Gabon’s Junta Leader Sworn in as President
POLITICS DIGEST – The leader of Gabon’s military junta, Brice Oligui Nguema, has been sworn in as the country’s interim president.
Nguema, who was the head of the country’s presidential guard, led a group of soldiers to seize power from President Ali Bongo last Wednesday after a controversial election.
The military officers had cited institutional, political, economic, and social crises as reasons for the coup.
The ousting came just moments after Bongo, 64, was proclaimed victor in last month’s presidential election — a result branded a fraud by the opposition.
“I swear before God and the Gabonese people to faithfully preserve the republican regime,” said Oligui.
Dressed in the red ceremonial costume of the Republican Guard, Oligui also swore to “preserve the achievements of democracy”, at the ceremony held before judges of the Constitutional Court.
He immediately pledged in a speech to hold “free… (and) transparent elections” after a transition period which he did not specify, and to amnesty “prisoners of conscience.”
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Nguema seems to enjoy some popular support, evident from the crowds of cheering civilians turning up at his inauguration, there have been concerns that the general’s rule will be a continuation of the Bongo family’s 53-year hold on power.
Recall that Bongo became president when Omar, his father, died after ruling from 1967 to 2009.
The coup was believed to have punctuated the family’s dynasty but Nguema has been reported to be Bongo’s cousin.
Albert Ossa, leader of the country’s opposition, had described the coup as a “family affair” and a “palace revolution” aimed at keeping them in power.
“Oligui Nguema is Ali Bongo’s cousin. The campaign was 60 years of Bongo is too much. The Bongos have decided to put Ali Bongo aside and continue their system by putting in place a Bongo CEO system,” he said.
“And they have put forward Oligui Nguema. In this way the Bongo system continues.”
Nguema has also been accused of corruption.
According to a 2020 investigation by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) on the Bongo family’s assets in the United States, Nguema invested in real estate.
He was said to have bought three properties in middle and working-class neighbourhoods in the Maryland suburbs of Hyattsville and Silver Spring, just outside the capital, in 2015 and 2018.
