Gabon coup leaders name General Brice Oligui Nguema, cousin to Bongo as new leader
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General Brice Oligui Nguema named as transition leader in Gabon after army ousted President Ali Bongo
General Brice Oligui Nguema named as transition leader in Gabon after army ousted President Ali Bongo.
Army officers who seized power in a coup in Gabon on Wednesday have named General Brice Oligui Nguema as the West African state’s transitional leader.
According to local media reports, Brice Clothaire Oligui Nguema, the commander-in-chief of the Gabonese Republican Guard – the country’s most powerful security unit – and a cousin to Bongo, is the ringleader of the attempted coup.
His naming came as deposed President, Ali Bongo appeared in a video at his home, calling on his “friends all over the world” to “make noise” on his behalf.
The coup was announced minutes after Gabon’s electoral commission announced that President Ali Bongo Ondimba had won a third term in office and annulled the election results.
Within hours, generals met to discuss who would lead the transition and agreed by a unanimous vote to appoint Gen Nguema, former head of the presidential guard.
Nguema is one of the most influential and enigmatic figures in Gabon today.
The son of a military officer, he trained at the Royal Military Academy of Meknes, in Morocco.
Nguema then served as Bongo’s “aides-de-camp” to a commander in former President Omar Bongo’s Republican Guard, until the former Gabonese leader’s death in 2009.
When Omar Bongo’s son Ali Bongo rose to power in October 2009, Nguema was sent to Morocco and Senegal for diplomatic missions. A decade later, he took over as the head of the guard.
The guard, whose military officers are recognisable by their green berets, is responsible for presidential security.
As its head, Nguema tried to fortify Gabon’s internal security systems with reforms that were seen as elongating Bongo’s stay in power.
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According to local media reports, Nguema also composed a song that included the line: “I would defend my president with honour and loyalty”.
In an interview with French daily Le Monde on Wednesday, Nguema echoed those thoughts.
“Beyond this discontent, there is the illness of the Head of State [Ali Bongo suffered a stroke in October 2018 which left him weakened].
Everyone talks about it, but no one takes responsibility. He did not have the right to serve a third term, the Constitution was violated, and the method of the election itself was not good. So the army decided to turn the page, to take its responsibilities,” Nguema said.
He added that Ali Bongo could retire and continue to enjoy his rights like every other Gabonese citizen, adding that the generals would meet to decide on a successor to Bongo.
And while Bongo is currently under house arrest after winning the cancelled election with 64.27 per cent of the vote, Gabon’s soldiers have apparently begun celebrating Nguema.
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