2023-09-01 20:56:46
In a speech to the diplomatic corps on Friday, General Brice Oligui Nguema, Gabon’s new strongman since the overthrow of President Ali Bongo, vowed to establish “more democratic” institutions, saying their dissolution is temporary. However, he did not set a duration for this “transition”.
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General Brice Oligui Nguema, who led the military putsch in Gabon, promised on Friday 1is September to “reorganize” the institutions in a “more democratic” direction and more respectful of “human rights”, in a speech to the diplomatic corps broadcast on television.
“The dissolution of the institutions” decreed on Wednesday during the coup d’etat, “is temporary” and “it is a question of reorganizing them in order to make them more democratic tools and more in line with international standards in terms of respect for human rights. human rights, fundamental freedoms, democracy and the rule of law but also the fight against corruption which has become commonplace in our country”, he declared.
But he has not set a duration for the “transition” for which he will be sworn in as president on Monday, September 4 in Libreville.
In another speech before the representatives of civil society, he also promised a new “Constitution which goes in the direction of the aspirations of the Gabonese people who have remained suffering for too long” and “a new electoral code”. Adding however: “Given the context, let’s not confuse speed and haste: who goes slowly, goes surely”.
Meetings with “the living forces of the Nation”
The general who overthrew President Ali Bongo two days ago continued meetings at a frantic pace on Friday with “the living forces of the Nation” and the diplomatic corps after warning entrepreneurs accused of corruption.
During a speech broadcast by state television, he lectured more than 200 Gabonese business leaders the day before, accusing some of having participated in corruption.
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He threatened with legal proceedings the heads of Gabonese companies, many of whom he seemed to accuse of having participated, through sometimes systematic “overbilling”, in the corruption at the top of power.
He reproached them collectively for a lack of “commitment and patriotism”, summoned them to “question themselves” and “stop these maneuvers” regarding the widespread practice of “overbilling” in contracts with the State. or the public sector. Which then gave rise to kickbacks to senior state officials.
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After the religious leaders, business leaders and representatives of “civil society”, he invited representatives of foreign donors and international organizations and those of the diplomatic corps of Libreville.
Chancelleries of countries or organizations that condemned the coup told AFP that they had not sent their number one but lower-ranking diplomats. Nothing had filtered from this meeting on Friday at the end of the afternoon.
Complaint in France against the “arbitrary” detention in Gabon of Sylvia Bongo
At the same time, public television was looping images showing one of the sons of the deposed president, Noureddin Bongo Valentin, and other young people close to him “and to the First Lady”, senior officials in Mr. Bongo’s cabinet. , all arrested on the day of the putsch.
They are shown at will and questioned by these public channels in front of trunks, boxes and bags overflowing with bundles of banknotes for “billions of CFA francs” (millions of euros).
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The putschists accuse them – Noureddin Bongo included – of “high treason”, “massive embezzlement of public funds” and “falsification of the signature” of the head of state.
In Paris on Friday, Sylvia Bongo’s lawyers filed a complaint for “arbitrary detention” of the former First Lady and another of her sons, Jalil. “She is being held in an undetermined location in Gabon,” assured AFP in Paris Me Francois Zimeray. The lawyers “require” authorization for “visits” by members of the Consulate General of France in Libreville.
Sylvia Bongo and her son Noureddin have been the regular targets in recent years of accusations from the opposition, civil society and local media claiming that, since a serious stroke in 2018, Ali Bongo was very weak and “manipulated” by some of his “relatives”.
With AFP
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