Gabonese General Brice Oligui Nguema, who last week led a coup ending 55 years of rule by the Bongo dynasty, was sworn in on Monday as interim president, AFP journalists saw. "I swear before God and the Gabonese people to faithfully preserve the republican regime," said Oligui, who has pledged to hold elections after a still-unspecified transition period.
Gabon's new strongman on Friday vowed the country's institutions would be more democratic, two days after heading a coup that ended 55 years of rule by the Bongo family. But other countries have not acknowledged him as Gabon's legitimate leader and he faces pressure to spell out his plans for restoring civilian rule.
"The dissolution of the institutions" decreed on Wednesday during the coup "is temporary", he said in a speech. "It is a question of reorganizing them in order to make them more democratic." Oligui also stepped up contacts with national groups and foreign interests, meeting members of civil society a day after a speech to 200 businessmen, whom he lectured on corruption. Broadcast on state television earlier Friday, he sternly warned business leaders in the oil-rich state against "over-billing" and told them to commit to the "development of the country. "It is difficult to perceive, at this stage, your commitment or patriotism when it comes to the development expected by our compatriots," Oligui said. He vowed to make sure the overcharged money "comes back to the state. "This situation, for me, cannot continue, and I will not tolerate it".
Oligui, the head of the elite Republican Guard, on Wednesday, led officers in a coup against President Ali Bongo Ondimba, scion of a family that had ruled for 55 years. The ouster came just moments after Bongo, 64, was proclaimed victor in presidential elections at the weekend – a result branded a fraud by the opposition. The coup leaders said they had dissolved the nation's institutions, canceled the election results and closed the borders.