Gabonactu.com broadcasts the entire speech delivered Thursday in Libreville on the occasion of the official release of the “Together for Gabon” platform.
NB: the pronounced contains much more information than this text. Watch the video at the link:
THE GABONESE NATION IS IN DANGER.
It is with gravity, and with complete responsibility, that I address you today. If I do so, it is to question myself with you on whether, before our eyes, we are going to let, without taking into account the judgment of posterity, our country, our dear Gabon, drift towards these shores. uncertain and dangerous, whose history teaches us, however, that they are never without major risks in terms of their impact on the cohesion of nations.
Gabon is a nation, one and indivisible. Also, my wish is to see, by calling on you, here and now, individually and collectively, each of us, take the time to reflect in order to look with lucidity, that is to say through “the “soul of the nation”, the imminent threat that the draft Constitution desired by the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions (CTRI), poses over our living together, by attacking it, through many of its provisions .
This is a serious time, our nation is truly in danger! Indeed, even before this project is adopted, our society is already torn apart, insulted and fractured. Dividing itself into two antagonistic camps, it implicitly denies itself as a single and united entity. However, in doing so, it comes to forget the inestimable legacy that we inherited from the Founding Fathers of the nation. Because, must we
remember, it was the Republic which founded the Gabonese nation, on August 17, 1960.
Through this provision, the Founding Fathers succeeded in ensuring that all Gabonese ethnic groups, and beyond, could, without conflict, constitute the living illustration of an idea, of an abstraction, by being the identifier of our beloved country, Gabon. We are therefore the active Gabonese nation. By proceeding in this way, they were fully convinced, because they were acutely aware, that this aggregation of differences and particularities was only possible from our common belonging to this Gabonese soil that we share. And this unique bond, in their eyes, was strong enough to achieve this patriotic and ontological metamorphosis.
Moreover, they unequivocally translated this creation into article 10 of the first Gabonese Nationality Code of 1962, in these terms:
“Acquired Gabonese nationality on August 17, 1960, as their original nationality:
1- All people who, on that date, were domiciled in Gabon, as well as their spouses and children. However, this general attribution of nationality will only take effect with regard to persons born outside Gabon and their children if, within the year following the promulgation of this law, they confirm that they intend to maintain their domicile in Gabon. Gabon by declaration addressed to the Head of State who, after investigation and unless he objects, has it published in the Official Journal. In this case, they will be deemed to have held Gabonese nationality since August 17, 1960.
Also affected by this system:
1- All people, even those not domiciled in Gabon on this date, who were born to at least one parent of Gabonese origin.
It is therefore in this context that the Pongwè, the Eshira, the Fang, the Téké, the Apindji, the kota, etc. became Gabonese of origin. It was the same for certain members of the “foreign” communities established in Gabon. These included nationals from West Africa. Hence the Paraiso, the Attiso, the Padonou, the Saïzonou, the Adon, the Soufianou and many others, who are among our compatriots. French men and women were not excluded from this attribution of nationality: Jean-Claude Brouillet, the creator of the airline Transgabon, was the emblematic figure. Among these Gabonese people, there was also the father of Mr. Jean Ping. The same is true of still others.
Since then, we have always lived like this, in good understanding. And at no time was there discrimination between “natives” and “non-natives”. The excellence of good neighborly relations favored this in a climate of conviviality totally assumed by all these Gabonese people.
Through this approach of wisdom, the Founding Fathers understood that a nation that we wanted to be in harmony with itself could not be built other than in the mode of inclusion. Thanks to this thoughtful and judicious choice, our country, our beloved homeland, has always been a haven of peace and stability.
With the draft Constitution of the CTRI, things are different. Clearly, the option chosen advocates the exclusion of a certain type of Gabonese, by denying them access to reserved functions. Only Gabonese men and women “born of Gabonese father and mother, themselves born Gabonese” will be able to access it. This means that our brothers and sisters who have had the misfortune of only having one Gabonese parent will now be excluded from the national community. Also excluded:
- Gabonese people with a foreign spouse;
- Gabonese people with dual nationality;
- Gabonese residents living abroad in the 3 years preceding the election;
- Gabonese people with a physical disability;
- Gabonese people aged under 35, old enough to vote and too young to be candidates;
- Gabonese people aged 70 and over, young enough to vote and too old to be candidates.
This aberrant situation, which defies understanding, is visibly the expression of the will of a man who thinks, through this strategy of eliminating everyone, to open the doors to supreme power, by not having no serious and real competitors including those coming from the Diaspora for example. And this is only the continuation of the skimming already carried out, through the Transition Charter, against certain personalities who participated in the management of this Transition: they cannot be presidential candidates.
Such sidelining is all the more unhealthy and unacceptable since the leader of the Transition is not affected by this discriminatory measure. However, there is no legal data to validate this sad option. This observation is so true that the nation cannot be made up of men and women who do not have the same status in the eyes of the law, particularly in terms of rights and duties. In other words, the crossbreeding which is the future of all human societies, the world having become a global village, can only be acceptable when it is located outside national borders. Notably
within the framework of the legitimate struggle for power that free democratic play allows. Only one condition is curiously required: you must have “pure blood”.
In any case, if the CTRI wanted to be consistent with itself, it should also have banned these pariahs of the nation from voting. Because voter status is linked to eligibility. And vice versa.
However, it is known that in all the skies where this choice has been favored, the results, sooner or later, have always been identical: bloodbaths, massacres and desolation. In this regard, Ivorianity and the case of Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda should normally be quite edifying, to bring to reason the promoters of this violation of democratic values. Especially when we know that the same causes certainly produce the same effects; and that, in all cases, it is always the nation that emerges bruised and in tatters.
Given these unfortunate precedents, if there is one reality that each of us must always keep in mind, it is that our nation is the aggregation of more than fifty ethnic groups, a particularity which made on site under perpetual construction. If it is incontestable that this ethnic plurality is an asset, a strength, it is equally incontestable that it can turn out to be a weakness, when it is called upon to serve not the nation but the promotion and defense of personal interests. And
when this is the case, we inevitably go astray. Has the CTRI thought about it?
The Founding Fathers of the Gabonese nation, aware that only the superior interest of the nation must be prioritized in these different components, had always been careful not to rush the foundations which are its base. They knew that in a multi-ethnic nation, the balance is always precarious, hence the constant search for a happy medium which contributes to the cohesion and solidity of the whole.
Because of this strong requirement, Léon Mba and Omar Bongo Ondimba, each in their own way, but with the same aims, have always been able to rise to the challenges. In doing so, they knew that our country, Gabon, is above all a melting pot of diverse origins and cultures. Hence the accuracy and pragmatism of their respective approaches.
It is obvious that, in its new version coming out of the muzzled constituent, the draft Constitution will not change anything essential to the evil which has undermined it since its initial drafting, the desired goal being always the same, namely to make the general President of the CTRI the future President of the Republic. All this despite the breach of the word given and the recourse to an inappropriate legal framework, because discriminatory where the separation of powers is in no way affirmed, thus favoring the presence at the
head of state of a president-king, omnipresent and omnipotent. In fact, a person that even the law cannot stop, but who will be able to do anything, without being accountable to anyone.
And here is preserving and reinvigorating the hyper-presidentialism which, since 1967, has kept our country outside of democratic norms, with its terrible collateral effects. This project ruins all the democratic achievements of the National Conference of 1990 and the Paris Agreements of 1994.
Today, we are given the opportunity, and we accept it, to get out of these legal and political ruts, a way of returning to true democratic practices. So why would this highly personalized constitutional project prevent us from reaching this shore of calm, serenity, justice and equity?
Looking you straight in the eye, must we accept that this is so? Must we accept that the old regime that we claim to fight is perpetuated, even worse, with all its darkest sides which have the name: the patrimonialization of power, therefore once again the reign of friends, rascals and inbred? If we’ve been wrong several times… That’s enough! You can’t be wrong forever!
Consensus having not been reached on the proposed project, with more than 800 amendments for a text of 194 articles, it is not too late to put the ball on the ground, as they say colloquially. Especially since prevention is better than cure. Tomorrow, at the time of the conflagration, it will really be too late. There is still time to rectify the situation and withdraw this deadly project, while seeking ways to develop a more inclusive and democratic project.
This is the place to call on the international community, in particular the ECCAS, the African Union and the United Nations, to help us move away from the paths of discord towards which the CTRI is leading us and to return to the path of concord, unity and fraternity desired by the Founding Fathers.
If this chance is not seized, we will only remember the truth that the army only leaves power by the same path that brought it there, that is to say by another coup. ‘State.
This is why we vigorously reject any plan to grant military coup-makers an amnesty enshrined in the Constitution. At most it would be possible to consider a special law, on the condition that the Nation is told the crimes and offenses for which this amnesty is requested.
In the coming days, we will announce an initiative to allow our fellow citizens to have a real debate on the nature and organization of the institutions which will guide our country for the coming decades.
Thank you for giving me a few minutes of your time. Only time will tell…
So that Gabon may live immortally, our beloved homeland!
Alain-Claude Bilie-By-Nze, Former Prime Minister
2024-09-26 16:02:55
#Full #speech #Bilie #Nze
