Gen Brice Nguema, Gabon’s interim president has impose a restriction on members of his transitional government cabinet from holidaying abroad.
Oligui Nguema has also limited government officials to a maximum of one week of holiday leave.
These new restrictions were announced on Monday via a press release 064.
There is speculation that Gen Brice Nguema may be softening the ground to run for president in next year’s election – the first since he seized power in the Central African state, the BBC reported.
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He overthrew his cousin Ali Bongo, who became president in 2009 following the death of his father, Omar Bongo Ondimba, who had ruled for 41 years.
Since Nguema took power, he has sought to reassure the public that his military government is acting in their best interest.
However, he has not publicly commented on whether or not he will run for the country’s top job in polls that are planned for 2025
News of the holiday restrictions comes days before the first anniversary of the coup – when the junta’s record will inevitably be scrutinised.
Nguema may be hoping to draw favourable comparisons with the man he overthrew, Ali Bongo, who was known to travel overseas regularly and whose family owned multiple properties in France and the UK.
Read also: Gabon’s GDP per capita is nine times that of Nigeria
But he will no doubt be entitled to go abroad for official purposes.
A spokesman for the interim government Colonel Ulrich Manfoumbi Manfoumbi explained that “this measure aims to encourage a return to the roots and increased proximity with local populations”, stipulating that exceptions will only be made in cases of “force majeure” – a legal term meaning extraordinary events that are out of parties’ control – or on health grounds.
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