Rédaction Africa Links 24 with Griffin Ondo Nzuey
Published on 2024-03-19 12:17:54
Defending the PSGE as an ambitious development model that would have allowed Gabonese people to have a better quality of life, the former Prime Minister said on Tuesday, March 19 that he was among those who failed to materialize this ambition promoted by Ali Bongo. He called for unity around the military in power to ensure a new future for Gabon, while avoiding falling back into personality cult and the appropriation of power and wealth of the country.
As Prime Minister from January 2019 to July 2020 after several stints in the government since 2018, Julien Nkoghe Bekale takes responsibility for both the failures and successes of Ali Bongo’s time in power over the last 14 years. While he believes that the Strategic Plan for an Emerging Gabon (PSGE) of the deposed president “constituted an ambitious development model capable of transforming the face of Gabon”, on March 19, during a statement in Libreville, he acknowledged that this vision could not be realized. He blamed the “internal contingencies caused by deviant behaviors” under which some leaders were subjected, despite the “courageous reforms carried out in several areas”.
“I must admit that the management of the state and public affairs in recent years has not been perfect, and that many political and legal choices were not always in line with our values and the expectations of many of our compatriots,” declared the one who presents himself as a militant of the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) despite the criticisms directed at the former ruling party and calls for its outright dissolution. “Who has never sinned and who has never been wrong?” he asked before continuing, “Yes, we have made mistakes, I confess and admit it. Perhaps we were not brave enough to denounce the observed drifts.”
Support for the CTRI, but without personality cult
After repentance and requesting “forgiveness and indulgence from the Gabonese people for the mistakes made and for the controversial positions” he defended in the past, Julien Nkoghe Bekale believed that there are still chances to build a new Gabon. He invited those of his compatriots who share the same aspirations as him to support the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions (CTRI).
“It is imperative for each of us to set aside our ambitions, our ego so that we all come together with the CTRI and its president, Brigadier General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema. Yes, unity around the CTRI is the only way to succeed in the ongoing transition process,” he said, while urging, “We stumbled on governance. We must rise and avoid stumbling again, and commit ourselves durably and sincerely to a new governance that excludes personality cult and the appropriation of power and wealth of the country.”
Read the original article(French) on Gabon Review
