Jean-François Ntoutoume Emane (born 6 October 1939Samy Ghorbal
"« Nous avons su garder le cap »"
''Jeune Afrique'', 20 November 2005 .) is a

Gabon Gabon ( ; ), officially the Gabonese Republic (), is a country on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, on the equator, bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo to the east and south, and ...

ese politician who was

Prime Minister of Gabon The prime minister of Gabon () was the head of government of Gabon. The position was first created in 1960, upon the country's independence from France, but was soon abolished by a new constitution adopted on 21 February 1961. It was, however, ...

from 23 January 1999 to 20 January 2006. He was Mayor of

Libreville Libreville (; ) is the capital and largest city of Gabon, located on the Gabon Estuary. Libreville occupies of the northwestern province of Estuaire Province, Estuaire. Libreville is also a port on the Gabon Estuary, near the Gulf of Guinea. A ...

, the capital, from 2008 to 2014.

Life and career

Ntoutoume Emane is a member of the Fang ethnic group from

Estuaire Province Estuaire is the most populous of Gabon's nine provinces. It covers an area of 20,740 km. The provincial capital is Akanda, but the largest city is Libreville, Gabon's national capital. The province is named for the Gabon Estuary, which li ...

., ''Afrique Express'' .Marc Perelman
"La longue marche de Jackie-mille-encyclopédies"
''Jeune Afrique'', 2 February 1999 . After working at the Ministry of Finance, Ntoutoume Emane was Personal Adviser to President

Omar Bongo Omar Bongo Ondimba (born Albert-Bernard Bongo; 30 December 1935 – 8 June 2009) was a Gabonese politician who was the second president of Gabon from 1967 until Death and state funeral of Omar Bongo, his death in 2009. A member of the Gabonese De ...

from 1976 to 1990. On 13 July 1977, he was appointed as Minister and Personal Adviser to the President, responsible for the coordination of the economic and financial affairs of the Presidency as well as civil and commercial aviation. He served as Minister of Civil and Commercial Aviation until 1984, then as Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs from 1984 to 1987. In 1990, he was elected to the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

as a candidate of the

Gabonese Democratic Party The Gabonese Democratic Party (, PDG) is a political party in Gabon. It was the dominant political party in Gabonese politics from 1961 until 2023, when it was deposed in a coup d'état against President Ali Bongo. It was also the sole legal ...

(PDG), defeating opposition leader Paul M'ba Abessole in the

residential riding of Lalala. He was appointed to the government of Prime Minister Casimir Oyé-Mba on 25 March 1994 as Minister of State Control, Decentralization, Territorial Administration and Regional Integration, but he declined the position. Ntoutoume Emane led negotiations with the opposition in 1994 that resulted in the Paris Accords. Standing as a PDG candidate in the fifth ''arrondissement'' of Libreville, he again defeated Mba Abessole in the December 1996 parliamentary election. He was appointed as Minister of State for the Land-Survey Register, Housing, Lodgings, Urban Affairs, and Spatial Planning in the government of Prime Minister

Paulin Obame-Nguema Paulin Obame-Nguema (28 December 1934 – 11 December 2023) was a Gabonese politician who was the Prime Minister of Gabon from 2 November 1994 to 23 January 1999. He was a Deputy in the National Assembly of Gabon. Prime Minister (1994–1999) ...

on 28 January 1997. Although he had been passed over for the post of Prime Minister earlier in the 1990s, Ntoutoume Emane was appointed as prime minister in January 1999, after serving as the campaign manager for President

during his successful re-election campaign for the December 1998 presidential election. He won a seat from Libreville as a PDG candidate in the December 2001 parliamentary election. After seven years as prime minister, Ntoutoume Emane was replaced by Jean Eyeghe Ndong after Bongo was sworn in for another term in January 2006. Ntoutoume Emane won a seat in the December 2006 parliamentary election, but on 31 March 2007 his victory was annulled by the Constitutional Court due to irregularities."Gabon : l'ex premier ministre Ntoutoume Emane ne sera pas candidat aux législatives partielles du 10 juin prochain"
Gabonews, 11 May 2007 . New elections for his seat and others with invalidated results were planned, but Ntoutoume Emane decided not to participate in the re-vote, and Gisele Akoghé took his place as the PDG candidate. In the April 2008 local elections, Ntoutoume Emane—a Vice-President of the PDG"Gabon: Locales 2008 / A Libreville, Assélé prône la « rupture » avec « les pactes non écrits » d’un maire Fang ou Mpongwè à l’Hôtel de ville"
Gabonews, 22 April 2008 .—headed the PDG list in the 5th ''arrondissement'' of Libreville, the capital."Gabon: sans surprise, large victoire du parti d'Omar Bongo aux élections municipales"
AFP, May 4, 2008 . In the 5th ''arrondissement'' the PDG achieved its best result in Libreville, with 12 out of 16 councillors; however, the party fell short of an overall majority in the city with 42 out of 98 councillors. Ntoutoume Emane was presented by the PDG as its candidate for Mayor of Libreville, and on 23 May he was elected unopposed as Mayor for a five-year term. He received 84 votes; the remaining 14 votes were invalid."Jean-François Ntoutoume Emane élu nouveau maire de la commune de Libreville"
Xinhua, 23 May 2008 . At the PDG's 9th Ordinary Congress in September 2008, Ntoutoume Emane was named as one of two Honorary Vice-Presidents of the PDG. Reacting to the inauguration of United States President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

on 20 January 2009, Ntoutoume Emane said the event fulfilled the dream of

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...

and

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister, civil and political rights, civil rights activist and political philosopher who was a leader of the civil rights move ...

, and he said that he had read Obama's books. He expressed optimism that Obama "has the ambition and potential to foster a real momentum for development". After the death of President Bongo on 8 June 2009, Ntoutoume Emane ordered the closure of all nightclubs and bars in Libreville to reflect a spirit of national mourning. Following local elections held in December 2013, Ntoutoume Emane was succeeded as Mayor by Rose Christiane Ossouka Raponda on 10 February 2014. He announced his resignation from the ruling PDG on 2 October 2015 and said that he was creating a new party, the Patriotic and Democratic Movement for the Refoundation of the Republic (''Mouvement patriotique et démocratique pour la refondation de la République'', MPDR)."Gabon : la grogne interne au PDG menace-t-elle réellement le parti au pouvoir ?"
''Jeune Afrique'', 20 October 2015 .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Emane, Jean-Francois Ntoutoume 1939 births Living people Members of the National Assembly of Gabon Prime ministers of Gabon People from Libreville Gabonese Democratic Party politicians Mayors of places in Gabon 21st-century Gabonese people