Omar Bongo

Omar Bongo
Bongo in 1973
2nd President of Gabon
In office 2 December 1967 – 8 June 2009
Prime Minister	Léon Mébiame Casimir Oyé-Mba Paulin Obame-Nguema Jean-François Ntoutoume Emane Jean Eyeghe Ndong
Vice President	Léon Mébiame Didjob Divungi Di Ndinge
Preceded by	Léon M'ba
Succeeded by	Ali Bongo Ondimba
2nd Vice-President of Gabon
In office 12 November 1966 – 2 December 1967
President	Léon M'ba
Preceded by	Paul-Marie Yembit
Succeeded by	Léon Mébiame
Minister of Information and Tourism
In office August 1966 – 12 November 1966
President	Léon M'ba
Personal details
Born	Albert-Bernard Bongo (1935-12-30)30 December 1935 Lewai, French Equatorial Africa (now Bongoville, Gabon)
Died	8 June 2009(2009-06-08) (aged 73) Barcelona, Spain
Political party	Democratic Party
Spouses	Louise Mouyabi Moukala ​ ​ (m. 1957⁠–⁠1959)​ Patience Dabany ​ ​ (m. 1959; div. 1987)​ [1] Edith Lucie Sassou Nguesso ​ ​ (m. 1989; died 2009)​
Children	30+ (by various partners), including Ali Bongo
Military service
Allegiance	France  Gabon
Branch/service	French Air Force
Rank	Captain

This article is part of a series about Omar Bongo
Early life Family Death and state funeral Political offices President of Gabon (1967–2009) Vice President of Gabon (1966–1967) Presidency Single-party rule Francophile Elections Parliament 1980 1985 1990 1996 2001 2006 2008 local elections 1995 constitutional referendum Related Bongoville Omar Bongo University
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Omar Bongo Ondimba (born Albert-Bernard Bongo; 30 December 1935 – 8 June 2009) was a Gabonese politician who was the second president of Gabon for almost 42 years, from 1967 until his death in 2009. Bongo was promoted to key positions as a young official under Gabon's first President Léon M'ba in the 1960s, before being elected vice-president in his own right in 1966. In 1967, he succeeded M'ba to become the country's second president, upon the latter's death.

Bongo headed the single-party regime of the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) until 1990, when, faced with public pressure, he was forced to introduce multi-party politics into Gabon. His political survival despite intense opposition to his rule in the early 1990s seemed to stem once again from consolidating power by bringing most of the major opposition leaders at the time to his side. The 1993 presidential election was extremely controversial but ended with his re-election then and the subsequent elections of 1998 and 2005. His respective parliamentary majorities increased and the opposition becoming more subdued with each succeeding election.^[2] After Cuban leader Fidel Castro stepped down in February 2008, Bongo became the world's longest-ruling non-royal leader.^[3] He was one of the longest serving non-royal rulers before his death.^[4][5]

Bongo was criticized for in effect having worked for himself, his family and local elites and not for Gabon and its people. For instance, French green politician Eva Joly claimed that during Bongo's long reign, despite an oil-led GDP per capita growth to one of the highest levels in Africa, Gabon built only 5 km of freeway a year and still had one of the world's highest infant mortality rates by the time of his death in 2009.^[6]

After Bongo's death in June 2009, his son Ali Bongo, who had long been assigned key ministerial responsibilities by his father, was elected to succeed him in August of that year.