Jean Marie Tassoua: Denis Sassou Nguesso has allowed himself to be taken hostage by negative elements of his family.

She is also meek and extremely religious. While the second, that is Edgard Nguesso, he is perhaps barred from showing what he truly is or the military laws prevents him to show a side of him seldom known of the Nguessos. Edgard Nguesso is humble and honest. He (Edgard Nguesso) also likes intelligent people. He also enjoys contradictory debates and admires professional journalists and responsible strong civil society organizations and its members. And paradoxically, Edgard Nguesso also likes pro-democracy activists and strong opposition activities. Edgard Nguesso is a generous person and also humane. But I doubt whether he is religious. However, one thing is clear, Edgard Nguesso is supportive of young Congolese and he seems very patriotic. He is also conscious that the current political class especially those of the ruling party, has contributed in ruining the country and have held his father or his uncle hostage.

However, Edgard Nguesso can’t express his feelings or opinion openly, because he is a soldier and also for fear that, he might be at best be a victim of calumny and blackmail or at worst, be poisoned, as it is the norm used to eliminate opponents within the clan. For above and beyond the façade of unity portrayed by the ruling Nguesso family, beneath hides a bitter intra family feud. In short, Lydie Hortense Kourissa and Edgard Nguesso are not the show and tell types or sections of the sprawling ruling Nguesso family. The showy or haughty attitude of most of the ruling Nguesso family is exactly what makes them to be abhorred by Congolese. The paradox is that, their living fathers or ancestors that are Maurice Nguesso and Denis Sassou Nguesso are a people who are humble, affable and kind. Although it must be pointed out clearly that, while Denis Sassou Nguesso may be charming and affable at first sight, he has an insatiable love for power. And his love for power is also what makes him very dangerous because he acts both like a serpent and feline, whenever he thinks his power is on the line or threatened.  Besides Lydie Hortense Kourissa, Edgard Nguesso, Rodrigue Nguesso, Marina Nguesso, Annie Rachael Nguesso, and Jennifer Nguesso, the bulk of the Nguesso children are really a pain on the back of several Congolese.

However, the most admired of the Nguessos is the patriarch Maurice Nguesso. Maurice Nguesso is loved by most Congolese because, he is open-minded and he is not tribal, regionalist or is not haughty. However, intra family feud, calumny and his advancing age is preventing Maurice Nguesso from playing the grand positive role, which he would have played on the side of his younger brother. But that role is now being played either by his nephew Jean Dominique Okemba or by his niece, Claudia Sassou Nguesso, albeit not always in a positive or in the manner that, the humble and bright old Maurice Nguesso would have done. President Denis Sassou Nguesso is like any other human being. He is not an evil man. But his lust for power makes him a dangerous man, but not an evil man. However, what I have noticed and he has written in his books is that, he loves Congo and  he also thinks that, as long as he is alive, he must be at the head of the country.  And regarding President Denis Sassou Nguesso, Jean Marie Tassoua once told me that: Denis Sassou Nguesso is a good man. But he quickly added: President Denis Sassou Nguesso has allowed himself to be taken hostage by negative or vile elements of his close knit family.

And Jean Marie Tassoua concluded: this attitude might be the cause of President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s political and even physical demise, as it happened with Marien Ngouabi in 1977.  Jean Marie Tassoua aka General Diap is the head of the Economic and Social Council of Congo. He was one of the leaders of President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s Cobra militia that fought and drove away from power, Pascal Lissouba, the first post independent democratically elected president of Congo. As for Pascal Lissouba he was driven away from power by Denis Sassou Nguesso in 1997. Jean Marie Tassoua also told me that, Denis Sassou Nguesso might be rancorous, but he seldom kills. To prove or convinced me that, Denis Sassou Nguesso is not an assassin as it is being propagated, Jean Marie Tassoua gave me a 1997 civil war anecdote.  

Jean Marie Tassoua told me that, during the final onslaught on President Pascal Lissouba, president called and told him along with Richard Mondjo, the current minister delegate at the Presidency in charge of Defense that: I don’t want to see the head of Pascal Lissouba brought back here on a stick. Jean Marie Tassoua went on: the president told us clearly that: All I (Denis Sassou  Nguesso)want is that, Pascal Lissouba should be driven, but his life and those of his family and those left around him should be spared. Jean Marie Tassoua is a close collaborator of Denis Sassou Nguesso and his house located in the north of Brazzaville was the headquarters of the Cobra militia and also hideout for President Denis Sassou Nguesso. I am therefore not surprised that he is full of praise of his leader. However, one thing is clear, everyone who has spent time with President Denis Sassou Nguesso including me, is impressed by the simplicity of Congo’s leader, but there is very little or no kind words for most his family, especially some of his children. The only exceptions being those earlier mentioned. Even Professor Claude Maylin, friend and private medical doctor to President Denis Sassou Nguesso told me this on the 3^rd of January 2014: the family of the president has made him to commit a lot of mistakes that could cause him his power and also his reputation.  

Professor Claude Maylin: They have forced or convinced President Denis Sassou Nguesso to construct a 6 hundred bed modern hospital in Oyo, his home town at the expense of upgrading and maintaining the Brazzaville University Teaching Hospital abbreviated in French as CHU.  And Professor Claude Maylin added:  some members of the Nguesso ruling family are even forcing Denis Sassou Nguesso to move the capital from Brazzaville to Oyo because of the alleged hostility of people of the capital toward them and more in a bid to keep power forever. Then Mrs. Benedict Bourgneuf, the former wife of Pierre Haim, a French businessman and friend of the President Denis Sassou Nguesso also told me that, her former husband gave President Denis Sassou Nguesso this advice: please keep your children and cumbersome elements of your family away from you and power. Allocate to them a monthly salary and you will rule or govern well and most importantly, you will be remembered by Congolese and Africans as great leader.  According to Mrs. Benedict Bourgneuf, Pierre Haim her former husband also told President Denis Sassou Nguesso this: Don’t also let or forget the friends and other people who helped you to come back to power.

And Benedict concluded: il n’ecoute pas or he (President Denis Sassou Nguesso) doesn’t listen.  Some members of the Sassou Nguesso family want to force or convince their father and uncle to move the capital from Brazzaville to Oyo, because they claim, that, the former is hostile to them. What they do not know is that, even in the latter town of Oyo, they (Sassou Nguesso family) are not loved either. And if the 2012 legislative elections are a benchmark or any guide, then the more extreme elements of the ruling Nguesso family will have to rethink their pet project of relocating Congo’s capital from Brazzaville to Oyo.