A wave of vitriolic attacks aimed at President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, his mother, and his wife has triggered a robust response from Hugues Ongoundou. In a sharply worded statement, Ongoundou firmly asserts that his condemnation is not an endorsement of the current administration or its policies. Instead, he highlights the crossing of a fundamental line when individuals, particularly a mother and grandmother far removed from the political arena, an spouse, or the parents of a public official, become targets of such abuse. Denouncing what he terms “verbal squalor” and the normalization of obscenity within Gabon’s public discourse, Hugues Ongoundou advocates for a clear separation between legitimate criticism and outright vulgarity. He also indicated his intention to explore legal avenues for redress.
The insults directed at the Head of State’s mother—a discreet woman with no political involvement—along with those targeting his wife and the President himself, are profoundly serious. I must confess, these remarks left me utterly stunned.
My intervention here is not about politics. I am not defending a track record, an ideology, or any affiliation with those in power. I am speaking about something far more profound: the inherent dignity, the core values, and the very spirit of our nation.
It’s more than just three individuals being insulted
When a mother and grandmother, a stranger to political battles, is dragged through the mud with vile language simply because she is the Head of State’s mother, a critical boundary has been breached.
When a woman, a wife and First Lady, is similarly targeted by obscene remarks, it is our collective societal benchmarks that come under assault.
It is no longer merely the Head of State, his mother, and his wife who are being insulted.
Symbolically, it is all our grandmothers, all our mothers, all our women, all our sisters, and all our daughters who are being tarnished.
The very image of our country suffers.
Our values are eroding.
Ultimately, it represents a desertion of the soul by the very essence of a people.
And I choose my words carefully.
The symbol transcends the individuals
Within any nation, certain symbols rise above individual personalities. The mother embodies transmission. The grandmother represents memory.
Women constitute an essential part of family and society. Fathers, too, represent this chain of transmission that links generations.
When these foundational figures are publicly humiliated and reduced to objects of political insults, a portion of our moral heritage is trampled.
It is the symbolic backbone of our nation that is undermined.
Not in a trivial sense, but in what it embodies: strength, uprightness, symbolic authority, and a people’s capacity to stand tall.
These excesses signal a nation in distress
What has recently occurred should not be dismissed as a mere misstep on social media platforms.
These transgressions are, in my view, symptoms of a national body that is ailing, suffering, and adrift. They reveal a gradual weakening of fundamental societal anchors.
There was a time when patriotism, respect for elders, consideration for parents, and a sense of honor were integral to civic education and intergenerational transmission.
Today, a segment of this essential teaching appears to have vanished.
It is the misfortune of virtue and the prosperity of vice.
We are witnessing a troubling inversion: the one who hurls insults sometimes becomes a celebrity, the one who humiliates gains popularity, and the provocateur attracts more attention than the builder.
And when insult transforms into spectacle, into entertainment, into a media commodity, it is virtue itself that ultimately gets relegated.
Every laugh, every normalization makes us collectively accountable
I will go further.
Every Gabonese citizen who finds humor in such abhorrent remarks, shares them for amusement, or contributes to their dissemination, participates, knowingly or unknowingly, in their normalization.
Every citizen who accepts the transformation of political debate into an insult competition contributes to the erosion of our guiding principles. And each time we elevate an insult to fame, canonize the aggressor, or promote them simply because they create noise, we participate in the slow destruction of what should unite us.
We are all accountable when insult becomes entertainment. We are all accountable when it becomes a dictated trend.
We are all accountable when those who insult become the most listened to voices. I am not seeking favor, bowing down
I wish to be absolutely clear.
I am not seeking to curry favor with the authorities.
I am not seeking recognition.
I am not defending the Head of State against his political adversaries.
I am here to say STOP.
There is an urgent necessity to act against this verbal pollution that is progressively invading our public sphere.
And conversely, I wish to commend those Gabonese who challenge the President and his policies without crossing these unacceptable boundaries.
Responsible opponents exist.
Men and women who can acknowledge accomplishments and criticize shortcomings.
Citizens capable of contesting policies with arguments, without resorting to insulting the mothers, fathers, spouses, or children of those they oppose.
This is the essence of true democratic debate. Activism has nothing to do with vulgarity
Another misconception must also be dispelled. Being an activist does not grant unlimited rights.
Being an opponent does not mean one can say anything. Being free does not imply being irresponsible.
Activism is a form of civic engagement. As such, it presupposes civic responsibility.
One can denounce.
One can investigate.
One can contest.
One can protest.
One can challenge.
One can even be extremely harsh in criticism.
But an obscene insult targeting a mother or a woman is neither an argument, nor a display of courage, nor a demonstration of patriotism.
I have a father. I have a mother. And I am their son.
This sentence is perhaps the simplest in this entire statement.
I have a father. I have a mother.
And the fact of being their son connects me to an upbringing, a history, a responsibility.
I understand what respect is due to those who gave us life.
I understand what a mother represents.
I understand what a father represents.
It is precisely this upbringing that compels me today to reject the normalization of this media monstrosity.
I cannot expect my children to respect their parents tomorrow if, today, I accept the public spectacle of parental humiliation.
I will assume my share of responsibility
Faced with this situation, I will therefore take my share of responsibility.
I will engage legal counsel to examine existing legal avenues and the potential judicial consequences for such remarks.
This approach will be strictly personal.
I do not claim to speak on behalf of the Head of State, his family, his associates, or any institution.
I speak in my own name.
As a Gabonese. As a citizen. As a son.
I want things to be clear: my objective is not to silence political criticism.
On the contrary.
I hope that we can regain a political debate where intelligence, constructive disagreement, and responsibility progressively replace insult, obscenity, and humiliation.
We must choose between virtue and the normalization of vice
Gabon cannot sustainably settle into this pattern.
A nation is not solely destroyed by economic or political crises.
It can also be destroyed by the gradual collapse of its moral compass.
When insult becomes normal, verbal violence becomes acceptable.
When verbal violence becomes acceptable, humiliation becomes a spectacle.
When humiliation becomes a spectacle, those who produce it become celebrities.
And when those who dismantle values become societal role models, state collapse also begins with a moral collapse.
I refuse this inevitability.
I refuse for our mothers to become targets.
I refuse for our women to be used as instruments of political humiliation.
I refuse for our fathers to be insulted because their children hold positions of responsibility.
I refuse for our children to grow up in a society where vulgarity is rewarded more than virtue.
Enough is enough.
I am not asking anyone to love the President of the Republic.
I am not asking anyone to approve of his policies.
I am simply asking that we remain capable of respecting ourselves.
Because, ultimately, when we insult another’s mother, we also insult the idea we hold of our own mother.
And when a people no longer protects its own values, it begins to lose its soul.
It is now up to each person to take their responsibilities.
As for me, I have chosen to take mine.
Hugues Ongoundou
