The campaign slogan currently used by Paul Biya, the outgoing president, for the presidential elections set to be held on October 7, 2018, is "Paul Biya: the force of experience”. This slogan is actually making waves because some people claim that the slogan has once been used by late Omar Bongo Ondimba, former president of Gabon. Some others on the other hand claim that the slogan was not inspired by Omar Bongo Ondimba.

The fact remains that the slogan actually used by Paul Biya is the same as the one used by Omar Bongo. BBC even published a poster of Gabon’s former head of state in an article published on December 23, 1998.

Let’s remind however that Paul Biya may have inspired his slogan from the Quebec writer Charles Denis who in 2009 published "Robert Bourassa: La force de l’expérience" (Robert Bourassa: The force of experience) at FIDES editions.

This book was published after the first volume of the biography of the politician Robert Bourassa, former Quebec prime minister, in 2006 under the title "Robert Bourassa. La passion de la politique" (Robert Bourassa: a passion for politics). That first volume relates a particularly eventful period (1979-1985) in the life of the experienced politician that Robert Bourassa grew to become.  

Even before the above-mentioned book, another writer had used the much-debated expression. This writer Luc Ferry, former French education minister wrote the book titled "La philosophie anglo-saxonne : la force de l'expérience" (Anglo-Saxon philosophy: the force of experience) published by Collection Sagesses d'hier et  d'aujourd'hui in 2013.

S.A