Paul Mba Abessole

Paul Mba Abessole (born October 9, 1939) is a Gabonese politician who heads the National Woodcutters' Rally – Rally for Gabon (Rassemblement national des Bûcherons - Rassemblement pour le Gabon, RNB-RPG) and was a leading opponent of President Omar Bongo during the 1990s. He stood as a presidential candidate twice during the 1990s and also served as Mayor of Libreville, the capital. From 2002 to 2009 he served in the government of Gabon, holding the rank of Deputy Prime Minister for most of that period.

Mba Abessole was born at Ngnung-Ako, located in northern Gabon, in 1939. He attended a French seminary and was ordained as a Catholic priest on 30 June 1968. He worked as a priest in Gabon until 1976, when he went to France, where he then lived in exile. As a critic of President Bongo and the single-party regime of the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG), he sought to stand as a candidate against Bongo in the 1979 presidential election, but was unable to do so.

Mba Abessole was the exiled leader of MORENA during the 1980s and argued for peaceful political change in Gabon. President Bongo, hoping to indicate that he was open to reform, allowed Mba Abessole to visit Gabon for a week in May 1989. On that occasion he was "treated more as a visiting dignitary than the leader of a suppressed political party"; Bongo met with him and said that he would consider Mba Abessole's proposed reforms. This conciliatory attitude from Bongo annoyed some PDG hard-liners. Following M'ba Abessole's May 1989 visit, he returned to Gabon on a permanent basis in November 1989. Bongo offered to appoint Mba Abessole as Minister of Justice after the March–April 1990 National Conference, but Mba Abessole refused to participate in the government.

In the 1990 parliamentary election, Mba Abessole stood as a MORENA candidate in Libreville. In the first round, he received 49.44% of the vote in his constituency, slightly less than the majority required for a first round victory; suspecting fraud, he refused to participate in the second round and called for a boycott of the second round.

On October 5, 1993, Mba Abessole announced his candidacy for the December 1993 presidential election. He was the main opposition candidate in the election and placed second with 26.5%, according to official results, while Bongo was credited with a narrow first round majority. Denouncing the official results as fraudulent, Mba Abessole declared himself President and appointed RNB First Secretary Pierre-André Kombila as Prime Minister. His house in Libreville, along with the opposition radio station Radio Liberty, was destroyed by the Presidential Guard in February 1994, and he went to Paris. In March 1994, Prime Minister Casimir Oye Mba offered to include the RNB in the government, but Mba Abessole rejected the offer. He also refused to participate in the government of Prime Minister Paulin Obame-Nguema, which was formed after the signing of the Paris Accords between the government and the opposition in October 1994.

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