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President Ali Bongo
is expected to inherit vast sums when his father's will is carried out
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Omar Bongo ruled Gabon for more than 40 years. His legacy is
worth millions of dollars. After he died in 2009, his son, Ali Bongo, became president.
Now he says he will give his share of his inheritance from his father to the
youth of the country. Ali Bongo also said three
of his late father's properties would be given to the state. One in Gabon will
become a university. The other two are in Paris. And there lies the problem.
Judges are investigating the purchase by African leaders, including Omar Bongo,
of homes in France.
Anti-corruption group
Transparency International says the presidents used state funds to buy the
luxury mansions. If this proves to be the
case, the Gabonese president will simply be returning to the state property
that belonged to it in the first place.
BBC reports:
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AFP Omar Bongo was
accused of being authoritarian
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Gabon's President Ali Bongo has pledged to give away all the
money he inherits from his father, to set up a foundation for the country's
youth.
"In my eyes we are all heirs of Omar Bongo," he said in a national
address. The will of his father, who ruled for 41 years until his death in
2009, is yet to be settled. He reportedly left a fortune worth millions of
dollars.
French judges are
currently probing the Bongo family over alleged embezzlement, accusations which
they strongly deny.
Gabon is a major oil
producer, but most of its people live in poverty.
In a speech to mark the
country's 55th independence anniversary, President Bongo said that in addition
to his inheritance money for the youth foundation, the family would be donating
a building in the capital, Libreville, to start a new university.
"No Gabonese must be
left by the side of the road," he added.
Two properties belonging
to Omar Bongo in the French capital, Paris, would also be given to the state,
he said.
"I know my father,
from where he is now, watches us and hears us. I also know that he approves
this decision and gives us his blessing," the AFP news agency quotes
President Bongo as saying.
Allegations of corruption
have swirled around Omar Bongo for many years.
The landmark "case
of the ill-gotten gains" was launched in France in 2010 after a lengthy
campaign by corruption watchdog Transparency International.
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Omar
Bongo accrued a massive fortune worth hundreds of millions of dollars during
his lifetime
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Two judges were appointed
to look into the finances of the late Gabonese leader and the families of the
leaders of Equatorial Guinea and Congo-Brazzaville, to see whether state funds
had been misused on expenditures made in France.
Under French law, a
formal investigation is one step closer to a trial, but some cases can be
dropped without going to court.
Bongo family assets
identified as part of a previous police investigation include 39 properties in
France, located in affluent areas of Paris and on the French Riviera, as well
as nine luxury cars, including Ferraris and Mercedes, worth a total of US$1.6m
(£1m).
Ali Bongo won presidential
elections in September 2009, making him the country's third president since
independence from France in 1960. 
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