Giving back in Gabon

ALI BONGO, the Gabonese president, has declared that he will share with his countrymen a sliver of the vast wealth he inherited from his father, Omar Bongo, who was coincidentally also president of the country, in his case for 41 years. In a televised address, marking the central African country’s 55th anniversary of independence from France, Mr Bongo pledged to donate part of his inheritance to “Gabon’s youth”.

The exact amount is unclear. Although the diminutive, platform-booted Omar Bongo died in 2009, his inheritance has yet to be distributed amid squabbling by his 53 declared heirs. There is much to squabble over, it would seem, including a fleet of cars said to include a Maybach and several Ferraris.

But the junior Mr Bongo’s generosity does not end there. Two of his father’s private homes in central Paris (of an estimated 39 in France) will be given up for a “symbolic franc”, for “cultural and diplomatic use”. A family villa in Libreville, Gabon’s capital, is being turned over to the state to house a university.

What might have inspired Mr Bongo to such altruism? Surely it has nothing to do with France’s long-running investigation into his father’s allegedly “ill-gotten gains”, spurred by the work of Transparency International, an anti-corruption watchdog? French judges are probing whether the late president and others spent embezzled funds in France on luxury homes and fancy cars.

And surely Mr Bongo’s sudden largesse couldn’t be a ploy to win favour ahead of next year’s presidential elections, in which he is expected to stand for another term against an opposition growing in strength? Mr Bongo has led Gabon since winning a rowdy election in 2009, after his father died. Human-rights groups say that vote was marred by violence and allegations of widespreadelectoral fraud.

Whatever the motive, the people of Gabon will doubtless be grateful. Despite oil wealth so vast that Gabon’s GDP per head, at $10,800, is the third-highest in Africa, a third of its citizens live on $1.25 a day or less. Mr Bongo says he decided to open his wallet in honour of his father. “In my eyes we are all heirs of Omar Bongo,” he said. “No Gabonese must be left by the side of the road.” Presumably that means sports cars for all?