Gabon – Let us reject tears and bloodshed#Gabon – Let us reject tears and bloodshed

Dear brothers and sisters,
Dear fellow citizens,

I write this letter as an ordinary Gabonese citizen to anyone who considers it worth reading and will try to understand its significance.

Our country is now reaching the end of a particularly intense electoral process. For several months, we have talked about this election. For several months, we have confronted one another on television, on social media, in our universities and in our neighbourhoods. On 31 August 2016, candidate Ali Bongo Ondimba was declared the winner of the election by the National Autonomous and Permanent Electoral Commission. The opposition disputes this outcome and is calling for a recount of the votes cast. The European Union and the United States of America, for their part, are calling for the results to be published polling station by polling station. On this basis, everything suggests that until the competent national institutions agree to take this course, it is unlikely that our capital will regain the stability and calm it lost just minutes after the official announcement of the results of the election held on 27 August.

For the past few hours, the scenes we have witnessed on the streets of Libreville have involved all kinds of violence: clashes between our security forces and civilians, violence by civilians against other civilians, vandalism of shops, cars set alight, and more besides. All of this is creating an atmosphere of insecurity that we cannot accept. As citizens, we cannot passively watch what, by every indication, looks like the beginning of a crisis that will last a long time unless we act with reason.

Acting with reason means that, in light of the above, we should all call for a recount of the votes and for the results to be published polling station by polling station. It also means calling for urgent talks involving the entire Gabonese political class, to identify the steps needed to resolve the crisis while taking proper account of each side’s basic interests. This is the only way we can fully work to limit the damage that our inaction will inevitably cause.

To those who, like me, voted for Ali Bongo Ondimba, I want to say that we should not fear what part of our people and the international community are calling for today if we have confidence in our victory. But if a recount were to result in the announcement of an electoral defeat for our political camp, we would have to accept the result and learn to become a new Gabonese opposition. We should remember that a considered political choice is never an inevitability, and the most courageous among us will know how to heed this argument.

We have friends, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and acquaintances in the opposition. Some of them will have decided, or will decide, to take to the streets to challenge the verdict announced on 31 August. The security and defence forces will face them in their role of maintaining order and defending the State. We cannot remain passive in the face of the inevitable outcome of such a confrontation, because we can all easily imagine what it would be. We cannot sit back and hope that it will all settle with time, because it will be the blood and tears of our fellow citizens that are shed. The price of blood and tears is hatred and resentment. We must refuse to inherit this legacy, which breaks with Gabon’s history.

I am speaking to young people: those who campaigned for whichever candidate they chose, at whatever level of involvement. I am speaking to young people from the governing majority and to those in the opposition. I am speaking to the young people who are in the streets today. Gabon belongs to all of us. We are this country’s future. The Gabonese Republic calls on us to disarm our hearts and to recognise and defend the nation’s higher interests. The campaign period is behind us. We must stand by our convictions at all times and in all places, but we must do so with dignity. Today, more than ever, we must avoid inflaming passions or provoking fellow citizens who do not share our views and commitments.

I believe in our young people.
I believe in Gabon.

May the founding fathers of our nation, our ancestors and Almighty God watch over us all and our families.

Théophane Nzame-Biyoghe
Libreville, 31 August 2016