2023-08-30 21:52:00
Charismatic leader, “highly appreciated by his men” but very discreet, General Brice Oligui Nguema took power in Gabon after the coup.
By NB with AFP General Brice Oligui Nguema has been appointed transitional president after the coup in Gabon. © – / Gabon 24 / AFP Published on 08/30/2023 at 9:52 p.m.
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Brandishing his green beret of the Republican Guard, carried in triumph by his men of this elite unit, General Brice Oligui Nguema, new strongman of Gabon, was appointed Wednesday president of the transition by the putschists. “Oligui president! “, chanted the hundreds of soldiers, after putschist officers announced on Wednesday that they had put an “end to the regime” of President Ali Bongo Ondimba, placed under house arrest.
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).
READ ALSOLaurence Ndong: “The Gabonese couldn’t take the Bongos anymore”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 former relative… of Omar Bongo
This respected and charismatic leader of the Republican Guard (GR), according to those close to him, had been at the head of the most powerful unit of the army since 2019. Reputed to be a Francophile, he was very close to the former head of state whom 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, tells Agence France-Presse a former close collaborator in the office of the “patriarch”.
READ ALSONiger, Gabon: “France has not seen Africa go global”Dismissed 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.
The duration of the transition still unknown
Fang by his father, the majority ethnic group in Gabon, this 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, establishing itself as the keystone of the security system of the country. READ ALSONo less than 146 putsches in Africa since 1952
At the head of this elite regiment, he notably pushed Ali Bongo to improve the living and working conditions of his men: repair and modernization of infrastructure, financing of schools for the children of soldiers, restoration of certain accommodation. .. Measures that have enabled 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 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 army corps in the CTRI for a coup, with no reported bloodshed. But after having “retired” Ali Bongo, in the words of Brice Oligui, he has not yet set a duration for a transition before the return of civilians to power, leaving doubts about his intentions.
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