Who is Gabon’s Ali Bongo?

Absent from the day-to-day running of his oil-rich country since suffering a stroke earlier in October, Gabonese President Ali Bongo was the target of an attempted coup on Monday.

Born in the Congolese city of Brazzaville in 1959 to a mother aged 15 at the time, the small but stocky Bongo assumed the presidency in 2009 after the death of his father, who had been in power since 1967.

Having been born before his parents’ official marriage, the young Bongo spent years fighting rumours he was a foreigner.

After a short stint serenading audiences, Bongo – who was known by his initials ABO, Ali B or less flatteringly, “Monsieur Fils” (Mr Son) – gave up a career in music to emerge a “new man”, changing his name from Alain to Ali, after converting to Islam like his father. 

Massive oil wealth 

Omar Bongo, the father who ruled for more than 40 years virtually unobstructed, amassed a huge fortune, derived largely from Gabon‘s sizeable oil wealth. 

A central pillar in “Centrafrique”, a controversial strategy through which former colonial power France bound itself to its former dominions through cronyism, Bongo senior liked to claim that Ali and his elder sister Pascaline worked for him on the basis of their talent, and not nepotism.

As a young man, Bongo worked as his father’s faithful lieutenant, travelling the world and building up extensive contacts in the United States and the Arab world at the time of the second oil boom.

In 1989, he was appointed foreign minister at just 30, but had to step down two years later when a new constitution stipulated that cabinet members had to be at least 35.

He was back in government by 1999 as the head of the defence ministry. There, he remained until shortly before the start of the election campaign caused by the death of his father in 2009.

His lavish spending, especially on luxury cars, also raised eyebrows in a country where oil wealth contrasts with widespread poverty.

Natural successor      

The handover to Bongo junior was not a surprise, given the years of grooming and his own ambitions, despite some opposition in the ruling Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG), and the shadow of corruption left by his father.

In 2016, he was narrowly re-elected for a second term by a few thousand votes, beating out opposition challenger Jean Ping after a campaign marred by bloody clashes and allegations of voter fraud.

Pitching to a country that had been run for decades by his family, Bongo tried the difficult task of posing as an agent of change – packing each speech with words such as “renewal” and “innovation”.

He unveiled a string of projects, including diversifying the economy, opening up markets to Asian investors, trimming the state sector, building a giant marina in the heart of the capital, Libreville.

Bongo turfed out a string of long-standing officials and replaced them with a younger generation – “he wanted to chase away his father’s ghost and exercise control”, a diplomatic observer said.

But to his detractors, Bongo was stiff and lacked the charm and communication skills of his father.

He attended some of Brazzaville’s top schools and went on to study law in France, the former colonial power, but did not learn any of Gabon’s local languages – a major disadvantage.

In 1978, Bongo married Sylvia, a Franco-Gabonese with whom he has four children. 

SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies