A few hours after the swearing in of the members of the government, President Ali Bongo, whose state of health still does not reassure, has returned to Morocco. A “flash trip” in the country of Mohamed VI, that reinforces suspicions about the capacity of the head of state to lead Gabon.
His former Prime Minister Raymond Ndong Sima said that “growing doubt” is being felt about Ali Bongo’s ability to “fully assume the duties of his office” at the head of Gabon.
For the former Prime Minister, the arrival of President Ali Bongo in Gabon to take part in the swearing in of the members of the government was only to give “a semblance of legality” to the current “regency” of the Palace of the Seaside.
Raymond Ndong Sima regrets that during this trip, Ali Bongo “did not use this opportunity to meet the people for a few minutes and dispel his doubts”. And to add: “Those who organized this trip just wanted to ensure, behind a semblance of legality, the continuity of power in place.”
The former Prime Minister did not fail to denounce “the unfolding of the ceremony as the entire sequence from his secret arrival, the distance from the media, the lack of an audience outside the circle already to manoeuvre, the cancellation of the Council of Ministers announced and finally his quick return and just as discreet for Morocco.” These troubled elements “significantly increase the doubt about his real capacity to fully assume the duties of his office”.
Ndong Sima recalls to conclude that “Gabon is not a kingdom. It does not belong to a group of individuals regardless of the confidence that its members can rely on the part of the President of the Republic to rule in place of the people and to establish a sort of regency”. And to conclude that “such actions unnecessarily jeopardize the internal peace of the country”.
