Hugues Ongoundou urges an end to verbal abuse in Gabon’s public discourse

A wave of insults directed at Gabon’s President, Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, his mother, and his wife has triggered a strong response from Hugues Ongoundou. In a particularly firm statement, Ongoundou clarifies that his stance is not about endorsing the government or its policies. For him, targeting a mother and grandmother far removed from the political arena, a spouse, or the parents of a public official crosses a fundamental red line that extends beyond the individuals themselves. Denouncing what he terms “verbal insalubrity” and the normalization of obscenity in Gabonese public debate, Hugues Ongoundou advocates for a clear distinction between freedom of criticism and outright vulgarity, announcing his intention to explore legal avenues for redress.

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

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

It is no longer just three people who are insulted

When a mother and grandmother, uninvolved in political skirmishes, is dragged through the mud with vile remarks simply because she is the Head of State’s mother, a critical boundary is breached.

When a woman, a wife and First Lady, is similarly targeted by obscene comments, it is our collective moral compass that is under attack.

It is no longer solely the Head of State, his mother, and his wife who are subjected to insults.

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 spiritual desertion, a departure from the very essence 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 family and society. The father also represents this chain of transmission that links generations.

When these figures are publicly humiliated and reduced to objects of political insult, a piece of our moral heritage is trampled.

It is the symbolic strength of our country that is undermined.

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

These excesses are symptoms of a suffering national body

What has just occurred should not be dismissed as a mere slip-up on social media.

These excesses are, in my view, symptoms of a sick, suffering, and wandering national body. They indicate 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 transmission.

Today, a portion of that teaching seems 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, the one who provokes receives more attention than the one who builds.

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

Every laugh, every trivialization makes us collectively responsible

I 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 the transformation of political debate into an insult contest contributes to the weakening of our societal standards. And every time we make insult a celebrity, canonize the instigator, or promote them 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 very clear.

I am not here to curry favor with 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 insalubrity that is progressively engulfing our public sphere.

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

That 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 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 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 what respect is due 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 take 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 things to be clear: my objective is not to silence political criticism.

On the contrary.

I hope that we can restore 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 begins with moral decline.

I refuse this inevitability.

I refuse to let our mothers become targets.

I refuse to let our women be used as instruments of political humiliation.

I refuse to let our fathers be insulted because their children hold positions of responsibility.

I refuse to let 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 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.

It is now up to each individual to take responsibility.

As for me, I have chosen to take mine.

Hugues Ongoundou