GABON: A coup d’état like no other!
The coup d’etat, which occured in Gabon is essentially different from the others we have seen till now. If we look at the origins of coups d’état, they began in Mali, followed by Guinea, Burkina Faso and Niger. In Mali and Burkina Faso, the situation of insecurity created by France for unspoken reasons led to the military taking power.
The case of Niger is similar, with the sole exception that Bazoum, apart from being a pawn placed by France in the Sahel, is not taking any concrete action to dissuade the jihadists, apart from concluding agreements with them whose content only God knows. As if that wasn’t enough, he welcomed back into Niger all the troublemakers he had thrown up in Mali and Burkina Faso to continue their dirty work.
For Guinea, it is Alpha Condé’s greed and the precariousness of Guineans’ lives engendered by his bad governance that is the cause.
In all three cases, popular jubilation accompanied the coup d’etat, with hostile impressions of the West, not to say France, explicitly expressing the people’s desire to turn the page once and for all on any relationship with the former coloniser.
Gabon, however, is a very different story, and a frightening one if you take the time to analyse the situation in greater depth.
It all started with an election, hotly contested by the opposition, which gave victory to Ali Bongo for a 3rd term in office after 14 years in power despite his bedridden condition.
Remember that it’s been almost a year since Togo and Gabon joined the Commonwealth, which France obviously didn’t appreciate.
How can a son of the late Omar Bongo, the great pope of France/Africa, allow himself to be so imprudent?
Last March, the French President was in Libreville as part of the international One Forest Summit”, to plug the gaps, but «little Ali» clearly won’t listen to reason.
For these elections, the Gabonese state has committed itself to financing them, contrary to the rule observed by Westerners, which consists of putting their mouths in other people’s business, just because they have financed the elections.
As it happens, no accreditation was given either to the French media or to international observers to supervise the elections.
As the icing on the cake, Ali Bongo cut the signal of France24, TV5 monde and RFI for 3 days. And because he doesn’t do things by halves, the internet has also been cut off.
We are not going to go back over France’s timidity and hypocrisy in denouncing this coup d’état.
Wouldn’t this coup d’état rather suit France, which has seen its relations with Gabon deteriorate?
As proof, this is the first time, unlike the others, that we have not seen the placards «Down with France, down with neo-colonialism».
Let’s recall that France currently has 81 companies in Gabon, including Eramet, which extracts, processes and exports manganese, 10,000 nationals and a military base of 370 men.
If this election is bartered, dear soldiers, restore the truth of the ballot box to save time. Otherwise there’s an eel
Iann OBIANG
