In many African countries and perhaps elsewhere, your family being in power for that time is a license to amass wealth and influence. But Ulrich Annas Bongo, the 46-year-old son of the former president and brother to the current president, is different. He wants nothing to do with the government his brother and father before him represent; he wants to earn his money.
Instead of becoming a power broker in the corridors of power in Libreville, the capital of Gabon, he chose to globetrot looking for opportunities miles away from his family’s dynasty. And that is how I bumped into him in Kampala, recently.
Born on January 18, 1975, to Antonietta and Omar Bongo, Ulrich Bongo is one of the six children of the couple. His father, however, had many other wives and collectively sired 56 children.
Why not; being an African president is an investment; you ‘own’ the treasury of the country. Ulrich was born with a golden spoon in his mouth, but as he grew older, he sought to spit it out.
Although he says he does not see a time when he will ever be against his family, nonetheless, he believes the 54 years they have held the spoils of power has not maximally benefitted the small Gabonese population of just about two million people.
Gabon covers 267,667 sq km; 26,629 sq km bigger than Uganda, which covers 241,038 square kilometers. Like most privileged children, Ulrich went to schools in France, Gabon’s former colonizer, and later Canada where he studied Electrical Engineering and Business Administration.
He also has a master’s degree in Business Management. The father-of-two says the reason he was sent to France was not so much to do with the poor standard of education in his country, but for exposure. In fact, many of his siblings went to school in Gabon.
AMIN’S ROLE IN BONGO’S FAITH
“There are some African countries where the standard of education is actually very high; the nature of education in Gabon was very good but it was more for the exposure that we went to European schools. I was in a boarding school where there were people coming from all the highest echelons in politics, business, and other social spheres. It was there that I discovered I was in school with children of Idi Amin; your former president,” Ulrich, who was meeting David Ssenfuka, the famed herbalist who treats cancer and diabetes, remembers.
He has remained friends with many of his classmates to date. For Amin’s children, he bonded more with Aliga Issa Amin, who is one of the reasons he made Uganda one of his homes.
For the eight years that Amin was president in Uganda, Bongo was president in Gabon. The two presidents had a special relationship of their own.
Ulrich says Amin was one of the people who convinced Bongo who was formerly known as Albert Bernard, a Christian, to convert to Islam. The others were Muammar Al Gaddafi, the then President of Libya and the King of Morocco, Hassan Muhammed II.
Ulrich, whose mother remained Christian when the family embraced Islam, has also since reverted to Christianity. According to this son, Bongo wanted to fit in OPEC, the cartel that brings together oil-producing countries.
“Although his decision was faith-based, Gabon wanted to join OPEC and many of the members were Muslims; being a member of OPEC and being Muslim was good,” Ulrich says.
After completing his studies, the natural thing should have been to return to Gabon to partake in the scramble for power and influence. Ulrich did not; instead, he remained in Europe where he worked as a telecom engineer.
It was odd; a president’s son, moreover an African one, to be employed elsewhere other than the home government or military. Ulrich admits that most of his father’s children have some sort of military training, but that is where the story ends.
“I don’t think that because your father is the president you also have to be in politics or work in government, unless when it is also your dream. For the military in my country, it doesn’t play any big role in politics like it does in Uganda. If I was in Uganda maybe, I would be in the army. But also growing up outside Gabon gave me more latitude to criticize what was not going on well in the country and I didn’t want to be involved at all in the system, because it would not allow me to do the things I think are important,” Ulrich says.
In 2005 he returned to Gabon, to take up a job in the treasury as the director for expenses. But his stay lasted no more than six months, not wanting to be part of any mess that characterizes most African treasuries.
“I thought the work wasn’t compatible with my personality. They ask you to do things that the heart doesn’t want you to do. I had to leave; that’s how I ended up in Kinshasa that very year,” Ulrich says, referring to the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he stayed up to 2008.
Asked about his relationship with his brother- president, Ulrich says although they are not the best of friends, they have a normal relationship.
Ulrich had got a consultancy job with two international companies; one from Hong Kong and another from Canada. Both companies were in the business of mining. From DR Congo where he met the mother of his first child, Ulrich left for Switzerland to join another company that was also dealing in minerals. After two years, he relocated to Nairobi Kenya where he has settled since 2010.
“When you are in Kenya it is very easy to come to Uganda, because it is a one-hour flight. I decided to visit Uganda for business prospects. But I have also visited almost all African countries. For me, Africa is one. When I’m in Kenya or Uganda or Gabon, it’s the same,” he says.
DOING BUSINESS IN UGANDA
One of the many places Ulrich has visited is the United Arab Emirates, where he met Ssenfuka, who has made his name treating cancer and diabetes from his Kasubi premises.
More on that later…
Ulrich was introduced to Ssenfuka by Aliga Amin, while they all stayed in Dubai. Ulrich fancied investing some of his money in the budding real estate industry and agriculture.
Ssenfuka had the answer to the puzzle. In 2013, he had bought 30 acres in Kamwokya. Of the 30 acres, a kibanja owner sold a small chunk of it – about 30 decimals – to National Unity Platform’s Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu aka Bobi Wine. Unfortunately for Ssenfuka, by the time he chose to dispose of the land in 2019, Bobi Wine had captivated the nation as President Museveni’s main challenger for the presidency. So, when Ssenfuka sold the land for a couple of million dollars to Ulrich, Kyagulanyi was quick to cite political persecution in the transaction.
He ran to court and the public sounded alarm bells about how the state was going after his property and Ulrich, fearing the controversy, decided to hold off the transaction.
“Bobi Wine has a very small piece of land, but he created a huge problem for us. We wanted to compensate the squatters and remove them from the land, but Bobi Wine ran to court claiming that he owned the land. I still want to develop that area because it’s very close to Kampala,” Ulrich says.
He is also trying to get a foothold in the oil sector, especially the service sector.
BATTLING DIABETES
Other than the investment plans and the relationship he had with Ssenfuka, Ulrich also came to Uganda to find a solution to his diabetes problem.
In January 2016, he was diagnosed with diabetes after spending his Christmas holiday in Morocco. Like in many Arab countries that are very hot, tea and coffee are generously served throughout the day. Most of these hot drinks are laced with so much sugar, believed to counter the hot conditions.
“Everywhere you go they give you tea and by the time my holiday ended and I returned to Nairobi, my doctors told me I had diabetes. They started me on medication to try and control it. When I discussed it with David,
he told me he had a cure for diabetes he was working on.”
“There are not so many people who would trust local medicine, but I trust David so, I tried the medicine and after using it for two months, I stopped taking pills and my sugar levels are now normal. I like chocolate but I had stopped eating it; now I resumed eating it and my sugars never shoot up,” Ulrich says.
AFRICA LUCKY TO HAVE MUSEVENI
About President Museveni, who will have ruled Uganda for 40 years at the end of his current term, Ulrich says Ugandans should be happy to have him as their president. He describes Museveni as the only strongman still standing in Africa who is listened to when he has something to say.
“This is a rare trait that must be treasured.”
“I don’t want Ugandans to misunderstand me, because they are very friendly and amazing people; they are very hospitable. But there are a lot of opportunities and freedoms in Uganda. I say this as a person who has been to very many countries and I can tell you, Ugandans have a lot of freedom you don’t see elsewhere. I move in Uganda and everyone is doing what they want, they are free to say what they want without fearing any consequences; that’s why I respect President Museveni,” he says.
Ulrich, whose father was in power for 42 years, adds that unlike some Ugandans, he does not think being in power for long is necessarily a bad thing if you use it for the benefit of the people.
“For the years Museveni has served, he has got a lot of international experience. He knows Africa very well and I think we should use him more to have one Africa because we are the same. We must bridge these divisions created by the Whites; we need to unify not only in trade, but we should become one nation and that is the salvation of Africa.”
He also credits Museveni for helping to contribute to peace in a number of African counties that include DR Congo, South Sudan, Central African Republic Republic and Somalia, among others.
I then ask him who his six favourite presidents in Africa – past and present – are, and he names Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Félix Houphouët-Boigny of Ivory Coast, Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso, Jerry Rawlings of Ghana, Robert Mugabe and Muammar Gaddafi of Zimbabwe and Libya, respectively; whom he says had advanced ideas that did not sit comfortably with the West.
On whether his family should go on ruling over Gabon, Ulrich says although he can never go against his family, he thinks given the resources the country has (Gabon is rich in petroleum, natural gas and many precious minerals, but a third of her population lives below the poverty line), the stability and the Bongos’ long time in office, they should have done more.
“We have been in power for 55 years now; the question is what have we achieved for the population in all those years? There is a lot to be done. Our constitution has no limit of mandate, but I don’t think my family has to continue to rule, but if the population wants one of my family members to continue to be the head of state, it’s their right. Democracy is a vision; even America, which is one of the oldest democracies, is not perfect,” he says.
“We have so many challenges in Africa which makes it very hard to have democracy. We have had elections many times and every time my family has won, despite some people saying there were problems with the elections. But according to the constitution, we won.”
Ulrich agrees that being a member of the First Family can fog one’s seeing glasses quite a bit, when it comes to what goes on at the grassroots. Leading a private life has cleared his lenses for years now.
“When you are the president’s son, you have privileges. You don’t live like the rest of the people. When I was growing up, I wasn’t seeing the poverty I’m seeing now. With time, you start to see the poverty even if you are from the first family. Somehow, you see the responsibility of your family in what has not been achieved.”
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