By Gerauds Wilfried Obangome
(Reuters) – Gabon’s Brice Oligui Nguema will try to ride the advantages of incumbency and a popular crackdown on corruption to make the jump from junta leader to democratically-elected president in an election scheduled for April 12.
The 50-year-old general seized power in the oil-producing Central African country in an August 2023 coup against his distant cousin President Ali Bongo, one of eight successful putsches in West and Central African countries since 2020.
He promised in the days after the coup to hand over power to civilians in a transition back to constitutional rule, but declared his candidacy for president last month.
Nguema is favoured to win the eight-candidate race, in which his main challenger is seen as Alain Claude Bilie By Nze, Bongo’s last prime minister.
The coup was largely welcomed by Gabonese tired of 56 years of rule by Ali Bongo and his father, Omar, during which the country emerged as one of Africa’s leading oil producers but poverty remained widespread.
A new constitution championed by Nguema was approved with 92% of the vote last November and his very public crackdown on corruption is widely viewed as popular.
“Gabonese tell themselves that someone who works with this much ardour is trying to transform things,” said Joseph Tonda, sociologist at Omar Bongo University in Libreville, adding that Nguema was well-placed to win.
Yet Rogers Orock, a Gabon expert at Lafayette College in the United States, said it was doubtful the election would be fair, and that the true depth of Nguema’s reforms would be visible after his term begins.
“The question is how far-reaching he will be willing to take these changes forward once he has fully transitioned from a military ruler to a civilian president,” he said.
CONTINUITY AND CHANGE
Nguema, who was the commander of Gabon’s Republican Guard at the time of the coup, has styled himself since taking over as a crusader against the endemic graft of the Bongo era.
A week after seizing power, he publicly dressed down the heads of public agencies, ordering them to return any stolen money within 48 hours.
The clampdown has resulted in the arrests of several corporate executives and testimony by government officials before a commission investigating graft.
But Nguema has also faced questions about his own finances. A 2020 investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a global network of investigative journalists, found he had bought three properties in the U.S. state of Maryland for a total of over $1 million in cash.
He declined to respond to questions from OCCRP, saying his private life should be respected, and has not commented further on the matter.
On another major issue – Gabon’s historically close ties to former colonial master France – he has signalled continuity with the Bongo era, talking up his close relationship with President Emmanuel Macron and visiting France several times.
“We have very good relations and France is our historic partner,” he told Radio France Internationale last week.
That approach is markedly different from several other juntas that took power in the region since 2020 – including in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger – which have ended longstanding defence cooperation with France and encouraged growing public resentment over France’s historic presence in the region.
The election will be Gabon’s first since the August 2023 vote that directly precipitated the coup. Opposition leaders alleged fraud after Bongo was elected to a third term.
Announcing his candidacy last month, Nguema said he “dreams of a Gabon that rises from the ashes”. He added: “I am a builder and I need your courage, your force, to build this nation.”
(Additional reporting by Robbie Corey-Boulet and Aaron Ross; editing by Mark Heinrich)
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