Brice Oligui Nguema, the general who led a coup last week that toppled Gabon’s 55-year-old ruling dynasty, has taken the oath of office as interim president and promised “free, transparent and credible elections” to restore civilian rule, though without giving a timeframe.
He also pledged to grant amnesty to political prisoners and insisted the coup had saved Gabon from bloodshed after elections that were “obviously loaded”.
Oligui, the head of the republican guard, last Wednesday led officers in detaining the president, Ali Bongo Ondimba, a scion of a family that had ruled the oil-rich central African country since 1967.
The ousting came moments after Bongo, 64, was proclaimed the winner in the presidential elections – a result that the opposition said was a fraud.
In a speech after taking the oath of office on Monday, Oligui said the promised elections would be the stepping stone to “handing power back to the civilians”.
He said he was seeking the participation of all of Gabon’s “core groups” to draft a new constitution, which would be “adopted by referendum”.
Oligui, 48, wearing the red ceremonial costume of the republican guard, also said he would instruct “the future government … to consider ways of amnestying prisoners of conscience” and “facilitating the return of all exiles” from abroad.
After detaining Bongo, the coup leaders said on Wednesday they had dissolved the country’s institutions, cancelled the election results and temporarily closed the borders.
Other countries have not acknowledged Oligui as Gabon’s legitimate leader and he faces pressure to spell out his plans for restoring civilian rule.
In his speech, Oligui defended the coup, saying the military had acted to save lives after “an electoral process that was obviously loaded”.
“Without violence, clashes or loss of blood, the committee for transition and restoration of institutions changed the regime which for years had usurped the powers of the institutions of the public, flouting democratic rules,” he said, referring to the name given to the junta.
Quoting the South African anti-apartheid hero Desmond Tutu, he said: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
He hit out at “international organisations,” which he did not name, for criticising the military takeover.
Gabon joins Mali, Guinea, Sudan, Burkina Faso and Niger as African countries that have undergone coups in the last three years – a trend that has caused alarm in Africa and beyond.
Olugui said: “We are greatly surprised to hear certain international organisations condemn the act taken by soldiers who were simply upholding their oath to the flag – to save their country at the risk of their lives.”
Several western countries and organisations have criticised the takeover, while acknowledging it is different to others on the continent because of concerns over the credibility of the vote itself.
Oligui, who for years worked in the wings under Bongo and his father, Omar Bongo Ondimba, has held hours of high-profile discussions with business and religious leaders, unions, political parties, NGOs, diplomats and journalists.
He warned business leaders that corruption would no longer be tolerated and announced plans to change Gabon’s dysfunctional pension system, a bugbear for many people.
A fringe of the former opposition has urged Oligui to hand over power but many people in Gabon seem happy about the overthrow of the Bongo dynasty, with celebrations in the streets of the capital, Libreville, and the economic hub of Port-Gentil.
Bongo had been seeking his third term in office after coming to power in 2009 following the death of his father, who ruled for more than four decades and gained a reputation as a kleptocrat.
Footage on national TV on Friday showed the deposed president’s son Noureddin Bongo Valentin and other arrested officials in front of suitcases filled with cash allegedly seized from their homes.
The military has accused them of treason, embezzlement, corruption and falsifying the president’s signature, among other allegations.
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