Embezzlement Scandal At Gabon’s Presidency (Part 2): Though In Bad Shape, President ALI BONGO Still Declared His Candidacy For The August 26, 2023 Presidential Election

 Prof ALBERT ONDO OSSA, Candidate Of Opposition Coalition, ‘Alternative 2023’, Won The Presidential Election. But The BONGO Regime Stole The Victory. The Military, Led By General OLIGUI NGUEMA, Cousin Of President ALI BONGO, Intervened, And The Regime Fell.  Former First Lady, SYLVIA BONGO, Was Placed Under House Arrest, In Connection To Embezzlement Of Public Funds.

The Commander of the Republican Guard in Gabon, Brigadier General Brice Clotaire Oilgui Nguema, the cousin of President Ali ben Bongo Ondimba, had thought his cousin would not run for another mandate, considering his poor health or pitiful physical situation, due to the severe stroke he suffered in 2018.   But Ali Bongo,  despite his health situation, went on to declare his candidacy for the 2023 presidential election in Gabon, at the 12th Ordinary Congress of the ruling ‘Parti Democratique Gabonais’, PDG, (Gabonese Democratic Party), that held in December 2022.  He declared at the congress that: «Pour le Gabon, j’ai des ambitions encore plus grandes, des tres hautes ambitions, les plus ambitions ». Ali Bongo, in the state in which he was, and definitely knowing so well, how his wife and son had exploited his health situation to rob the country of hundreds of billions of francs CFA, said he still had big ambitions for the country, Gabon, and thus wanted another mandate as President of the Republic.

Lots of allegations floated especially in the social media, that it was President  Ali Bongo’s wife in particular, and his eldest son, as well as several members of the regime that were exploiting the President’s health situation to embezzle huge sums of public funds, that mounted pressure on him to run for another mandate.  Whatever the case, President Ali Bongo went on to be a candidate at the 2023 presidential election in Gabon, that, he scheduled for August 26. While launching his campaign for the presidential election, Ali Bongo assured the militants of the ruling PDG, and other supporters, that they would win the election.

  In An Unprecedented Move, Gabonese Opposition Created A Coalition  

The opposition in Gabon used to have the same problem like that of Cameroon.  In 2023 there were  as many as 105 political parties in a  small country like Gabon, which official statistics put the population at 2.4 million (Two million, four hundred thousand), meaning that the population of Douala alone is more than that of entire Gabon. However the problem, as regard the presidential elections in Gabon, was not that of the size of the population or number of political parties. Rather, the issue  in Gabon, just like in Cameroon, was that major opposition parties always went in for the  presidential elections in disperse ranks, and that division facilitated rigging by the ruling PDG Party, or better still, by the Bongo regime.

The story was like repeating itself at the 2023 presidential election in Gabon, even though the Gabonese people greatly yeaned for change. The people so badly wanted to see an end to the Bongo Dynasty in Gabon. The candidacies of 11 opposition candidates were validated for the August 26, 2023 presidential election in Gabon, alongside the candidate of the ruling party. Fortunately, this time around, barely one week to the August 26, 2023 presidential election, six major opposition parties in the country, succeeded to create a coalition, which was baptized, ‘Alternative 2023’. The coalition designated veteran opposition leader and presidential candidate, Prof ALBERT ONDO OSSA, as the candidate of ‘Alternative 2023’, and the other five opposition candidates withdrew their candidacies to support Ondo Ossa.

Authentic Result Of Election, Leaked / Candidate Of Opposition Coalition, Wins, But – – –

The candidate of the opposition coalition, Prof Albert Ondo Ossa, reportedly won the election. What happened was that on August 28, a summary of the report on the authentic result of the presidential election, was sent to President Ali Bongo, and two other top personalities in the country, by the then Head of the Electoral Commission in Gabon, Michael Stephane Bonda. The authentic result showed that the candidate of the opposition coalition, Ondo Ossa, had won the election. The President of the Electoral Commission asked the three top personalities to quickly concert, and give directive on what he should do. The document leaked, and immediately created a big scandal in the country and beyond. The opposition coalition immediately declared their candidate, Prof Albert Ondo Ossa, as the winner of the August 26, 2023 presidential election in Gabon, and thus the President –elect of the country.

The Fall Of The Ali Bongo Regime

Though really embarrassed with the leakage, the Ali Bongo regime still rejected the claim that the candidate of the opposition coalition (‘Alternative 2023’), had won the presidential election. A curfew was declared in Libreville, the capital of Gabon, as well as in some major towns in the country like Franckville. The regime that was determined the rig the election even at that stage, at all cost. The regime quickly and secretly organized a ceremony in the night of August 29 breaking August 30, for Ali Bongo to be declared ‘winner’ of the August 26 presidential election by the Constitutional Council. The official proclamation of the result ended at about 2 am on August 30.

So the regime declared a curfew, and while people were sleeping, authorities and some members of the ruling party, in the deep of night secretly went for the so called proclamation of the result of the August 26 presidential election, that declared incumbent, Ali Bongo, the winner. The strategy was definitely that the population would get up in the morning, only to watch on State TV that the official result of the presidential election had been proclaimed, with the incumbent, Ali Bongo Ondimba, as the winner. But that was not to be, as there was a coup between 4 – am that same morning. Ali Bongo’s Government was overthrown in a bloodless coup, ironically carried out by the Republican Guard (Presidential Guard) that was supposed to protect the President and family.  The ousted President, Ali Bongo, and wife, Sylvia, were placed under house arrest.

A Coup D’Etat Or A Palace Coup

In the afternoon of August 30, 2023, that is the day the coup took place, the Commander of the Republican Guard, Brigadier General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, cousin of the ousted President, Ali Bongo Ondimba, became the new strongman of Gabon. But the fact that the bloodless coup was led by the Republican Guard, the most powerful military unit in Gabon, whose Commander was the cousin of the ousted Head of State, and coupled with the fact that the ousted President was replaced by the same cousin, made some observers and analysts to qualify what happened in Gabon on August 30, 2023 as a Palace Coup.

A debate sparked off in Gabon on that August 30, as to whether the overthrow of Ali Bongo was a Coup d’Etat or a Palace coup. The new strongman of  Gabon,  Brigadier General Oligue Nguema and his men, insisted that what happened was a bloodless coup d’etat, but some other people like the veteran opposition leader, Prof Albert Ondo Ossa, insisted that what happened was palace a coup, « C’est une revolution de Palais », («It is a palace revolution »), he told TV 5 Monde. He even added that Ali Bongo’s step sister, PASCALINE BONGO, whom Ali Bongo had appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, and later sacked because she was behaving more like a Co – President of Gabon, was behind the palace coup. It should be noted that after Ali Bongo sacked the sister, Pascaline Bongo, from Government, their relationship got so sour, and the issue along the line split the Bongo Clan.

To the opposition leader, Prof Ondo Ossa, despite the overthrow of Ali Bongo, the Bongo Clan was still in power, as the new strongman in Gabon, General Brice Oligui Nguema, was the cousin of the ousted President.

However to a large majority of the Gabonese people, who jammed the streets across the country to celebrate the fall of the Ali Bongo Regime, what was more important to them was that change had finally come to Gabon, no matter whether the change came through a coup d’etat or a palace coup.  Brigadier General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, who became the President of the Transitional Government known as « Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions », declared to the foreign media that considering Ali Bongo’s situation, he was not supposed to run for the August 26, 2023 presidential election, or for another mandate.

  Ousted President, Ali Bongo, Liberated From House Arrest, Barely One Week Later

Meanwhile General Oligui Nguema was sworn in as the President of the Committee for Transition and Restoration of Institutions, on September 4, 2023. One week after the coup d’etat or palace coup, the new Military Leader of Gabon raised eyebrows in the country, when he ordered that ousted President, Ali Bongo, be released from house arrest. He said Ali Bongo was also free to travel out of the country for medical attention.  Some Gabonese accused General Oligui Nguema, of having freed the ousted President because he was his cousin.  In fact many citizens of Gabon at home and abroad, were really unhappy with the rather controversial decision that was taken by the new Military Leader of the country, to liberate ousted President Ali Bongo, and more so, barely one week after he was placed under house arrest.

Former First Lady Maintained Under House Arrest

But what the Gabonese public did not immediately know was that the former First Lady, Sylvia Bongo, was maintained under house arrest when his husband, Ali Bongo, was released one week after his regime was overthrown. That was strange. It was in fact unprecedented to hear that after a military takeover, the ousted President of the Republic, together with his wife are placed under house arrest, and then while the ousted President is released a few days later, the wife is maintained under house arrest.

The fact of the matter was that the former First Lady was maintained under house arrest in connection to the huge amount of public funds that she and her son, with the complicity of the then Chief of Cabinet at the Presidency, embezzled. As, The Mentor News, stated in Part 1 of this series on embezzlement scandal at Gabon’s Presidency during the period of President Ali Bongo,  the President’s cousin, General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, who was the Commander of the Republican Guard, knew so well that the then First Lady, Sylvia Bongo, and her eldest son, Noureddin Bongo Valentin, were viciously or callously exploiting the poor health situation of  President Ali Bongo, that is, his cousin,  to use the fake  signature – stamp of the President, to embezzle huge amounts of public funds, with the complicity of the Director of Cabinet at the Presidency. Now, General Oligui Nguema was in power.  In fact the house arrest under which the former First Lady  was maintained after his husband was released a week after the military takeover, was just the beginning of the problems she was to face in connection to  the embezzlement of public funds.