A rogues' gallery

In recent days Gabon has been treated to a veritable rogue’s gallery as African heeds of State attended the lavish funeral of ex president Omar Bongo. Among those in attendance were fellow plutocrats and kleptocrats Paul Biya of Cameroon, Bongo’s father-in-law Dennis Sassou-Nouesso of the Congo and Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema, renowned the world over for his respect of human rights, a position he inherited from his uncle the Great Miracle Francisco Macias Nguema. (The word on the grapevine is he has AIDS, and while he’d like his son to take over, he couldn’t access the loot in a New York bank because there is an outstanding arrest warrant out for him for assaulting guests at a high society party he tried to gatecrash.)

But what had the presi8dent and former president of France, supposedly a liberal democracy here?

Of course Presidents Sarkozy and Bongo had a number of things I common. Both had serious height issues and Omar Bongo was known to wear platform shoes. Both men shared a passion for younger women whom they subsequently married, tough in Bongo’s case his most recent wife, the daughter of the president of the Congo, died a few months ago.

During the funeral ceremony both Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac were booed by elements in the cro9wd. Strangely they weren’t saying “You neo-colonial bastards. Thanks for helping to maintain that greedy bastard and his family for the past four decades, while we the people of Gabon went short of food and basic healthcare.” No. The anti-French tone apparently stems from moves by French courts to charge Bongo with fraud. After all, Bongo had to go to a hospital in Spain for his medical treatment. But it’s obvious that Gabon and France are now the best of friends again, and Bongo’s son Ben-Ali Bongo won’t have to worry that he’ll be clapped in jail when he vests France after becoming president.

Ok, I know, he hasn’t actually been elected yet, but that’s just a formality, isn’t it.