Let’s call these words as we want “testament”, “last wishes”, “oration”, etc., no individual would wish that after his passage on the land of the living, his name would be a source of conflict, hatred and heartbreak.
The politician or public man who intends to be recognized as such, who wishes to imprint his name positively in the annals of history, performs acts which will mark or which will forever impact the collective conscience. This is also the goal sought when an investment or reform bears the name of the person who initiated it.
In France, to immortalize a work carried out or a major advance in terms of the law, Parliamentarians have chosen to give their name to the reforms undertaken. This is how we know more about the name “Veil law” from the name of its initiator, the Minister of Health, Simone Veil, than its administrative number law n ° 75-17 “of January 17, 1975 relating to the Abortion.
In Gabon, if we asked these questions to children under 25: who was Omar Bongo Ondimba and what is his legacy for Gabon? Apart from saying that he was president of Gabon, not a single seed of the rosary will come out of it speaking of the achievements to the credit of the deceased president. It is the proof that history and reality send back to him today the fruit of his earthly work. Omar Bongo did not form worthy disciples capable of distributing his works to future generations.
As everything in life is a symbol, one can objectively appreciate the state of the various buildings and other localities that bear its name. Who will not say that it is total desolation?
The Omar Bongo University now produces the most destitute of the country, in mind and soul, at the same time as it collects vipers familiar with the university level. The Omar Bongo technical school has become a dumping ground for lost children. What can we say about Bongoville except that it is not even better built than Bolossoville, this small abandoned village in Woleu-Ntem.
In addition, to top it off, the only news that recalls his passage on earth is not very flattering if not to say, not at all glorious, the question of ill-gotten gains. This problem is one of the greatest wounds of its relationship with France. She’s worse than a bee in a coffin. What a regrettable legacy!
This is proof that Omar Bongo left no worthy heirs, either in his household or in his political mould. The latter are unable to defend his memory with dignity. To be convinced of this, it suffices to know: who was indignant at this low seller profile that has been stuck on him since then? Who still wrote to tell Omar Bongo? Who made a documentary about Omar Bongo for younger generations? Who dares take offense when his name is flouted in the press abroad? Bigger world.
In France, who would dare to put Charles De Gaulle or Gaullism on trial? Almost nobody. For having disrespected and criticized Georges Pompidou after his death, Jacques Chaban Delmas could not access the presidential chair when Valéry Giscard d’Estaing simply lost it to François Mitterrand.
Those who claimed to be Gaullists made them pay for this indelicacy in the name of memory, in the name of the sincerity of their relations. What about the so-called omarians or bongoists?
And to think that it is his son who sits at the top of the state and that the vast majority of billionaire civil servants are because of his excessive tolerance. What ingratitude for the one who will have given them almost everything.
From this gradual entry of his name into the chamber of oblivion, Omar Bongo certainly pays the excessive affection or attention given to courtiers to the detriment of those who are often considered, wrongly, as scratching hairs, passionate about the truth. .
Here, after so many years spent at the top of the state, Omar Bongo Ondimba is no more honored than Simon Oyono Aba’a or Marcel Eloi Rahandi Chambrier. This should attract the attention of several officials in power still alive and active.
During his lifetime, documentaries to the glory of Jeanne Ebori’s son were made. Unfortunately, faced with the reality of the situation, all the pompous speeches fall de facto into nonsense. To try to say the opposite of what everyone sees is to accept losing all credibility. Omar Bongo deserved better than the silence of those who praised him for the length of public outings.
The Cité de la Démocratie, which symbolized his great work on stone, was destroyed. It was the best way to make his work, his name, disappear. If there was one achievement by Omar Bongo that should have remained, isn’t it this masterpiece with a fulfilled history? This means that on the stone as on the human, Omar Bongo will not have left anything solid. Finally, the casting of his disciples will have been badly done.
In the same state of mind, who is still talking about Georges Rawiri, this man who held the most prestigious positions in our country? Person. Apart from a few anecdotes told according to the moods of each other, Gabon and the younger generations will retain almost nothing from this man wrongly considered influential and powerful. His invisible or non-existent works have in no way positively marked public opinion, which pays him back by forgetting him.
However, at a certain level of power, the politician or the public actor should rather worry about the image that he will leave instead of worrying about the billions that he is constantly amassing and which, without a doubt, will forever disturb his eternal rest. Case law on the subject is not lacking: the Mobutu and Omar Bongo cases are nonetheless eloquent.
And to avoid an eternally troubled sleep, instead of maintaining a court of hypocritical parents or courtiers with acute opportunism, it is rather a concentrate of courageous and valiant disciples that they should shape themselves. All this, to do and to say what has been done in memory of the master.
In other words, in my entourage, who will dare to defend my service, my work or my offspring when I am no longer. Here is the real quest for eternal power that many political and public actors in our country refuse to seek. And it is at this level that Omar Bongo failed. He did not know how to create this kind of moral debt or this fusional relationship which binds you, in conscience, to his being.
Also, many consider that as much as he gave them as much they contributed to nourishing his fetish which allowed him to remain so long in the presidential chair. This balances the services rendered. Why then offer his breast when his name is pronounced in a dishonorable way?
Only true fraternity or healthy generosity marks and shapes this state of mind that binds souls.
More recently, we have the case of Brice Laccruche Alihanga. Indeed, as long as he could distribute various positions, money and privileges, he was adored. But once reduced to detention in inhumane conditions, no one dares to speak his name.
How do these telling examples not catch the attention of those who have not yet crossed the corridor of decay or the valley of death? Fortunately for the latter, strong and sincere ties, he has woven. Hence the resistance that is made in the face of the injustice that he suffers. And to say that these executioners want to be the great champions of respect for human rights. Luckily no one believes it.
Alas for these people who are not very far-sighted, spiritual justice is reassuring, it knows how to say the Law. We always reap what we sow. Perhaps Brice Laccruche Alihanga should have shouted that the presidential chair was vacant to avoid this quasi-spiritual punishment.
Hence the fundamental question: who invests so that his name or his wealth becomes a source of conflict, a reservoir of difficulties or a curse? As it is said “everyone makes his bed as he wants to go to bed”.
To mark their time, the presidents of the Fifth Republic have understood that only symbolic acts count. France owes the idea and conception of the Fifth Republic to De Gaulle. Georges Pompidou preferred to initiate the “Beaubourg” project or the “Centre Pompidou” completed by his disciple Jacques Chirac. Valéry Giscard d’Estaing created La Villette and the Musée D’Orsay. François Mitterrand, the Louvre Museum, the Arch of La Défense, Jacques Chirac, the Quai Branly or the Museum of Primitive Arts. Nicolas Sarkozy had thought of the Maison de l’histoire de France and François Hollande of the redevelopment of the Ile de la Cité in Paris.
In Gabon, nay for the vast majority of front-ranking political and public actors. A final burial of their names seems already scheduled. By refusing to invest for the future, they will have chosen to wade through the dustbins of history. Which is very unfortunate.
Obame Ngomo Telesphore
President of OPAM
The debate of Missélé eba’a: After the power of men, spiritual justice. | 7joursinfo.com