Rédaction Africa Links 24 with Gabon actu
Published on 2024-03-19 10:32:00
The High Council of Islamic Affairs of Gabon (CSAIG) has been experiencing instability in its management for over 20 years.
The takeover by CTRI on August 30, 2023, has given the Gabonese people hope.
As institutions and values are being restored, we hope that light will finally be shed on the creation of CSAIG and the disregard that a group of Muslims has always shown towards the founders of this institution.
For the record, Mr. Abderrahman Emery Nzamba Kassa, a High Dignitary of the Gabonese Republic, born on February 24, 1944 in Maghoumba in Moabi (Nyanga), is the first Gabonese insurer.
He converted to Islam in 1994 when his brother Mohamed Bilal Moussounda Ikapitte returned to Gabon.
As a Chief Civil Administrator, the late Abderrahman Emery Nzamba Kassa observed a bitter reality within the community he had just joined and decided with his aforementioned brother to address it.
Driven by a sense of patriotism, they then thought of the idea of uniting the different groups of Muslims under one platform, in order to promote the indigenous Muslim community (Gabonese converts).
It should be noted that the late Abderrahman Emery Nzamba Kassa was a close collaborator of the late President Omar Bongo Ondimba, both within the PDG (single party) and in the public administration, and later of Ali Bongo Ondimba at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Gabon.
During several of our exchanges, he confided in me that he had approached the latter to propose his project. It already bore the name of High Council of Islamic Affairs of Gabon (CSAIG).
Shortly afterwards, a report was broadcast on Gabonese television, in the news, stating the creation of the CSAIG, to the surprise of my brother Abderrahman Emery Nzamba Kassa.
He tried all possible means to recover his project, but in vain.
In 2004, lacking the spirit and letter of the CSAIG, the leadership team at the time was limited in terms of its proper functioning. It was then that the late President Omar Bongo Ondimba demanded that they seek out the creators, the masterminds, so that they could come and set up the project structure they had drafted, adding the charter.
As a good administrator and infallible writer, Mr. Nzamba Kassa wrote a very good document.
A congress was then initiated and Abderrahman Emery Nzamba Kassa was appointed Vice President of the CSAIG in charge of administrative issues, but for a short time. His outspokenness, which disturbed a young Muslim elite who had already begun to make a fortune around the CSAIG, cost him his position as Vice President of the CSAIG.
The charter he had drafted underwent a change that went against the spirit of community harmony.
With Ali Bongo Ondimba coming to power in 2009, the former young elite of the CSAIG became an elite that did not want to make something new out of something old.
They were extremely disdainful towards the founder, Mr. Abderrahman Emery Nzamba Kassa. Without any recognition.
Islam teaches love for one’s brother. We have always wanted Gabonese-born Muslims to be organized, protected, and informed.
To the President of the Transition, Head of State, Brigadier General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, our brother Abderrahman Emery Nzamba Kassa passed away in 2016.
We demand justice for the memory of this illustrious man who was committed with faith and selflessness to Islam in Gabon.
In conclusion, Mr. President of the Transition, Head of State, you are currently very committed to resolving the conflict within the CSAIG. We deeply regret to note that the same causes are producing the same effects. Today, the community is divided, whereas Islam is not a religion of disorder. Our brothers who are currently in conflict have set aside the principles of the Quran.
We believe that a general assembly of Islam in Gabon, an audit of the community, and then a congress should be organized. Without this process, our community will never be organized. A wrong has been committed within the Muslim community. There must be justice.
To my Muslim brothers, let the hidden hands in the shadows stop pulling the strings. Fear Allah’s anger. Learn to listen, consult, and respect the elders of the Muslim community.
I am an amir, and I will always tell you when something is wrong. I do not belong to any camp. I am on Allah’s side, therefore on the side of truth. Let us stop turning the CSAIG into a business object.
The time has come for me to stand up.
May Allah preserve the believing community of the Prophet Muhammad SAW.
Moussounda Ikapitte Mohamed Bilal Kil’Nguinz, Muslim brother of the founder of the CSAIG
Read the original article(French) on Gabon Actu
