President Ali Bongo Odimba appointed Prime Minister Alain-Claude Bilie-by-Nze, a faithful and heavyweight of Gabonese politics.
Mo12345lemonde with AFP
The Gabonese Head of State Ali Bongo Ondimba chose, on Monday, January 9, as a new Prime Minister one of his faithful, Alain-Claude Bilie-By-Nze, replacing Rose Christiane Ossouka Raponda, appointed vice-president of the Republic. It is a heavyweight of Gabonese politics that Mr. Bongo has joined the presidential election at eight months.
Alain-Claude Bilie-By-Nze, 55, who has held several portfolios since 2006, was Vice-Prime Minister and Minister of Energy and Hydraulic Resources of the outgoing government.
M me ossouka Raponda, first woman head of a Gabonese government, is appointed vice-president, a vacant position since May 2019, whose function is to “assist” the chief of the ‘State but has no temporary role in the event of a vacation of power.
“By decree of the President of the Republic (…) is appointed Prime Minister, Head of Government, Mr. Alain-Claude Bilie-By-Nze,” said the secretary general of the presidency, Jean-Yves Teale, said before the press, Jean-Yves Teale . A few hours later, Mr. Bilie-by-Nze he himself announced the composition of his government: the previous one renewed almost identically for key positions and of intermediate importance, but going from 38 to 45 members with the Addition of seven delegated ministers. M me ossouka Raponda, 59, former mayor of the capital Libreville and Minister of Defense, was Prime Minister since July 2020.
The presidential and legislative elections must be held in the summer of 2023. Ali Bongo was elected for the first time in 2009 after the death of his father Omar Bongo Ondimba, who had led without sharing more than forty -one years Small Central African State rich in its oil.
“Natural candidate”
Since a stroke in October 2018 which held him long far from the public scene, the Head of State frequently reworked the government after having demanded, back from convalescence, of his ministers that They “get to work at the service of the population”. The presidency regularly subjects them to audits.
m. Bilie-by-Nze, who has already occupied key ministries, including foreign affairs, was also a political advisor and spokesperson for Mr. Bongo from 2012 to 2015. He is considered a loved one and a faithful of the chief of the ‘State.
The post of vice -president, entrusted on Monday for the first time to a woman, was vacant since May 2019, when the previous holder, Pierre Claver Maganga Moussavou – an opponent appointed there in 2017 after a political dialogue with the opposition – had been dismissed. The vice-president is appointed by the Head of State which he can at any time dismiss his functions. The position had been deleted from 2009 to 2017.
With Alain-Claude Bilie-By-Nze, it is a faithful and a heavyweight of Gabonese politics, which Mr. Bongo chose at the head of his government at eight months from the presidential election. Relectedly re-elected in 2016, with just over 5,000 votes in advance on his challenger, Ali Bongo, 63, is largely expected to be the candidate in 2023 of the all-powerful Gabonese Democratic Party (CEO) of which he is the Chef and who has been calling him for a year to be his “natural candidate” again.
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for the time being, the opposition is exploded in a multitude of parties but its leaders, whether they have already declared themselves candidates or not , call for “union” to “put an end to more than fifty-five years of Bongo dynasty”.