Gabon’s new strongman General Brice Oligui Ngueme, who is he?

The coupists that removed Gabon’s President Ali Bongo announced General Brice Oligui Ngueme as the Transition Leader.

Who is Ngueme? Until his appointment as the Transition Leader, he was the head of the Republican Guard of the Gabonese presidency, the most powerful security unit of the country.

The son of a military officer, Nguema trained at the Royal Military Academy of Meknes, in Morocco.

After his commission into the Gabonese Army, he served as an aide-de-camp, and commander in former President Omar Bongo’s Republican Guard until the former president’s death in 2009.

After Omar Bongo’s demise and the election of his son, Nguema was dispatched to Morocco and Senegal for diplomatic missions.

Nguema was said to have returned a decade later to become head of the Republican Guard. His unit of the Army who are responsible for security of the president, are recognized by their green berets.

As head of the guard, Nguema did his best to fortify Gabon’s internal security systems with reforms that were seen as elongating Bongo’s stay in power. Nguema was said to have even composed a song that included this line: “I would defend my president with honor and loyalty.” So Brice was truly loyal.

But when in October of 2018 the president suffered a bad stroke that left him terribly weakened, things began to take a turn for the worse. Everyone expected he would honorably resign and take care of his poor health, but no! With France’s encouragement, he stayed on, even when he could hardly walk. The Gabonese people were tired of seeing him and infuriated at the fact that he kept winning elections.

During an interview with Le Monde on Wednesday, Ngueme echoed those sentiments: “Beyond this discontent, there is the illness of the head of state. Everyone talks about it, but no one takes responsibility. He did not have the right to serve a third term. The constitution was violated, the method of election itself was not good. So the army decided to turn the page, to take its responsibility,” Nguema said.

There was supposed to be a meeting of the Generals to decide on a successor for Ali Bongo. When and how that will happen after his appointment as the Transition Council head is unknown. What is known is that his comrades love him, and are already calling him “President!”

In an incredible twist of fate occasioned by colonial Europe’s “democratic” misadventures on the continent, Africans are suddenly choosing military rule over civilian ones, at least under the circumstances. The days and weeks ahead are heavily pregnant. (With additional report from J.C.Okechukwu, a Defence analyst)