Gabon’s late president Omar Bongo and French President Nicolas Sarkozy wave to the crowd during a visit by Sarkozy to Gabon in this file photo taken July 27, 2007. Bongo, Africa’s longest-serving leader, died on Monday, June 8 of a heart attack in a Spanish clinic after more than four decades of tight control over the central African oil-producing nation. Picture: Reuters
After becoming president, Bongo set about building a one-party state. “Gabon was being tugged between different tribes and regions,” he said.
“Having multiple parties would have been dangerous; democracy soon turns into an explosion of demands which it is impossible to satisfy, leading to endless strikes which fragile countries like ours cannot withstand.”
