LIBREVILLE: At Omar Bongo University in Gabon's capital, student Nathan Ovono Obiang is as absorbed by what's going on in his post-coup country as he ...
A woman walks past the entrance to the Omar Bongo University complex in Libreville on September 13, 2023. AFPPIX: At Omar Bongo University in Gabon's capital, student Nathan Ovono Obiang is as absorbed by what's going on in his post-coup country as he is in his maths lessons.
The August 30 ousting of President Ali Bongo Ondimba -- who took over when his father Omar died in 2009 after nearly 42 years in power -- came moments after he was proclaimed the winner of disputed elections.He has promised to hand back the country to civilian rule with elections after a transitional period but has not given a date.Ali Bongo left behind an education system in ruins after years of underfunding and what the new military leaders say was disastrous management by corrupt governments.
“There were 2,000 students in the first year of the course. It was really first come, first served to get a seat in the lessons,“ Ovono Obiang said.Some are upbeat but also impatient, like many Gabonese who cheered the coup leaders for freeing the country from the clutches of the Bongo family. In Africa's third-richest country in terms of per-capita GDP, one in three lives below the poverty line, according to the World Bank.
Critics point to a failure to diversify the economy to make it less dependant on oil, manganese and timber by developing a production or manufacturing sector.
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