, of all the candidates in the elections, Ali had the strongest vision that could fundamentally transform Gabon. His track record of achievement in while serving in Government, the source which preferred anonymity said was comparatively better than that of other serving public officials who were in the race for the Gabonese Presidency.
As laudable as his first steps are, President Ali must work hard to sustain them , dismantling the old order is never an easy task but one wonders if he has much of a choice especially if he has to win back the support of the majority of Gabonese who did not vote for him. With general elections billed for 2011, President Ali and the ruling Gabonese Democratic Party-PDG in French will be in need of a comfortable majority to push through his agenda of reforms. As it stands today, the PDG is not as united as it was. The process that led to the nomination of Ali as the party’s flag bearer led to the resignation of several leading cadres of the party including Prime Minister Eyeghe Ndong, Petroleum Minister Casimir Oye Mba, and Interior Minister Mba Obame amongst others.Although the three initially announced their candidacies for the Presidential elections, only Pierre Obame successful challenged Ali but came third.
Daunting the task may be, but Ali may end up a pleasant surprise for the people of Gabon. Most leaders tend to start on a promising note before getting back to business as sustaining the pace of reforms, and slowly but surely making a break from the leadership style of his father will make Ali his own man and will help bolster his legitimacy. This will also help him to get out of the shadow of his father, make him look less of a French fabrication as many Gabonese feel and make him appear as a leader who by his own merit and not as a son of the late President deserves the opportunity to lead Gabon towards a path of accelerated and sustainable development commensurate with the huge resources and potential that it is endowed with.
