Declaration of assets: Oligui Nguema’s “forgotten” promises?
The Gabonese transition, placed under the banner of renewal and transparency by the transitional president Brice Oligui Nguema, seems to be moving further and further away from the initial commitments. Social networks are saturated with messages on this theme. In August 2024, the first leaked version of the new constitution included a clear provision: the obligation for leaders to declare their assets. This article promised a historic step towards greater transparency, aimed at proving the good faith of the leaders and restoring the trust of the Gabonese. But here's the surprise! In the final version of the text, submitted today to a referendum, this provision has disappeared.
Where does the money come from???
— ChunLi (@GyaLChunLi) November 7, 2024
Article 39 of the initial charter of the CTRI (Transition Committee for the Restoration of Institutions), which guaranteed the transparency of the leaders' assets, is now nothing more than a distant memory. The intention to make public the assets of the head of state and the members of his government has visibly been discarded, without justification. While we were expecting a signal of rupture, this erasure leaves one perplexed. And for good reason.
“Discreet” goods that raise questions
An absence that is all the more troubling when we discover, via certain sources, that Brice Oligui Nguema owns real estate far from Libreville. Indeed, as mentioned on Gabon 2025 recently, it turns out that a house, located in the upscale suburb of Silver Spring in the United States and estimated at several hundred thousand dollars, is put up for sale in the name of Brice Oligui Nguema. A legitimate question then arises : how can a colonel, then general of the Gabonese army, afford such a property on the basis of a public salary? For many Gabonese, the enigma is difficult to solve without leaving doubt about a possible personal enrichment during the transition.
The famous Gabonese of “native”. We would like to know how he obtained this money since apparently only dual nationals and foreigners engage in capital flight.
— TTW (@Pablerk) November 6, 2024
This house in Silver Spring sends a confusing message, especially on the eve of a referendum where we are once again promised a renewed and morally exemplary constitution. Can we really believe in this commitment to transparency when we see that those who advocate the "moralization" of institutions seem little inclined to set an example? And why sell it a few days before the referendum? Fear of the future?
Transparency: too heavy a burden?
The removal of the asset declaration requirement in the final version of the constitution raises an embarrassing question: do Brice Oligui Nguema and his entourage have something to hide? The initial commitments, widely publicized, advocated governance without opacity and a merciless fight against corruption. However, no member of the transitional government has yet provided this famous asset declaration promised in 2023. Transparency, hammered home in speeches, is long overdue.
Why such a precaution to surround oneself with silence on such simple questions? For a head of state who promised to "cleanse" the country of its past excesses, these gray areas are worrying. Is it possible that this removal of the declaration of assets actually serves to protect private interests, accumulated far from prying eyes, while the Gabonese people struggle to access basic services? And what about the general amnesty promised for all actors in the transition, would this serve to exempt them from being accountable to the Gabonese people for their enrichment during the process?
— Idriss Mayombo (@LEBIGsaid) November 6, 2024
What are they hiding from us?
While we are told of rupture and renewal, these contradictory decisions only revive suspicions of a continuation of practices of personal enrichment. For the Gabonese, doubt is now permitted: do the fine promises of transition mask a less noble agenda? The house in Silver Spring, just like the disappearance of the obligation to declare assets, are worrying signals that leave the shadow of doubt hanging. Added to this is the fact that the president of the transition is publicly the owner of real estate in Libreville that he rents to members of the Republican Guard, who are supposed to ensure his security in a manner that is, moreover, perfectly disproportionate.
If the constitution that we want to impose on the people does not contain this guarantee of basic transparency, then what is really hidden behind this "transition"?and these houses in Libreville that he rents to the Republican Guard while he is commander in chief? an opinion on that? 😆
— Séraphine Mavoungou (@serafinevg) November 7, 2024
The Gabonese people, a few days before a decisive election, have the right to demand answers. The silence only adds to the mystery.
