"LE GABON ENERVANT" OR "ANNOYING GABON"

Charles Mve Ella of PDG Charles Mve Ella du PDG English version Because in Gabon all the wealth and money belong to the ruling family and their cronies, because they are too afraid and scared to loose their powers and become regular people, if left to the Bongos, it is going to be a long while before Gabon could become a democracy. However, due to the changing times, the despotic Bongo regime has to pretend to be promoting democracy, in the eyes of the international community. The Bongo regime has to find a mechanism that would allow it to say that it is promoting democracy whilst undermining itself at every turn. It is that little cynical game the PDG, the party in power, is playing. That party announced that for the first time, its legislative candidates would not be designated, but would be chosen by a primary vote. This is being hailed by people like Charles Mve-Ella (pictured above) of PDG, as a “revolutionary” step toward making that party more democratic. The PDG leade...

JT LIVE - 27/09/11 - Edition du soir by AFRICA24 English version Because the Bongo regime controls a significant portion of the media in Gabon, it is very refreshing to see that the opposition is being wiser and a lot more intelligent by taking its message outside Gabon, where the Bongo’s media cannot distort or obfuscate the issues the opposition is trying to highlight and bring to the fore for a real public debate. Jean Eyeghe-Ndong, a former prime minister of Gabon, has done exactly that, by taking the opposition message to Europe, to France in particular and explain calmly on the TV Channel Africa 24 and the Radio broadcasting network RFI, what the political and social situation is like in Gabon and why the opposition is maintaining its posture of “no biometry-no elections”. Jean Eyeghe-Ndong is an excellent communicator against the Bongo regime, as he does not complicate things. His message is always spoken in a simple language, easy to understand and disarmingly logica...

Ban Ki Moon, le secrétaire general de l’ONU. Ban Ki Moon, UN general secretary English version Being a citizen is to fully participate in the political, economic and social life of your country. A good citizen has to do whatever possible to positively contribute to the general well being of all in their country. A good citizen cannot sit idle and watch his or her country be destroyed by corruption, electoral fraud, hereditary power transmission etc. A good citizen tries to make a difference in changing the mindset of those who believe that power should only be within a few hands at the expense of the general population. A good citizen tries to spread awareness. Being a full citizen is to feel a sense of belonging and ownership towards the wellbeing of the whole country. A good citizen makes sure that the country is not governed in a way that constitutes a barrier to progress. It is therefore in the spirit of good citizenship that a group of free Gabonese living in the USA has se...

Jean-Francois Ndongou, the Gabonese minister of interior reaffirming on government television that the next election will take place without any modification. Jean-Francois Ndongou, le ministre gabonais de l’intérieur réaffirmant sur la télévision gouvernementale que les prochaines élections auront lieu sans modification. English version Among the observers of the political life in Gabon, the events triggered by the strong involvement of the civil society in driving social and political change have generated a growing consensus that finally, the need to foster democracy and development through more dynamic and participatory approaches may be successfully imposed in Gabon. For the first time in a long time, organic discussions among various opposition parties and the civil society, have evolved in a very strong, logical, easy to understand and uncompromising and coherent collective position: "no biometry = no election". This is a message that is very easy for all to un...

English version In Gabon, everybody knows everybody else. Everybody knows who is worth something and who is capable of what. These days, it is clear in Gabon that the traditional political opposition, the more recent political opposition, the strong civil society and good number of Gabonese citizens, are all saying no to Ali Bongo and his project to have another election take place in Gabon, without the mechanisms that could guarantee its fairness. As you can see in the video above, the leaders present at this meeting and those not in the meeting but allied to them, certainly represent the views of the vast majority of the Gabonese people. When one looks at the number of those who are saying no to Ali Bongo, it is hard to imagine who exactly is for Ali Bongo anymore. Not a lot of people, for sure. People were never for Ali Bongo to begin with and that is why cheating elections is such an important imperative for the ruling family. A majority of Gabonese people rejected Ali Bon...

English version This week in Gabon, there was another proof of the lack of distinction between the control of the country’s infrastructure and its ruling family, the Bongo family. Because it is impossible for any political dissenter to have access to state controlled media, they have to resort in getting their message out by using alternative private outlets. As such, a recent interview of André Mba Obame was broadcasted by the TV channel TV+, which he owns. However, because of the content of this interview, the people in power in Gabon decided that such an interview should not be allowed to reach the population through the airwaves. Therefore to prevent the Gabonese people from watching that interview, the Bongo regime ordered a general power outage in Libreville, the only city where this TV channel is received. Dear readers, so is the ridiculousness of the Bongo regime that they would resort in depriving the Gabonese population of the necessity of electricity in order to prev...

Zacharie Myboto explaining his position after being attacked by Ali Bongo propaganda. Zacharie Myboto expliquant sa position après les attaques de la propagande d’Ali Bongo English version Zacharie Myboto was a long time partner of Omar Bongo, no one can deny that. However today, he is clearly saying no to Ali Bongo's hijacking of our country and for that he needs to be applauded. The Gabonese people must understand that good governance, true functioning democracy, transparency and accountability, respect for the rule of law, respect for human rights and freedoms, respect for freedom of expression and tolerance of divergent point of views not just good for some and not for others, but are sacred values that all citizen must hold dear and should demand for and uphold. Therefore, when the Bongo regime says that Myboto should not have the right to be heard simply because he was part of the Bongo the father's regime, we must respond that everybody has the right to speak ...

Patrick Simangoye, journalist at RTG1 (God help us). Patrick Simangoye, journaliste à la RTG1 (que Dieu nous garde) English version Dear readers, you are probably asking why we would pay attention to such foolishness from press outlets that have long lost credibility and that no one with any kind of sense would listen to. You would be right of course. But in Gabon, a lot of people do not have access to proper information and are totally prisoners of the national government own media which day in and day out, tell them that their leader, albeit illegitimate, can do no wrong and the entire world is at its feet; which of course is total bull crap but if a lie is repeated a thousand time, people start to believe it. This is why it is important that every time the Bongos propaganda machine is caught in a lie, people of good will need to make sure to highlight that lie and explain to people that they are being sold a bill of goods not worth a bucket of warm spit. For a long time, b...

English version Françafrique is in the news these days and Nicolas Sarkozy would like people to believe that he has abandoned the old corrupt methods by which France extorted money from African dictators. However, as the article below shows, franceafrique is moving ahead and a country like the Ivory Coast is being run by the French. Native ivorians are finding themselves treated like foreigners in their own country. This is exactly the same thing in Gabon where Ali Bongo uses foreigners to run the sensitive parts of the power base while Gabonese nationals are ostracized. It looks like France encourages their "selected" African despot to work with foreigners, probably because it is easy to ask foreigners to rape a country that is not theirs to begin with. The article below is in French only. Version française La françafrique est d'actualité ces jours-ci et Nicolas Sarkozy voudrait faire croire aux gens qu'il a abandonné les anciennes méthodes corrompues par ...

R. Kelly singing in front of Ali Bongo and his guests. R. Kelly chantant devant Ali Bongo et ses invités English version As is now well known, numerous stars from the entertainment world have performed for autocratic regimes in exchange for considerable amounts of money. The stars who have sung for dictators include: 1. Beyonce who was paid 1 million dollars by the Kadhafi family, to sing just 5 songs for them on the Island of St Barts in the Caribbean. 2. The Kadhafi family also paid Mariah Carey 1 million dollars for a similar performance. 3. Nelly Furtado, in 2007 was paid 1 million to perform for the Kadhafi family, for 45 minute. 4. 50 Cent performed for the Kadhafi family in 2005. 5. Jay-Z has performed for the Bongo family. 6. Sting was paid 1.5 millions dollars by Gulnara Karimova the daughter of Uzbek dictator Islam Karimov, for a performance. 7. Michael Jackson gave a private performance for Bahrain’s Abdullah al-Khalifa. The list can go on and on....