By Kevin McCauley
Pearson & Assocs. has a $6K-a-month deal to raise the profile and promote investment in Gabon. Rachel Pearson reports to Gabonese ambassador Michael Moussa Adamao.
The New York Times (Sept. 8) featured Gabon in a story entitled “Summer of Siege for West Africa as Discontent Boils into the Street.” In Togo and Gabon, according to the NYT, the “levers of power have long seemed immutable, dominated by the same families for decades.”
Gabon has been rocked by violent protests against the ruling Bongo family, a clan that has “ruled the small-scale petro-state for more than 40 years.”
Protestors question the legitimacy of the 2009 election that put Ali Bongo in position to take over for his father, Omar, who died in office.
Bongo yesterday told parliament that the demonstrators are working towards a “constitutional coup,” and ruled out any negotiation, according to a report in Agence France-Presse.
“I will not sit down and talk to people who not respect their own country's institutions, the leaders who represent them and laws of the republic,” said Bongo.
|