"LE GABON ENERVANT" OR "ANNOYING GABON"

  The former Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, is doing his shopping like any other Canadian.   L'ancien premier ministre canadien, Justin Trudeau, fait ses courses comme n'importe quel autre Canadien.

    English version   Brice-Clotaire Oligui-Nguema is bringing back the one-party system. He will clearly be an authoritarian president who will be presiding over a clientelistic system which in turn will propagate corruption at all levels as a way to ensure sufficient political support. Two elements are key in a single party system: authoritarian rule and widespread graft.   Remember that in a single party system, there is a lack of accountability, as there are limited mechanisms to challenge the ruling people’s decisions. Without competing ideas, governance can become stagnant, and there is a lack of responsiveness to the needs of the population.           Version française   Brice-Clotaire Oligui-Nguema est en train de rétablir le parti unique. Il sera clairement un président autoritaire qui présidera à un système clientéliste qui, à son tour, propagera la corruption à tous les niveaux comme moyen d'assurer u...

    English version   Brice-Clotaire Oligui-Nguema has just announced the creation of a hundred budget positions to immediately integrate graduates in the field of health care into the Gabonese civil service. This is a good thing for the newly integrated, but a very bad governance model, because governance must not be done on a case-by-case basis. There are graduates in the fields of engineering, banking, teaching, etc., who have been waiting for more than 5 years for their budget positions. They cannot be ignored to accommodate newer graduates. This is not what having a good method of managing state personnel is about.   Effective governance requires a holistic and integrated approach, rather than addressing issues in isolation. Societal, economic, and political systems are deeply interconnected. Actions in one area inevitably affect others. A piecemeal approach might solve a specific problem in the short term but create unintended consequences elsewhere...

    English version   In Gabon, we have seen Brice-Clotaire Oligui-Nguema offer vehicles to needy activists, to destitute musicians; We have seen him hand over turnkey houses to poor families, etc. Taken individually, those who have received these gifts can count themselves lucky and happy. But unfortunately, on a collective level, this kind of donation will never solve the thorny problem of poverty in Gabon.   The idea of continuously giving freebies to those in poverty inherently teaches them to beg. It's true that when freebies are provided without any conditions or pathways to self-sufficiency, they can potentially create a sense of dependency. When people come to rely solely on handouts, their motivation to seek other means of support inevitably diminishes. This is why in Gabon, providing help to the poor should be done in a way that focuses on empowerment and long-term solutions, and not just to give them short term satisfaction.   Let us...