A high-ranked military official, Gabon coup leader General Brice Oligui Nguema served the ruling Bongo family for decades and was in charge of the elite security unit, the presidential guard.
General Brice Oligui Nguema appeared on television on Wednesday being triumphantly carried by hundreds of soldiers to cries of "Oligui president".
The coup leaders later named him "transitional president" of Gabon.
Nguema was known to be very close to the Bongo family and its inner circle. He is a distant cousin of Ali Bongo, the president he deposed.
Sterling career
Born into a military family, Nguema trained in Morocco, an Gabon ally.
After a brilliant career, he served longtime leader Omar Bongo as an aide-de-camp, from 1967 to 2009.
It is when Omar's son Ali Bongo came to power that his career began to slow. He was sent abroad to work at Gabon's embassies in Morocco and then Senegal.
After Ali Bongo came to power, Nguema was accused of having taken part in an attempted coup fomented by another general in 2009.
A trial was held in Libreville.
Nguema's involvement was not established, but he was removed from his post and sent to the Gabonese embassy in Senegal as a military attaché.
Sources interviewed by RFI said Nguema was unhappy to have been sent abroad.
“We know that when Ali Bongo was elected, there were conflicts between him and General Oligui," says Florence Bernault, a researcher at the Sciences Po Centre for History.
"So he was appointed to various diplomatic posts for a little while starting in 2009.”
Nguema was called back 10 years later, when Ali Bongo had his stroke, to serve in the presidential guard as the head of intelligence.
He had become a colonel in the meantime, and later general.
In 2020, Nguema was accused by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project of a conflict of interest. The organisation said he owned property worth more than a million dollars in the United States that had largely been paid for by cash.
Despite the revelations, Nguema remained as head of the presidential guard and of Bongo's personal security.
Bongo family tensions
Rumours circulated of tensions with Bongo's family – in particular with Bongo's wife Sylvia and son Noureddin.
A source close to the family told the French daily newspaper Le Monde that Nguema had been "in conflict for several months" with Sylvia, herself very influential, and Noureddin, whose power has grown since his father suffered a stroke in 2018.
"He always considered himself loyal to the president, not to his wife and son who ruled Gabon by proxy," the source said.
Political observers say Bongo's third term, which he he won in elections last weekend, was aimed at preparing his son for his succession.
To justify the coup, Nguema told reporters there was a "discontent" in Gabon that was compounded by the fact the head of state was sick.
"Everyone talks about it, but no one takes responsibility," the source said.
"He did not have the right to serve a third term, the constitution was violated, the election itself was flawed – so the army decided to turn the page."
