The people of Gabon awaits the fulfillment of Angima, with his severing promise with corruption and the previous regime news
After winning the presidential elections by 90%, General Press Olegia made a number of promises to the Gabonese people, foremost of which was improving the economic and living situation and fighting corruption, which were files that were the cause of the people’s dissatisfaction with the rule of the Bongo family.
The elected president will not find it difficult to get to know the secrets of the Golden Palace in the capital, Libeville, as he lived in his corridors years of prosperity when he was a military assistant to the late former President Omar Bongo between 2005 and 2009.
From the eras of Pongo, the father and son, to the stage of the coup, General Angima was influential in the presidential palace, and today, according to the constitution, the final decision in all the orders and decrees issued inside it.
Pledges
The president will have to fulfill the obligations he made on the election campaign, as he promised to diversify the economy, which mainly depends on oil and eliminating corruption.
In the face of the implementation of these promises, the general will face difficult constraints represented in the disengagement with the departments and personalities with which he worked in previous periods, and it was a reason for the spread of corruption and the waste of Gabon’s wealth.
Immediately after the election results were issued, Angima showed his desire to ensure work to fulfill his obligations, as he said in the speech of the celebration of winning last Sunday, “We have no time … tomorrow, Monday, the day of work and our country is under construction, and efforts must be made.”
Popular hopes
Gabon citizens hope that these elections will constitute a decisive stage in the estrangement with the practices that prevailed in the previous years in which the Bongo family was unique to the rule for 5 decades, and has acquired many of the country’s capabilities.
Many observers expressed their satisfaction with the recent elections that were characterized by security and calm, contrary to what was prevalent in the 2016 and 2023 elections, as the Internet was interrupted and the country lived waves of violence and turmoil that sometimes reached bullets by the security forces to disperse the demonstrators.
The supporters of the new president hope to continue to combat graft, and to investigate the spoilers who opened their files after his coup on August 30, 2023.
“Citizens in Gabon believe a person working with this enthusiasm can make a change,” Reuters news agency quoted a sociology professor at Omar Bongo University in Liberville, Dr. Joseph Tanda.
Fears
Analysts say the basic concerns are raised when talking about the president’s ability to abandon the generation of the Bongo family, and to cut it permanently with the past and its negative practices.
The expert in the Gabonese affairs of the Lafayette College in the United States, Rogers Uruk, believes that fears of the system are clearly manifested when we notice that it is an old authoritarian system that came in a new bottle.
Angima faced criticism about his wealth and financial resources, as he accused him of the project to report crime and corruption of buying cash real estate in the United States of America in 2015.
When he asked him the questions related to the sources of his wealth, he did not deny the charges against him, and he said that he would prefer to respect his private life.
As for external partners, especially France, the new head of Gabon is different from the leaders of the military councils in African countries, and there are no concerns about dealing with him, as he promised after coming to judge the preservation of the close and historical relations that link Libeville and Paris.
