Despite how many years the Bongos have been in power, the situation of things in Gabon did not degenerate like it did in Nigeria. During Omar's time, he will send some of his agents to the street, get a random family man, create a new ministry and put that man there, and will pay him a lot of money. At least for 6 months, the civil service was full of ghost workers, one man will be collecting the salary of 10 people, they go to work when they want, in fact I know someone who I thought was just a taxi driver, I did not know he was also a civil servant in the ministry of health. Everytime he was in his taxi, at the end of the month, he collects salaries. Electric power is always constant. Pipe borne water was like bottled water. Of course there was no huge skyscrapers in Libreville like in Paris. But life was good. Even then, Omar Bongo allowed artisanal mining of gold in Gabon, the metal was cheap and almost ubiquitous. Food prices were very low, but when compared to prices in other countries, it was quite high, so it is high, when compared to prices in Cameroun or Nigeria, but then it was so affordable for people in Gabon. Even his wife Edith Bongo, she was so loved by the people, she will buy a lot of clothes and go to the streets and personally share them to women, she was very popular. Everyone, even women older than she was, called her mama Edith. So they benefitted a lot from Omar Bongo, even the schools, were very good, if your child is in private school, it is because he or she had a problem. Any little thing, you are expelled. But it wasn't all roses and sunshine, especially for non citizen Africans, when it got to the time to renew your carte de séjour, you will have a high blood pressure, because of how chaotic the whole place (immigration office aka CEDOC) was, bribery and corruption, OMG, I get PTSD thinking about. The police and army where indisciplined, at any moment, they can put up a road block and ask people about pieces d'identité, Nationale ID card for citizens (though nothing happens to them if they don't have) and carte de séjour for non citizens. And they will extort money from you , if you don't have it. Earlier, let's say before 2008 or so, you will be deported. And some nigerians did not make things easier, some nigerians were involved in high crimes. Up until Ajuru, a one time ambassador of Nigeria to Gabon, rounded those boys up and deported all of them. The crimes immediately stopped. This was in 2009 or so. Another thing was the military, they where so indisciplined that they even did control for carte de séjour, can you imagine beret rouge, the highest military in the country asking people for their IDs? But then there was money everywhere, and you did not need much capital, even selling only in the evenings in the market was enough to get you a lot of money, you will be rich in no time, if you had any modicum of financial discipline. Then in 2009 or so, Omar died. Rose Francine Rogombe took over as interim, organized the election which Ali Bongo Ondimba won, he sanitized the whole thing, I would say, too quickly, which lead to animosity. Here are the positives, he sanitized the civil service, before, office hours were from 9 to 1, then 3 to 6, but Ali changed it to 9:00 to 3:30, he met a lot of resistance. Then, before you collect your salary, you must present your credentials, which cut down the ghost workers, he also met resistance especially from teachers. Whose salaries were later increased, I know one that has a Lexus. What about CEDOC? He sanitized it so much, rebuilt the place, when you go inside, there you know you have gone into a government agency building, not a chaotic market, even the officials there became professional and respectful, in fact he built branches all over the country, you can go to anyone of them to renew your papers, which reduced the amount of time spent there. During Omar's time, Gabonese people hardly had their passport, because he did not want them to travel and open their eyes, so when the saw the non citizen Africans they looked down on them, thinking that Gabon was heaven, but Ali made sure that they could have their passports very quickly and traveled a lot, which helped in opening their eyes and knowledge. They began to give non citizen Africans more respect. He built roads, his father built little. Upgraded the hospitals, set up a national health insurance scheme for all Gabonese, employed or not. They call it CNAMGS. A medical bill that can cost over 500,000 CFA will cost you only about 50,000 or highest 100,000. Even here in Libreville during the COVID 19 palliatives where actually shared, unlike in Nigeria. I Know some nigerians that received palliative materials. I did not because get because I did not want. The government Urban transmission like Lagbus stuff they call it SOGATRA and TransUrb, became free, till today, it doesn't matter if you are Gabonese or not. Beret rouge left the streets, you will never see an army man with gun on the streets of Gabon. Never! Only the Police. And many other things.
The negatives.
When he cut down ghost workers, he did not mind if you had 20 children, which increased poverty. That brought a lot of problems, Gabonese people who are generally lazy where now forced to go to work, no more handouts from the government,which made them very angry. The education sector was left to rot, that only failures now go to government schools. The teachers are over worked. They they are well payed. They don't teach much, the university is a mess. The pipe born water became dangerous to drink, some streets in Libreville don't have water since 2016, they will have to go and fetch water like it is done in Nigeria. Before 2013, if you had typhoid, you must have come into the country recently, but now it is everywhere. Even I only drink bottled water, after a bout of serious typhoid. After he fell sick, his wife and son ran riot which made Gabonese more bitter towards him. That's how things are in this country right now.

Alright

Thanks for the info you shared with us,the guy that arrange the military coup have little time before power is taken away from him,let us watch and see the division among themselves

cocoduck:
Despite how many years the Bongos have been in power, the situation of things in Gabon did not degenerate like it did in Nigeria.

Wow! What a good first-hand-experience write-up. Thanks for it.
Seems there was more corruption and indiscipline durring Omar's time but things were better

DaddyCoool:


Wow! What a good first-hand-experience write-up. Thanks for it.
Seems there was more corruption and indiscipline durring Omar's time but things were better

yup

joceey:
Thanks for the info you shared with us,the guy that arrange the military coup have little time before power is taken away from him,let us watch and see the division among themselves

the military loves Ali Bongo and Brice Nguema. That's one thing you must understand