With the help Sauve Gerard Malanda, the editor in
chief and Emmanuel Kaba, the publisher, we made or transformed Le Fanion, which
was a weekly that was published sporadically, into a regular publication and we
went ahead to make Le Fanion to become a daily that was capable to compete with
Les Depeches de Brazzaville. The media group MNCOM, was from without a formidable
thing, admired and feared by most, but in reality, it was at the image of
Congo: disorganized. Salaries of staff
are or were not paid regularly. Sometimes, staff stayed for 10 months without
being paid. More, the contracts signed with management staff or all employees
are /were seldom respected. The last General Manager of the group to be
humiliated or to go for months without salaries was Rene Michel Mboukou. He was
not paid for close to ten months, exhausted, he had to leave. But the man who
can be credited for putting order in the finances of MNCOM and also making
Maurice Nguesso to see or to consider MNCOM as a private entity and not a civil
service was a Gabonese accountant by name Florent Koumba. Florent Koumba and I
were known positively or negatively as the “Kourissa boys”.
The other person in the team who was also considered as
a “Kourissa boy” was Nick Sam Owosso. Mr Owosso was/is a Ghanaian, God fearing
man. We were called or identify as “Kourissa Boys” simply because we stood and
supported Mrs. Lydie Hortense Kourissa who wanted the media Group to be run or
be managed in an orthodox manner. But the sad thing was that, even though we
labored for things to be properly run, most decisions were taken from without,
by Maurice Nguesso and his team or his boys who were known as the “Maurice Boys”.
MNCOM decisions were not made by the legitimate
management headed by Lydie Hortense Kourissa but from without by the closest
collaborators of Maurice Nguesso. These ones were those who imposed onto us
their way of doing things. And this type
of strange management, created tension between those of us working officially
and those who were collaborators of Maurice Nguesso and who felt that, they
were the legitimate persons. The other front was that of the family of Maurice
Nguesso and his 19 children. They all wanted to have a say in the way the
company was being managed or wanted to control the company even though they had
little or no experience in management.
This was so because, their father had enlisted some of
them to be paid or had become salarised staff even if they were not working.
They were four of his children who were being paid the monthly lump sum of FCFA
one million. Besides Mrs. Lydie
Hortense Kourissa, Maurice had another of his daughter by name Charden Nguesso,who was appointed as the
directress of Marketing. He also appointed another of his daughters as the
directress of the Impremerie Ayessa. While his son Rodrigue Nguesso arguably the best
vest in management, never got interested directly, but was pulling the strings
behind. The MNCOM media group was at the image of Congo’s government. The only
thing or component that was well managed and thus succeeded was the Radio and
Television part. And this was because, I managed it directly and this with the
support of Maurice Nguesso. The one good thing with Maurice Nguesso is that, he
has respect for people who know their job. It is only when he suspects that, you are not fit
that, he starts intervening and or allowing his collaborators to intervene. The
Television worked well because, I fought hard to establish it autonomy within
the group.
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