POLITICAL CRISIS IN GABON (PART 5): Many Gabonese Angry Over The LIBERATION Of Ousted President, Ali Bongo Ondimba

POLITICAL CRISIS IN GABON (PART 5)

Many Gabonese Angry Over The LIBERATION Of Ousted President, Ali Bongo Ondimba

But political observers say General Nguema’s decision to liberate Ali Bongo was to be expected

The reappointment by General Nguema of Ali Bongo’s former Prime Minister, Raymond Ndong Sima, also raises criticisms

President Ali Bongo appointed Ndong Sima into Government in 2009, and raised him to Prime Minister in 2012. Ndong Sima was unhappy when he was dropped in 2014, and left the PDG for the opposition in 2015

Last week Ndong Sima secretly struck a deal with General Nguema, and withdrew from the coalition of opposition parties, ‘Alternative – 2023’, to be appointed PM

In 2015, the Secretary General of the ruling PDG, blasted Ndong Sima as an Opportunist

On Wednesday, September 6, 2023, the Director of Cabinet at the Presidency of Gabon, Colonel Urich Mafoumbi, who doubles as the Spokesman of the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions, CTRI, read a communiqué signed by the President of the Transition, General Brice Nguema, which announced the liberation of the ousted President of Gabon, Ali Bongo. The ousted President was placed under house arrest following his overthrow in the morning of August 30.
But the September 6 communiqué stated that considering the health situation of Ali Bongo, he is free to travel out of the country for medical attention. Worth noting, that President Ali Bongo suffered a stroke in 2018.
Many Gabonese are furious with the rapid liberation of the former President of Gabon, Ali Bongo. Videos, audios and text messages have appeared on the social media, in which some Gabonese have lashed out at the President of the Transition, General Brice Nguema, for having liberated his cousin, Ali Bongo, whom they say together with his family, friends and barons of his regime, heavily looted the resources of Gabon. Gabonese says Ali Bongo and his father were in power in Gabon for over 50 years, and that if they had managed the country well, they would have built top class hospitals in the oil producing Gabon, and thus there would be no need to go out for treatment.
Unfortunately both the Omar Bongo and Ali Bongo regimes, were notorious for embezzlement of funds, nepotism and bad governance. The Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions, CTRI, headed by General Nguema, has itself repeatedly accused the ousted regime of Ali Bongo, of bad governance.
Many People Had Expected A Treatment Without Mercy
It should be noted that to Gabonese people, many of them were looking forward to see happen to the ousted President, Ali Bongo, and family, the same treatment like they see happen to Presidents in other African countries that are thrown out of power by coup d’etats. An ousted President would be detained for a long time, he will be put on trial, his properties and that his family will be confiscated by the State, and so on.
We saw how President Ben Ali of Algeria who was using a wheel chair, was treated when he overthrown. No mercy for a fallen leader that has ruined his country through embezzlement, human rights abuse, and other forms of bad governance that brought misery unto to the masses. President Mohamed Bazoum that was overthrown by a coup d’etat in Niger, more than a month before Ali Bongo in Gabon, is still under house arrest, and the military junta is even threatening to put him on trial for high treason. But Ali Bongo was liberated barely after one week under house arrest.
Palace Coup And Coup D’Etats Are Different
But the thing is that there is a difference between the type of coup that recently happened in Niger for example, and what happened in Gabon last August 30. What happened in Niger Republic, just like what happened in Mali, Guinea Conakry and Burkina Faso before, were coup d’etats. But what happened in Gabon last August 30 was a Palace Coup or what Gabonese opposition leader, Prof Albert Ondo Ossa, prefers to call a Palace Revolution, even though in this article we have been talking more of a coup d’etat , which is what is commonly known.
Meanwhile in a Palace Coup, it is matter of one member of the ruling family knocking off the family member on the throne, and taking over. So the same family remains in power. That is why Prof Ondo Ossa talks of a Palace Revolution, meaning it is just a major change within the house or the palace. General Nguema knocked off his cousin from the throne and took over power. As one analyst said about the change in Gabon: ‘Le nouveau navie est toujours Bongo, sauf que ca juse change le nom”, meaning that: “The new vessel or ship is still Bongo, only that the name has changed”.
Ali Bongo Contributed Much To The Making Of General Nguema
So though General Nguema led the coup that overthrew President Ali Bongo’s Government, it does not cancel the fact that he and Ali Bongo are cousins. The Presidency will one day pass, but the family will remain. That is a fact. Also, Ali Bongo contributed much to make General Nguema the powerful military figure that he became. It was Ali Bongo for example that appointed him Commander of the Republican Guard, and it was definitely because of their blood relation.
It was clear from the very first day that General Nguema was going to play very soft on the ousted President, Ali Bongo. When French newspaper, Le Monde, asked General Nguema in the afternoon of August 30 as to what would happen to Ali Bongo, he said Ali Bongo will go on retirement, and live his normal free life like all those on retirement.

Only One Member Of Bongo Family Arrested So Far

Only one member of the Bongo Family in Gabon is known to have been arrested so far, and it is Nourrendin Valentin Bongo Ondimba, the son of the ousted President, Ali Bongo. Nourredin Bongo was in a group of six persons that were arrested on the same day that the coup took place. The other five persons included: Ian Ghislain Ngoulou who was President Bongo’s Director of Cabinet, Mohamed Ali Saliou, who was the Deputy Chief of Cabinet, Abdul Hosseini and Jessye Ella Ekogha who were President Bongo’s Advisers, and Steve Nzegho Dieko and Cyriaque Mvourandjiami of ‘Parti Democratique Gabonais, PDG, which had been the ruling party in Gabon since 1967.
The six persons including Nourredin Bongo, were charged for: “Haute trahison, detournement de deniers public, malversations financieres internationales, faux et usage de faux, falsification de la signature du President de la Republic, corruption active, et traffic de stupefiants’. The charges against the six persons included: High Treason, Embezzlement of Public Funds, international Financial Malpractices, Fraud, Falsification or the Forging of the Signature of the President of the Republic, Corruption, and Drug Trafficking”.
The fact that these charges were leveled on these persons on that same day they were arrested, which was on August 30 that the coup took place, meant that the charges were prepared before the day of the coup d;etat. These are also very serious charges. To accuse somebody of high treason! Hmmmmmm!
Former President of National Assembly, And Others Still In Detention
One of the major problems that the President of the Transition, General Nguema, is certainly going to face after the liberation of former President, Ali Bongo, is what to do with the other top personalities of the ousted Bongo regime, like the former President of the National Assembly and the former President of Senate, who were all arrested in a dramatized faction, and are in detention. How will he continue to keep these barons of the former regime in detention, when the head or leader of the regime has been liberated? These other personalities too have families, friends, tribes, sympathizers and so on. Soon Gabonese will start complaining of nepotism, favouritism, tribalism, discrimination and so on.

Ali Bongo’s Former Prime Minister
Meanwhile, the President of the Transition, General Brice Nguema, on Thursday, September7, 2023 appointed Raymond Ndong Sima, as the Prime Minister of Gabon. Born on January 23, 1955 at Oyem in the North of Gabon, Ndong Sima is an economist. Politically, Ndong Sima is the creation of the Bongos, especially Ali Bongo. He comes from the Northern part of the Gabon which often feel marginalize by the Southern part of the country. Ndong Sima initially occupied a number of posts in the Public Service in Gabon. President Omar Bongo later appointed Ndong Sima as General Manager of the State owned rubber plantation company, HEVEGAB, just like HEVECAM in Cameroon.
After the death of President Omar Bongo in 2009, his son, Ali Bongo, who was a member of his father’s Government, took over as President of the Republic after a rigged presidential election, and created his first Government on October 17, 2009. Ali Bongo appointed Raymond Ndong Sima as Minister of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Rural Development. While a member of Government in 2011, Ndong Sima was the candidate of the ruling “Parti Democratique Gabonais’, PDG, in the legislative elections in Kye , in the Woleu– Ntem Province.
Then on February 13, 2012, Paul Biyoghe Mba, who was Prime Minister of Gabon, resigned. President Ali Bongo appointed Raymond Ndong Sima, as Prime Minister and Head of Government. But after local elections in December 2013, President Ali Bongo in January 2014 appointed Daniel Ona Ondo as the new Prime Minister of Gabon, and thus dropped Ndong Sima, who was very unhappy with the decision. In July 2015, Ndong Sima resigned from the ruling PDG, claiming that the party was not opened to criticisms and divergent views. But the Secretary General of the PDG, Faustin Boukoubi, dismissed the claim, and blasted Ndong Sima as an OPPORTUNIST.

Ndong Sima Was Member Of Opposition Coalition

After quitting the ruling PDG Party, Raymond Ndong Sima crossed to the opposition, and became a critic of the Bongo regime. He was a candidate at the 2016 Presidential Election in Gabon, and ended up with a humiliating score of 0.4 %. Ndong Sima again put up his candidature for the August 26, 2023 Presidential Election. The opposition party on whose ticket Ndong Sima was presidential candidate, was one of those opposition parties that came together at the last minute to create an opposition coalition. His lobby to be the candidate of the opposition coalition failed, as eyes were on strong opposition figure, Prof Alert Ondo Ossa, who was designated as the candidate of the opposition coalition known as ‘Alternative – 2023’. Ndong Sima and four other presidential candidates were obliged to withdraw their candidatures from the April 26 presidential election.
After the August 26 presidential election, the opposition coalition, ‘Alternative – 23’, declared that their candidate, Ondo Ossa, had won the election, and insisted that the real result of the election should be recognized by the Ali Bongo regime. Then came the August 30 Palace Coup, that ousted President Ali Bongo from power. The presumed winner of the August 26 presidential election, Prof Ondo Ossa, and the opposition coalition, insisted that the military junta should recognize the authentic results of the presidential elections, or order for a recount of the votes.
The Real Opportunist, Ndong Sima, Strikes Deal With General Nguema
But then as the Opposition Coalition continued to insist that the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of institutions, CTRI, should recognize the victory of their candidate at the August 26 presidential election, the President of the Transition, General Brice Clotaire Oilgui Nguema, secretly contacted the opportunist, Raymond Ndong Sima, behind the scene, and they struck a deal. Ndong Sima then withdrew from the opposition coalition, ‘Alternative – 2023’, and General Nguema appointed him Prime Minister. Thus the opportunist, Ndong Sima, who has betrayed the genuine opposition in Gabon, is coming in as Prime Minister of the country, for the second time.