Bongo looted Gabon with impunity

THE world's longest-serving head of state, Omar Bongo Ondimba, died in a Spanish hospital on Monday.

THE world's longest-serving head of state, Omar Bongo Ondimba, died in a Spanish hospital on Monday.

During his 42 years as president of oil-rich Gabon, Bongo was believed to be one of the wealthiest political leaders in the world. His family is reported to own luxury properties in Paris, the capital of Gabon's coloniser, France.

According to French media reports published earlier this year, Bongo owned more properties in France than any other foreign leader.

Two years ago, his daughter-in-law, Inge - who is married to his likely successor, his son Ali - caused quite a stir in the West African nation when she appeared on the US music channel VH1's reality show, Really Rich Real Estate. She was featured trying to buy a $25-million mansion in Malibu, Los Angeles.

All of this while, according to a 2006 United Nations report, about 60percent of the population live below the poverty line of $1 a day.

When news broke last month that a critically ill Bongo had been flown to Barcelona for medical treatment, one blogger is reported to have remarked: "The greatest indictment of his lamentable regime of 42 years is that Gabon does not have hospitals that could treat [him]".

Yet Gabon is Africa's fifth-largest oil exporter.

At the time of his death, the 73-year-old was still fighting off claims made by a senior official of a French oil company that he had a number of Swiss bank accounts into which oil giants paid commissions for major deals.

But, judging by the statements issued by some of the most powerful world leaders in the wake of Bongo's death, you would swear he was a paragon of good governance and democratic rule.

US president Barack Obama hailed Bongo for promoting Gabon-US relations and said he had "made protecting Gabon's natural treasures a priority".

Obama's French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, predictably described Bongo as a "great and loyal friend of France".

It is accepted practice for governments to offer their condolences when misfortunes such as the death of a head of state befall other nations. Even our own President Jacob Zuma had some kind words for the departed Gabonese leader. But that was to be expected, wasn't it?

What troubles me is the seeming double-standards being applied by the US, France and other powerful nations when it comes to the manner in which they relate to despotic and corrupt governments - especially in Africa.

For most of his 42-year rule, Bongo ran Gabon as a one-party state, yet there was little criticism of his regime by the West.

When he eventually gave in to public pressure for democratisation and allowed opposition parties to operate in that country, Bongo used state power and his enormous wealth to keep his opponents weak. But protest against this from world leaders was muted.

As long as the most powerful nations continue to turn a blind eye to the excesses of "Big Men" like Bongo and the elite that continue to plunder Gabon's resources, their demands for democratic change and clean governance in other troubled states such as Zimbabwe will remain suspect. The Gabonese have as much right to a properly functioning democracy as Zimbabweans and everybody else.