Gabon: hugues ongoundou demands end to verbal indecency in public debate

A powerful statement from Hugues Ongoundou has vehemently condemned the insults directed at President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, his mother, and his wife. Ongoundou clarified that his stance is not an endorsement of the current administration or its policies. Instead, he views the targeting of a mother and grandmother, who remains outside the political arena, along with a spouse or the parents of any public figure, as a critical boundary crossed. He sharply criticized the “verbal indecency” and the growing normalization of obscenity within Gabon’s public discourse. Ongoundou urged a clear distinction between legitimate freedom of criticism and outright vulgarity, indicating his intention to explore potential legal avenues.

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

My concern here is not about politics. I am not defending a track record, an ideology, or any closeness to the government. I am addressing something far more fundamental: the dignity, core values, and the very soul of our nation.

It is no longer just three people being insulted.

When a mother and grandmother, entirely separate from political skirmishes, is dragged through the mud with foul language simply because she is the Head of State’s mother, a fundamental limit has been breached.

When a woman, a wife and First Lady, becomes the target of obscene remarks, it signifies an assault on our collective moral compass.

It is no longer solely 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.

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

Our values are eroding.

Ultimately, it represents a desertion of our national spirit by the very essence of our people.

And I choose my words carefully.

The symbol is greater than the individuals.

Within any nation, there are symbols that transcend individuals. The mother embodies transmission. The grandmother represents memory.

Women constitute an essential part of family and society. Fathers also represent this chain of transmission that connects generations.

When these foundational figures are publicly humiliated and turned into objects of political insults, a part of our moral heritage is trampled upon.

It is the symbolic backbone of our country that is being undermined.

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

These excesses signal a suffering national body.

What has recently transpired should not be dismissed as a mere slip 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 certain moral 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 that teaching appears to have vanished.

This is 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 becomes popular, the one who provokes garners more attention than the one who builds.

And when insult becomes a spectacle, when it transforms into entertainment, when it becomes media merchandise, virtue itself is eventually relegated.

Every laugh, every normalization makes us collectively responsible.

I go further.

Every Gabonese who laughs at such abhorrent remarks, shares them for amusement, 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 weakening of our moral standards. And each time we elevate insult to celebrity status, 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 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 voices. I am not here to curry favor, groveling.

I want to be unequivocally clear.

I am not here to flatter the authorities.

I am not seeking recognition.

I am not here to defend the Head of State against his political adversaries.

I am here to say STOP.

It is an absolute necessity to act against this verbal pollution that is progressively invading our public sphere in Gabon.

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

Responsible opposition exists.

Men and women who know how to acknowledge what is done well and denounce what is not.

Citizens capable of combating policies 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 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 mean being irresponsible.

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

One can denounce.

One can investigate.

One can challenge.

One can demonstrate.

One can question.

One can even be extremely harsh in criticism.

But an obscene insult targeting a mother or a woman is neither an argument, nor 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 address.

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 know what a mother represents.

I know 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 the public humiliation of parents as a spectacle.

I will take my share of responsibility.

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 actions that could be taken in response to 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 citizen. As a son.

I want to be clear: my objective is not to silence political criticism.

On the contrary.

My desire is for us to reclaim 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 destructive logic.

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, the state’s downfall also begins with a moral collapse.

I refuse to accept this fate.

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 fundamentally, 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.

Now, it is up to everyone to take their responsibilities.

As for me, I have chosen to take mine.

Hugues Ongoundou