Offensive remarks targeting Gabon’s President, Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, along with his mother and wife, have elicited a strong condemnation from Hugues Ongoundou. In a particularly firm statement, Ongoundou clarifies that his intervention is not an act of support for the current administration or an endorsement of the Head of State’s policies. For him, deliberately attacking a mother and grandmother far removed from the political sphere, a spouse, or the parents of a public official crosses a critical line that transcends the individuals involved. Denouncing what he calls “verbal insalubrity” and the normalization of obscenity in Gabonese public debate, Hugues Ongoundou calls for a clear distinction between freedom of criticism and vulgarity, and announces his intention to explore potential legal actions.
The insults directed at the Head of State’s mother—a discreet woman, a mother and grandmother with no history in the political arena—as well as those targeting his wife and the President himself, are of extreme gravity. I must confess: these comments left me utterly stunned.
My focus here is not on politics. I am not here to defend a track record, an ideology, or any personal proximity to power. I am addressing something far more profound: dignity, fundamental values, and the very soul of our nation.
More than just three individuals are targeted
When a mother and grandmother, a stranger to political battles, is dragged through the mud with vile remarks simply because she is the Head of State’s mother, a fundamental boundary is undeniably breached.
When a woman, a wife and First Lady, is in turn targeted by obscene comments, it is our collective moral compass that comes under attack.
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 subjected to this degradation.
It is the very image of our country that is being tarnished.
It is our cherished values that are withering away.
Fundamentally, it represents a form of spiritual desertion by the very essence of a people.
And I choose my words carefully.
The symbolism transcends individuals
Within any nation, certain symbols rise above individual personalities. The mother embodies transmission. The grandmother represents memory.
The woman constitutes an essential part of family and society. The father also represents this chain of transmission that links generations.
When these revered figures are publicly humiliated and reduced to objects of political insults, a part of our moral heritage is trampled.
It is the symbolic backbone of our country that is being shattered.
Not in its trivial sense, but in what it represents: strength, uprightness, symbolic authority, and a people’s capacity to stand tall.
These excesses signal a nation in distress
What has recently transpired must not be dismissed as a mere lapse on social media platforms.
These excesses are, in my view, symptoms of a national body that is ailing, suffering, and adrift. They bear witness to a progressive weakening of certain societal benchmarks.
There was a time when patriotism, respect for elders, consideration for parents, and a sense of honor were integral to civic education and cultural transmission.
Today, a portion of this essential teaching appears to have evaporated.
This marks the misfortune of virtue and the prosperity of vice.
We are witnessing a disturbing inversion: the one who insults sometimes becomes a celebrity, the one who humiliates gains popularity, and the provocateur attracts more attention than the builder.
And when insult becomes a spectacle, when it transforms into entertainment, when it becomes a media commodity, it is virtue itself that ultimately gets relegated.
Collective responsibility in normalizing abuse
I will go further.
Every Gabonese who laughs at such abhorrent remarks, shares them for amusement, or contributes to their dissemination, participates, voluntarily or not, in their normalization.
Every citizen who accepts that political debate devolves into an insult competition contributes to the weakening of our societal benchmarks. And each time we make an insult a badge of fame, canonize the insulter, or promote them simply because they create noise, we participate in the slow destruction of what should unite us.
We are all responsible when insult becomes mere distraction. We are all responsible when it becomes a calculated strategy.
We are all responsible when those who insult become the most listened to voices. I am not here to curry favor, bowing down
A firm stance, not political appeasement
I want to be very clear.
I am not here to ingratiate myself with the powers that be.
I am not seeking recognition.
I am not defending the Head of State against his political adversaries.
I am here to say STOP.
It is absolutely necessary to act against this verbal pollution that is progressively invading our public space.
And conversely, I wish to commend those Gabonese who challenge the President and his policies without crossing these fundamental lines.
Responsible opponents do exist.
Men and women who know how to acknowledge what is done well and denounce what is not.
Citizens capable of combating a policy with arguments, without insulting the mothers, fathers, wives, or children of those they oppose.
That is the essence of true democratic debate. Activism has nothing to do with vulgarity
Activism distinct from vulgarity
It is also crucial to end another pervasive confusion. Being an activist does not grant every conceivable right.
Being an opponent does not mean one can say anything. Being free does not equate to 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 demonstrate.
One can challenge.
One can even be extremely harsh in their criticism.
But an obscene insult targeting a mother or a woman is neither an argument, nor a proof 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 education, a history, a responsibility.
I understand the respect owed 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 refuse the normalization of this media monstrosity.
I cannot ask my children to respect their parents tomorrow if, today, I accept that the public humiliation of parents becomes a spectacle.
Taking personal responsibility and seeking legal recourse
Faced with this situation, I will therefore assume my share of responsibility.
I will consult with legal counsel to examine existing legal avenues and the judicial follow-up that could be pursued concerning such statements.
This undertaking will be strictly personal.
I do not claim to speak on behalf of the Head of State, his family, his entourage, 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.
Quite the contrary.
I wish for us to rediscover a political debate in which intelligence, constructive disagreement, and responsibility progressively replace insult, obscenity, and humiliation.
A choice between virtue and the normalization of vice
Gabon cannot sustain itself indefinitely in this current state of affairs.
A nation is not solely destroyed by economic or political crises.
It can also be destroyed by the gradual collapse of its moral benchmarks.
When insult becomes normal, verbal violence becomes acceptable.
When verbal violence becomes acceptable, humiliation transforms into a spectacle.
When humiliation becomes a spectacle, those who produce it become celebrities.
And when those who dismantle values become society’s role models, state decline also commences with a moral decline.
I refuse this grim fate.
I refuse that our mothers become targets.
I refuse that our women be used as instruments of political humiliation.
I refuse that our fathers be insulted because their children hold positions of responsibility.
I refuse that our children grow up in a society where vulgarity is rewarded more than virtue.
Too much is truly too much.
I do not ask anyone to love the President of the Republic.
I do not ask anyone to approve of his policies.
I simply ask that we remain capable of respecting ourselves.
Because, fundamentally, when we insult the mother of another, 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 individual to assume their responsibilities.
As for me, I have chosen to assume mine.
Hugues Ongoundou
