A strong condemnation has emerged from Hugues Ongoundou following a spate of insults directed at President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, his mother, and his spouse. In a particularly resolute statement, Ongoundou made it clear that his stance is not about endorsing the government or its policies. For him, targeting a mother and grandmother, who remains outside the political arena, or the spouse and parents of a public official, represents a fundamental transgression. This boundary, he argues, extends beyond the individuals themselves. Denouncing what he terms “verbal insalubrity” and the widespread normalization of obscenity in Gabonese public life, Hugues Ongoundou advocates for a clear distinction between the freedom to criticize and outright vulgarity. He has also indicated his intention to explore legal avenues for redress.
The affronts leveled against the Head of State’s mother—a discreet woman, a mother and grandmother with no history in politics—as well as those targeting his wife and the President himself, carry immense gravity. I must confess: these remarks left me utterly stunned.
My focus here is not on politics. I am not here to defend a record, an ideology, or any perceived closeness to power. My concern is something far more profound: the dignity, the values, and indeed, the very soul of our nation.
It is no longer merely three individuals who are being insulted.
When a mother and grandmother, a stranger to political battles, is dragged through the mud with vile language simply because she is the Head of State’s mother, a critical boundary has been crossed.
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 not 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 suffers.
It is our values that are eroding.
Ultimately, it represents a form of spiritual desertion by the very essence of a people.
And I choose my words carefully.
The symbol transcends the individuals
Within any nation, certain symbols rise above individual personalities. The mother embodies transmission. The grandmother represents memory.
The woman constitutes an indispensable part of family and society. The father, too, symbolizes this chain of transmission connecting generations.
When these revered figures are publicly humiliated and reduced to objects of political insult, a part of our moral heritage is trampled.
It is the symbolic backbone of our nation that is being undermined.
Not in its crude sense, but in what it signifies: power, uprightness, symbolic authority, and a people’s capacity to stand tall.
These excesses signal a suffering national body
What has just transpired must not be dismissed as a mere slip-up on social media.
These excesses are, in my view, symptoms of a national body that is ailing, suffering, and adrift. They bear witness to 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 that essential teaching appears to have vanished.
This 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 gains popularity, and the provocateur attracts more attention than the builder.
And when insult transforms into spectacle, when it becomes entertainment, when it evolves into a media commodity, it is virtue itself that ultimately gets relegated.
Every laugh, every trivialization makes us collectively accountable
I will go further.
Every Gabonese who finds humor in such abhorrent remarks, shares them for amusement, or contributes to their dissemination, participates, knowingly or unknowingly, in their normalization.
Every citizen who accepts the transformation of political debate into an insult competition contributes to the erosion of our societal markers. And each time we elevate an insult to celebrity status, 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 entertainment. We are all responsible when it becomes a directive.
We are all responsible when those who insult become the most listened to. I am not here to curry favor, prostrate myself.
I want to be unequivocally clear.
I am not here to fawn over the government.
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.
There is an imperative need to act against this verbal insalubrity that is progressively invading our public sphere.
Conversely, I wish to commend those Gabonese who challenge the President and his policies without crossing these unacceptable 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 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 carte blanche.
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 implies civic responsibility.
One can denounce.
One can investigate.
One can contest.
One can demonstrate.
One can challenge.
One can even be extremely harsh in criticism.
But an obscene insult targeting a mother or a woman is neither an argument, nor a sign 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 the public spectacle of parental humiliation.
I will assume 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 potential 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. As a citizen. As a son.
I want things to be clear: my objective is not to silence political criticism.
On the contrary.
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 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 foundations.
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 dismantle values become society’s role models, the state’s downfall begins with a 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 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, 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.
Now, it is up to each individual to take responsibility.
As for me, I have chosen to take mine.
Hugues Ongoundou