2023-08-31 03:57:28
Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema is Gabon’s new strongman. Brandishing his green beret of the Republican Guard, carried in triumph by his men of this elite unit, the general was appointed Wednesday president of the transition by the putschists.
“Oligui president! “, chanted the hundreds of soldiers, after putschist officers announced that they had put an “end to the regime” of President Ali Bongo Ondimba, placed under house arrest. This scene of jubilation in the midst of the fearsome green berets, shows the popularity of this seasoned soldier, who quickly earned his stripes as an aide-de-camp to the former president of Gabon, Omar Bongo Ondimba, father of Ali Bongo, who had ruled the country for almost 41 years until 2009.
A soldier as discreet as he is secret
This 48-year-old man with an athletic build and a bald head, who is said to be as discreet as he is secretive, did not appear in the first three press releases he let read by colonels and lieutenant-colonels at the state television station. Including the one who inducts him transitional president, at the head of the “Committee for the transition and the restoration of institutions” (CTRI).
This respected and charismatic leader of the Republican Guard (GR), according to his relatives, had been at the head of the most powerful unit of the army since 2019. Renowned Francophile, he was very close to the former head of state Omar Bongo that he followed like his shadow from 2005 to 2009, and until the last breath of the one who was considered one of the pillars of Françafrique, in a hospital in Barcelona, says a former close collaborator in the office of the “patriarch “.
Discarded in 2009 after the election of Ali Bongo on the death of his father, he began what some describe as a 10-year desert crossing, as a military attaché to the Gabonese embassies in Morocco and Senegal. “He is someone who knows the Gabonese military very well, he is a good soldier, trained in good military schools”, that of the Royal Military Academy of Meknes in Morocco, confides a member of the Democratic Party Gabonese (CEO) of Ali Bongo, on condition of anonymity.
A man from the seraglio
Fang by his father, the majority ethnic group in Gabon, Brice Oligui Nguema, a man of the seraglio, mainly grew up with his mother in the province of Haut-Ogooué, the stronghold of the Bongo clan.
Returning to the front of the stage, colonel at the head of the intelligence of the GR in October 2018 to replace Frédéric Bongo, half-brother of Ali, he will be propelled only six months after general and at the head of the command of this guard praetorian of the presidency, imposing itself as the keystone of the security apparatus of the country.
A transition but without a timetable
At the head of this elite regiment, he had notably pushed Ali Bongo to improve the living and working conditions of his men: repair and modernization of infrastructures, financing of schools intended for the children of soldiers, restoration of certain accommodation… Measures that have allowed this “leader of men” to attract sympathy and respect from his family. “He is very taciturn, not talkative, but very popular with his men. He is a Julius Caesar, and Julius Caesar watches over the comfort of his legionnaires”, assures the same member of the CEO.
The former close collaborator also praises “a man of consensus, who never raises his voice, who listens to everyone and systematically seeks compromise”: he proved it again on Wednesday by uniting officers from all the corps of armed within the CTRI for a coup, with no reported bloodshed. But after having “retired” Ali Bongo, according to his expression, Brice Oligui Nguema has not yet set a duration for a transition before the return of civilians to power. Doubt hangs over his real intentions.
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