Recent verbal attacks targeting President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, his mother, and his wife have drawn a forceful response from Hugues Ongoundou. In a particularly strong statement, Ongoundou clarifies that his condemnation is not an endorsement of the government or the Head of State’s policies. He asserts that assailing a mother and grandmother, who are distant from political life, or a public official’s spouse and parents, crosses an unacceptable boundary that transcends the individuals involved. Denouncing a pervasive “verbal indecency” and the normalization of obscenity within Gabon’s public discourse, Hugues Ongoundou advocates for a clear distinction between freedom of criticism and outright vulgarity. He also indicated his intention to explore legal avenues to address these harmful statements.

The insults directed at the Head of State’s mother—a discreet woman, a mother and grandmother with no political involvement—as well as those aimed at his wife and the President himself, are profoundly serious. I must confess: these remarks left me utterly stunned.

My concern here is not politics. I am not defending a track record, an ideology, or any affiliation with the current administration. I am addressing something far more fundamental: the dignity, values, and the very essence of our nation.

These insults transcend three individuals

When a mother and grandmother, who are strangers to political battles, are 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, becomes the target of obscene remarks, it is our collective moral compass that is under assault.

It is no longer just 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 debased.

It is the very image of our country that is being tarnished.

It is our values that are eroding.

Ultimately, it represents a spiritual desertion by the very soul of a people.

And I choose my words carefully.

The symbol is greater than the individuals

Within any nation, certain symbols transcend individuals. 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 figures are publicly humiliated and turned into objects of political insults, a part of our moral heritage is trampled upon.

It is the symbolic potency of our country that is being diminished.

Not in its trivial sense, but in what it embodies: strength, uprightness, symbolic authority, and a people’s capacity to stand tall.

These excesses signal a suffering national body

What has recently transpired should not be dismissed as a mere lapse on social media.

These excesses are, in my view, symptoms of a national body that is ailing, suffering, and adrift. They reveal a gradual weakening of fundamental 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 intergenerational transmission.

Today, a portion of this vital teaching appears to have vanished.

It is the misfortune of virtue and the prosperity of vice.

We are witnessing a disturbing reversal: the one who insults sometimes becomes a celebrity, the one who humiliates becomes popular, the provocateur garners more attention than the builder.

And when insult transforms into spectacle, when it becomes a diversion, when it becomes a media commodity, virtue itself ultimately gets relegated.

Every laugh, every normalization makes us collectively responsible

I will go further.

Every Gabonese who laughs at such abhorrent remarks, shares them for entertainment, or contributes to their dissemination, participates, willingly or not, in their normalization.

Every citizen who accepts that political debate devolves into an insult contest contributes to the erosion of our societal standards. And each time we elevate an insult to celebrity status, canonize the insulter, or promote them simply for making noise, we participate in the slow destruction of what should unite us.

We are all responsible when insult becomes entertainment. We are all responsible when it becomes a command.

We are all responsible when those who insult become the most listened to. I am not here to curry favor, prostrating myself

I want to be unequivocally clear.

I am not here to flatter 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.

It is imperative to act against this verbal indecency that is progressively engulfing our public sphere.

Conversely, I wish to commend those Gabonese who challenge the President and his policies without crossing these lines.

Responsible opposition exists.

Men and women who can 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.

This is the essence of true democratic debate. Activism has nothing to do with vulgarity

Another confusion 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 equate to being irresponsible.

Activism is a form of civic engagement. It therefore presupposes civic responsibility.

One can denounce.

One can investigate.

One can challenge.

One can demonstrate.

One can call to account.

One can even be extremely harsh in criticism.

However, 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 being their son connects me to an upbringing, 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 reject the normalization of this media monstrosity.

I cannot ask my children to respect their parents tomorrow if, today, I accept that the humiliation of parents becomes a public spectacle.

I will take my share of responsibility

Faced with this situation, I will therefore assume my share of responsibility.

I will engage legal counsel to examine existing legal avenues and the potential judicial actions that could follow such remarks.

This initiative 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 opposite.

I hope that we can rediscover 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 benchmarks.

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 destroy values become society’s role models, state collapse also begins with moral collapse.

I reject this inevitability.

I refuse to accept that our mothers become targets.

I refuse to accept that our women are used as instruments of political humiliation.

I refuse to accept that our fathers are insulted because their children hold positions of responsibility.

I refuse to accept that our children 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 individual to take responsibility.

As for me, I have chosen to take mine.

Hugues Ongoundou