The new strong man of Gabon after Wednesday’s coup, General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, will be sworn in as “transitional president” on Monday, September 4 before the Constitutional Court, the coup leaders announced yesterday. Oligui Nguema announced the “gradual establishment of transitional institutions” and promised that the country will respect all “its external and internal commitments.”
The African Union yesterday suspended Gabon’s participation in all its bodies and activities.
Meanwhile, the opposition alliance Alternance 2023 yesterday urged the military to continue the electoral process and finish counting the votes that, it affirms, were granted before the recount was completed to President Ali Bongo, today under house arrest. The opposition said that the Gabonese should be grateful to the military, but demanded that they be “responsible” and recognize the electoral victory of the economics professor and former Minister of Education, Albert Ondo Ossa, or at least sit down to talk in search of of “the best solution”.
Brice Oligui Nguema, 48, was a commander of the Republican Guard since 2019, a cousin of the deposed president and before a trusted man of his father, Omar Bongo, who ruled Gabon for almost 41 years. Separated in 2009 when Ali Bongo succeeded his father, he was a military attaché at the embassies in Morocco and Senegal and returned in 2018 as a colonel at the head of the intelligence of the Republican Guard, replacing Frédéric Bongo, Ali’s half-brother. Promoted to general six months later, he made sure to improve the living conditions of his soldiers. A former collaborator described this Praetorian as “a man of consensus, who never raises his voice, who listens to everyone and systematically seeks compromises.”
The coup leaders did not confirm his appointment until late on Wednesday, although rumors spread when television repeatedly broadcast images of the general being cheered and carried away by the Green Berets. According to a 2020 report from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project investigative consortium, Oligui bought three properties in Maryland, USA, in 2015 and 2018, totaling more than $1 million, for cash.
