The Lebanese pseudo-distribution of power in Central Africa has not, it seems, stolen. But the dismissal on 26 October of Abdou Karim Meckassoua for alleged financial malpractice and his replacement by El Adj Laurent Ngon Baba at the head of the Central African Parliament, continues to fuel the controversy and conjectures in an atmosphere of recovery of hostilities on all fronts.
In the aftermath of this destitution caused by persistent rivalries between the former president of parliament and the president Augustin-Archange Touadéra, the ex-rebels of Séléka, who support Mackassoua, had given 48 hours to the representatives of the State to leave the zones of the country under their control. Abdoulaye Hissene, the president of the National Defense and Security Council (CNDS) grouping the groups of the former Séléka, had judged the dismissal of Meckassoua illegal. Hence the difficulties of the new speaker of parliament to impose in a country controlled 70% by armed groups.
Voted 114 votes in favor and 4 spoiled ballots in an explosive atmosphere (a shot was fired in the hemicycle), the newcomer is a Muslim. An insignificant detail everywhere else but not in this country in transition phase where the three high functions of the state (presidency, primature and presidency of parliament) are divided in the sense of a confessional and community representation.
Elected in the place of the popular PK5 deputy from Bangui, a predominantly Muslim neighborhood, Laurent Ngon Baba, whom some call El Hajd Laurent Ngon Baba, should still prove his religion as imams continue to doubt it in fiery sermons.
Laurent Ngon-Baba is a member of parliament for Baboua, a town located in the Nana-Mambéré prefecture in western CAR. The new president of the National Assembly has been several times minister under the presidency of François Bozizé between 2003-2012. An environmental lawyer by training, he is the chairman of the Party of Action and Development (PAD) and chairman of the National Committee of Pilgrimage to Mecca.
Renowned close to the president Faustin-Archange Touadéra, the president of the assembly does not have, it is clear, the same influence as his predecessor.