Politics & Power Quote by Omar Bongo

The slyest move here is the dash: "if not a commodity". In one stroke, Omar Bongo reframes democracy and human rights not as sacred end goals but as tradable goods in a political marketplace. Coming from a long-serving African head of state, the line reads less like a civics lecture and more like a veteran operator narrating how legitimacy gets manufactured. The intent is diagnostic and defensive at once: he acknowledges the global rise of rights talk while warning that it can be instrumentalized by rivals.

The subtext is a critique of performative liberalism. Bongo suggests that "the struggle" has become branding, a campaign asset that can be purchased, packaged, and sold to voters, donors, foreign governments, and NGOs. The phrase "aiming to rise to power" is the tell; he implies that the loudest champions of principle may be motivated by ambition rather than conviction. That skepticism also conveniently inoculates incumbents: if opponents are merely monetizing virtue, then demands for reform can be dismissed as opportunism.

Context matters. Bongo governed Gabon through an era when post-Cold War politics increasingly tied international approval to elections, pluralism, and human-rights rhetoric. In many states, "democratization" became a prerequisite for aid and diplomatic warmth, and domestic opposition learned to speak that language fluently. Bongo's line lands because it admits the moral vocabulary has won, then asks who profits from it. It's a realist's warning disguised as a moral observation: ideals survive, but in politics they rarely travel without price tags.