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TEHRAN, Jun 6 - He died a decade ago, but residents of Franceville in southeast Gabon hark back with deep nostalgia to the rule of former president Omar Bongo.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - His heyday was a time of seemingly endless oil wealth and optimism. But the river of dollars has dried up and been replaced by dour, IMF-required belt-tightening.
"We miss him. It is thanks to him that we have the roads, the hospitals and the university too," said Rebecca, a high-school pupil who was just eight when the man she calls "Papa Bongo" succumbed to cancer.
Rebecca and a friend were taking smartphone selfies at an imposing statue of Bongo, who ruled the former French colony for 42 years -- "a father to us all," as she puts it.
"When he was there, there were no money problems," her schoolmate, 18-year-old Jessica, declared at the foot of the statue.
Franceville is the capital of the Haut-Ogooue region where Bongo was born in 1935, and also where he was laid to rest.
It hosts a lavish Moroccan-style mausoleum built on the orders of Bongo's son and successor, Ali Bongo, that will be the focus of commemorations on Saturday for the 10th anniversary of the strongman's death.
The vast tomb is surrounded by fountains and palm trees, decorated with mosaic tiles and fitted with marble stairs and gilded doors -- a far cry from the Benguia II district on the far side of the hill where people live in wood and corrugated iron shacks.
Source: AFP
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