Omar Bongo Ondimba (Le Grand Camarade)

Bongo took over after the death in 2009 of his father Omar Bongo Ondimba who held the Presidency for 42 uninterrupted years...

Ping Nzouba and others were barons of Omar Bongo's regime...

Ndama was one of the closest allies of Ali Bongo's father the late President Omar Bongo Ondimba...

Chambrier is part of a PDG faction opposed to Bongo's continued rule albeit within the confines of the 42-year legacy of Bongo's late father President Omar Bongo Ondimba...

Chambrier is a son of Marcel Eloi Chambrier Rahandi a founding member of the PDG former Justice Minister and close associate of Omar Bongo...

Like other scions of politicians favoured by Omar Bongo Rahandi resents their rejection by his son and his too-easy dynastic succession...

Mborantsuo is more than just an ally: she is the mother to two of Omar Bongo's estimated 53 children...

Times have changed since he was Omar Bongo's Foreign Minister and the partner of his daughter Pascaline Mferri Bongo Ondimba who gave him two children...

The President and his father the late Omar Bongo spent an estimated $125 mn...

When Omar Bongo died Ali continued to hire Travcon but stopped paying their bills...

Most galling to the presidency is Péan's argument repeated endlessly before 2009's elections that Ali is not Gabonese at all but a Biafran orphan adopted during Nigeria's civil war by the late President Omar Bongo Ondimba...

The children of Omar Bongo's predecessor President Léon Mba said they were at school in France with Ali Bongo before the Biafran war began...

Péan also details arguments between Ali Bongo and his half-sister Pascaline Mferri Bongo who was for long Omar Bongo's Cabinet Director and reputedly managed the Bongo clan's business affairs (AC Vol 41 No 10 The lobbyists' list)...

His seminal 1983 work Affaires africaines laid into Omar Bongo and the often corrupt 'Françafrique' mafia of French and African politicians and business people...

Meanwhile the oppositionist and former African Union Commission Chairman Jean Ping faces criticism that he does not offer a real alternative to the ruling Parti démocratique gabonais (PDG) because he was a top political baron under the four-decade 'big man' rule by the late President Omar Bongo Ondimba (AC Vol 55 No 4 Ping's pop at Ali)...

Having been a senior official in Omar Bongo's government he said that he would now reveal all of the embarrassing secrets he had access to...

Most leaders of the opposition – for example the ailing André Mba Obame – who declared himself President in 2011 (AC 52 No 4 Rearranging the cabinet) served as Interior Minister and said Omar Bongo treated him like a son – have said they have plenty of damaging information to reveal but have not done so over the last five years...

Omar Bongo had children with her while he was married to another woman...

He is an ally of Omar Bongo's nephew Idriss Ngari and managed his cabinet for a period when he was Public Works Minister in 2004-07 (AC Vol 50 No 23 And throw away the key)...

One cartoon from a local paper showed Omar Bongo and late oppositionist Pierre Mamboundou as angels in heaven giving advice to Ali Bongo: 'Do not worry...

Indeed Ping has held nearly every Gabonese ministerial post on offer including the Foreign Affairs portfolio for nine years and was a pillar of the late President Omar Bongo Ondimba's regime...

Strangely for an Omar Bongo loyalist and one of the PDG's most stalwart barons Ping has declared that he will run for the presidency against Omar's son the current President Ali Ben Bongo Ondimba if the Gabonese people ask him to...

Mebiame 42 is the son of Léon Mebiame the late Gabonese President Omar Bongo Ondimba’s Premier from 1975 to 1990...

Déby is also trying to fill the gap left by the death of Gabon’s President Omar Bongo Ondimba as a facilitator in CAR’s political arena...

The late President Omar Bongo Ondimba described it as ‘the Gabonese deal of the century’...