Pierre Claver Zeng Ebome

Pierre-Claver Zeng Ebome (8 September 1953 – 19 May 2010) was a Gabonese politician and musician. He held a succession of ministerial portfolios in the government of Gabon during the 1990s and subsequently served as a Deputy in the National Assembly of Gabon. Zeng Ebome was the President of the African Development Movement (MAD), a minor political party, until February 2010, when it merged itself into the National Union; afterward he was briefly a Vice-President of the National Union from February 2010 to May 2010.

Zeng Ebome was born at Ekouasse in northern Gabon, and he received his primary and secondary education in Oyem. He then attended the Omar Bongo Technical School and Omar Bongo University, both located in Libreville. Later he studied in France at the National School of Treasury Services. He gained fame in Gabon as a singer beginning in the mid-1970s and was appointed as Central Inspector of the Treasury in 1985.

A member of the opposition Association for Socialism in Gabon (APSG), Zeng Ebome was appointed to the government of Gabon in 1990. In light of his musical career, he was nicknamed the "crooner politician" after he entered politics. He served for a time as Minister of the Civil Service and Administrative Reform and for a time as Minister of Youth, Sports, Culture, and the Arts.

Zeng Ebome was Minister of Social Affairs, National Solidarity and the Family as of January 1997. He was then appointed as Minister of Human Rights and Relations with the Constitutional Institutions on 25 January 1999. Speaking before the United Nations Commission on Human Rights on 24 March 1999, he stressed the importance and universality of human rights and said that "in Gabon, we believe that the full realization of human beings is in freedom". He also said that rich countries should work to readjust their economic relationships with poor countries, especially by cancelling debt owed by poor countries.

Following the December 2001 parliamentary election, the election for the second seat from Woleu Department was held over again on 26 May 2002, and Zeng Ebome was victorious, receiving 52.11% of the vote and defeating Fidele Bengone-Bayi of the ruling Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG). Zeng Ebome was the only MAD candidate to win a seat in the 2001–2002 election. During the parliamentary term that followed the election, Zeng Ebome was Vice-President of the Group of Republican Democrats (GDR), a parliamentary group composed of deputies from small parties allied with the PDG. On 8 January 2003, he was elected as President of the National Council for Democracy, an official body tasked with mediating disputes between political parties. The Council included present and former heads of government and both houses of Parliament, as well as political party leaders.

...
Wikipedia