Gabon president wants new term

DAKAR-Africa’s longest serving president, Gabon’s Omar Bongo, said on Monday after already serving nearly 40 years in power he intended to run for re-election in 2012.

The 70-year-old leader, who won re-election in November, said he would seek another seven-year term and dismissed media speculation that ministers were jockeying to succeed him in the former French colony. “There is no heir apparent.Who says that the succession is up for grabs? I will be a candidate in 2012 if God gives me strength,” he told Radio France International.The Gabonese president denied local press reports that three ministers had plotted to sell a disputed island to neighbouring Equatorial Guinea.”Let them bring me proof.That is what I want.Can you imagine a minister signing a document to sell part of the national territory? Even I can’t do that.”Bongo, who came to power in 1967 just as major offshore oil discoveries were being made in the Gulf of Guinea, has changed the constitution to remove any limits on presidential terms.He won 79 per cent of the vote in the November elections, comfortably ahead of his four challengers.Referred to by some critics as Africa’s “dinosaur” generation, other long-serving African leaders include Cameroon’s President Paul Biya and Guinea’s Lansana Conte.Biya, 72, took office in 1982 and won a fresh seven-year term in 2004.The diabetic and reclusive Conte, a chain smoker in his 70s, seized power in a 1984 coup and his current term expires in 2010.Nampa-Reuters”There is no heir apparent.Who says that the succession is up for grabs? I will be a candidate in 2012 if God gives me strength,” he told Radio France International.The Gabonese president denied local press reports that three ministers had plotted to sell a disputed island to neighbouring Equatorial Guinea.”Let them bring me proof.That is what I want.Can you imagine a minister signing a document to sell part of the national territory? Even I can’t do that.”Bongo, who came to power in 1967 just as major offshore oil discoveries were being made in the Gulf of Guinea, has changed the constitution to remove any limits on presidential terms.He won 79 per cent of the vote in the November elections, comfortably ahead of his four challengers.Referred to by some critics as Africa’s “dinosaur” generation, other long-serving African leaders include Cameroon’s President Paul Biya and Guinea’s Lansana Conte.Biya, 72, took office in 1982 and won a fresh seven-year term in 2004.The diabetic and reclusive Conte, a chain smoker in his 70s, seized power in a 1984 coup and his current term expires in 2010.Nampa-Reuters