Gabon: President's daughter expresses ambitions to be the country’s first female president

A Facebook post by the daughter of Gabonese president Ali Bongo Ondimba, expressing her ambitions to be the country’s first female president, has left political watchers and opposition ruffled.

Malika Bongo Ondimba Dossou, the eldest daughter of Ali Bongo wrote that “I am mayor for two years now and I do not want to stop because I have huge ambitions for Gabon.”

“Why not a woman President of the Republic of Gabon in 2022?’‘ she asked rhetorically. Malika is already into local politics because she is the mayor of the town of Akanda.

Her father who came to power in 2009 suceeded his own father Omar Bongo, after the death of former. He is due to contest for a second term later this year. If he suceeds as is widely expected, he would be in charge till 2023 when his daughter hopes to become president.

Political opponents are already accussing the family of wanting to turn the presidency into an ‘inheritance.’

Malika was educated in the United States, and also in France, where she studied international relations at the University of Sorbonne in Paris. She has worked with UNESCO and the UN in Geneva before returning to Gabon in 2009. She is married to Steve Dossou.

Africanews