A wave of insults targeting President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, alongside his mother and wife, has prompted a strong reaction from Hugues Ongoundou. In a particularly firm statement, Ongoundou clarifies that his stance is not an endorsement of the current administration or its policies. Instead, he views the personal attacks on the President’s mother—a private individual far removed from political life—his spouse, and the parents of public figures as crossing an unacceptable boundary that transcends individual personalities. Denouncing what he terms “verbal degradation” and the normalization of obscenity within the Gabonese public arena, Hugues Ongoundou advocates for a clear distinction between legitimate criticism and outright vulgarity. He also indicates his intention to explore legal avenues to address these egregious remarks.
The offensive comments 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 statements left me utterly speechless.
My concern here is not politics. I am not here to defend a track record, an ideology, or any affiliation with the government. I am addressing something far more fundamental: the dignity, core values, and the very essence of our nation.
More than just three individuals are being insulted.
When a mother and grandmother, uninvolved in political contests, is dragged through the mud with vile language simply because she is the Head of State’s mother, a critical boundary is breached.
When a woman, a spouse and First Lady, becomes a target of obscene remarks, our collective moral compass is under attack.
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 tarnished.
It is our values that are eroding.
Ultimately, it represents a form of 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, there are symbols that transcend individuals. The mother embodies transmission. The grandmother represents memory.
The woman constitutes an essential part of the family and society. The father also represents this chain of transmission connecting 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 strength of our nation that is undermined.
Not in its trivial 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 transpired should 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 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 marks 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, the provocateur attracts more attention than the builder.
And when insult becomes a spectacle, when it becomes entertainment, when it transforms into media merchandise, virtue itself is ultimately relegated.
Every laugh, every trivialization 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—voluntarily or not—in their normalization.
Every citizen who accepts the transformation of political debate into an insult competition contributes to the erosion of our moral standards. 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 commodity.
We are all responsible when those who insult become the most listened to. I am not here to curry favor, groveling.
I want to be very clear.
I am not here to flatter 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 urgent need to act against this verbal degradation that is progressively invading our public sphere.
And I wish to commend, conversely, those Gabonese who challenge the President and his policies without crossing these red lines.
Responsible opposition exists.
Men and women who know how to acknowledge what is done well and denounce what is not.
Citizens capable of challenging 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 dispute.
One can demonstrate.
One can challenge.
One can even be extremely harsh in criticism.
But obscene insults targeting a mother or a woman are 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 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 responsibility.
I will consult with legal counsel to examine existing legal avenues and 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 to be clear: my objective is not to silence political criticism.
Quite the opposite.
I desire 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 pattern.
A nation is not destroyed solely 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 decline also begins with moral decline.
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 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, 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.
It is now up to each individual to take responsibility.
As for me, I have chosen to take mine.
Hugues Ongoundou
