Bongos
Omar and Ali Bongo
Gabon President, Ali Bongo was ousted from power today by a military junta through a coup and is still being placed on house arrest.
Bongo has been presiding over the affairs of the tiny nation with a population of less than three million people for long.
Below are 10 quick ugly facts about his family
1. Ali Bongo has spent 14 years in power before he was overthrown. He just won another term and would have spent more years.
2. The poll that got him re-elected in 2016 was marred by numerous irregularities, arrests, human rights violations, and post-election protests and violence.
3. In early January 2020, the Senate and National Assembly passed a constitutional reform that would allow the president to appoint one-third of senators in place of elections, among other changes.
4. In October 2021, Bongo was named in the Pandora Papers leak.
5. Bongo’s father, Omar Bongo, was the second president of Gabon and ruled the nation for 42 years.
6. Omar Bongo died in office. He would have continued to rule the nation if he had not died.
7. His son, Ali took over power when his father died.
8. In 2003, Omr Bongo secured a change in the Constitution allowing him to seek re-election as many times as he wanted, and changing the Presidential term to seven years, up from five.
9. Italian fashion designer Francesco Smalto admitted providing Omar with Parisian prostitutes to secure a tailoring business worth $600,000 per year.
10. In 2007, his former daughter-in-law, Inge Lynn Collins Bongo, the second wife of his son Ali Bongo Ondimba, caused a stir when she appeared on the US music channel VH1’s reality show, Really Rich Real Estate. She was featured trying to buy a US$25,000,000 mansion in Malibu, California.