Arlette Soudan-Nonault: the IMF should follow the examples Germany and France

Endorsement of Denis Sassou Nguesso

On the 22^nd of September, in an exclusive interview  granted via phone from the Nairobi international airport, where she was on transit to New York to attend the UN general assembly and UN sponsored international conference on environment, Arlette Soudan-Nonault, who is Congo’s minister of Environment and Tourism and who was representing President Sassou Nguesso, said: “I am happy to announce that, the German organisation, GTZ  has offered the Congo Basin Forest that Congo is leading, the sum of € 15 million or FCFA 10 billion to help improve the Congo Basin Rain Forest management,  a forest which  absorbs 15% of the global greenhouse emissions”. She added: “Soon, it will be the French Agency for International Development or ADF that will grant my ministry, the sum of € 2 million or FCFA 1.2 billion. She went on:  “those grants are an endorsement of President Denis Sassou Nguesso and his government’s determination to fight against corruption”. She concluded: “the IMF should follow the examples of both organisations and countries and sign the bailout agreement with Congo that has been postponed a record six times because of among other reasons: corruption or ideological divergences. But I know that most of my ministerial colleagues are corrupt and I am today a subject of attack from them because they are jealous of grants that, my ministry is receiving and would have wanted that, it should be diverted to other purpose which weren’t designated for or misappropriated as they have done with other assistance from donor countries and organisations. But President Sassou Nguesso is determined to weed out corruption in governance. Hence he has created a new organisation to fight against corruption with more powers and equally be independent”.  

Imminent arrest of corrupt persons

She added: “It explains why some of my colleagues are in panic mood right now. Those who stole money and kept them abroad or who are corrupt because they are close to the President will be arrested. But she didn’t give any names or when the arrest will start.  She however said: “her ministry plans to create at least 10 thousand jobs and will develop historical or memorial tourism and ecotourism with the objective of making Congo become the first tourism destination within the central African region. Toward that, information offices displaying or providing the tourism potentials of the country have been opened at the Brazzaville and Pointe Noire International airports and obtaining of visas for tourism have been facilitated”.

Why is Arlette Soudan-Nonault openly accusing some of her colleagues of corruption?

Professor Elanga Christophe Ndongo Gilles, a political analyst based in Brazzaville seems to have an answer: “the current declaration from Members of parliament belonging to ruling and even government ministers accusing their colleagues and the President of the Republic of corruption is the result of the current infighting within various clans joggling for power. Arlette is the niece of the President and he has used her as a bulldozer or dispenser of bad news in pass, so it is not fortuitous that she speaks the way she has by not showing solidarity with her colleagues.  There's also the rumour of an imminent cabinet change, hence exposing each other increases the chance of either forcing Sassou Nguesso to drop long standing ministers accused of corruption or attempt to bringing rebels or opposition element on board in a bid to forestall any kind of uprising as economic crisis digs deep and discontents rises. But when Pierre Ngolo, Senate President and secretary general of the ruling party openly accuses Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso of corruption, it shows that, the President wants to show the world, especially the IMF that, he really means business in his fight against corruption and he is ready to sacrifice his son. It could also be a political tactics from the President who has not yielded to the recommendation of the IMF to audit the SNPC or the major public works ministry both accused of monumental corruption” he concluded.

Denis Sassou Nguesso, his clan and government now openly accused of corruption

It seems fear has escaped most Congolese, especially those in government and holding powerful posts, posts they were offered, thanks to the magnanimity of Denis Sassou Nguesso or members of his large and extensive family, who are present in all spheres of life of the West African state.  Why are some of his allies now loquacious   ?  An attempt is given below.

Family business

It is no hidden secret that, in Congo, members of the  ruling Sassou Nguesso family are either in government or have help appoint a government minister, member of parliament or mayor of a city or town.  It is a show of their manifest grip over the government. Three of Denis Sassou Nguesso’s children, namely: Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso, Claudia Sassou Nguesso and Stella Sassou Nguesso Mensah, are members of parliament under the banner of the ruling PCT or Congolese Workers Party. His niece, Arlette Soudan-Nonault is minister of Tourism and Environment. His nephews: Jean Jacques Bouya and Jean Dominique Okemba are respectively: minister of Spatial Planning and Major projects and Member of Parliament, while Jean Dominique Okemba is head of Congo’s national Security Council.  Rear Admiral Jean Dominique Okemba is de facto, the head of the intelligence service and national security.  Another nephew of Denis Sassou Nguesso, Colonel Edgard Nguesso, is the head of Presidential domains. In business, they are in oil, media, transport and construction, directly or through surrogates.  Congo is therefore in a country tightly controlled by one man and his family, where there is no free speech and wanton arrest of political opponent is prevalent. According to the local NGO, OCDH, there are officially 133 political prisoners held at the Brazzaville central prison and amongst which are two Presidential candidates: Jean Marie Michel Mokoko and Andre Okombi Salissa.  And according to Reporters without Borders or RSF Congo is ranked 114 on 180 in the 2018 World Press Freedom Index.  That people have started speaking out not only against corruption, but pointing accusing fingers at the President and his clan is not only a revolution but raises questions.

Why is it happening now?

According to Mrs. Olga Patricia Ndinga Somboko, who is a political analyst based in Cergy on the outskirts of the French capital, Paris: “Sassou Nguesso, his clan and government are showing signs of vulnerability seldom seen from a man who has been governing the country with an iron fist. They are manifesting their vulnerability by reacting to anything or news that pains them negatively.    Look at the way the pro-government privately owned daily, Les Depeches de Brazzaville has reacted to the recent novel of Alain Mabanckou. They reacted by writing three virulent anti Mabanckou editorials”. “The vulnerability also stems from the fact that, the family is not united”.  She continues: “They are divided in two main camps: those supporting Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso’s plans to succeed his father and those who are supporting Rear Admiral Jean Dominique Okemba’s covert ambitions to succeed his uncle as President of the Republic. It is the first time since he violent seized power in 1997 from Pascal Lissouba the only post independent democratically elected president that he is being challenged this frontally”.  She adds: “The primary reason is the economic crisis caused by the crashed in oil prices. Those he bought their loyalties have seen their pockets dried up or considerably reduced. The daily lives of people are not improving in spite recent appreciations of the price of oil at the world market”. She went on: “The other reason is the inability of the government to reach a bailout agreement with the IMF and which most Congolese think; the principal obstacles are absence of transparency in debts Congo contracted from China and other countries and also the endemic corruption”. She concluded: “While most Congolese live in abject poverty, the families of the President live in ostentatious opulence, characterized by the celebrations of sumptuous wedding like that of his nephew Cyr Nguesso that was celebrated yesterday. People are angry and those now speaking are those who saw him lost power in 1992 in similar conditions”.

Corruption

Mrs. Olga Patricia Ndinga’s observations on the internal feud which makes the government and the President appear weak and vulnerable could be correct. On September 27^th, Cyr Ebina, an MP of the ruling PCT and also a son in law to the President, in a telephone conversation, accused the President albeit in a veiled manner of covering corruption of members of government and his family. He added: “for any meaningful result in the fight against corruption to be visible, members of the Nguesso family and government ministers must be arrested and prosecuted. Sadly it is not the case”. He continued: “How do we think the IMF and the international community are going to take us seriously if we don’t genuinely fight corruption?” He concluded: “the current economic crisis is partly caused by the poor governance of Denis Sassou Nguesso. It is also true that, the fall in the price of commodity, principally oil has a fair share of the blame, but we are the architects of our current economic travails. If there was accountability and the rule of law, I don’t think we would have been where we current are economically. We would have been better. Why is Nigeria out of recession and we are not, while we are all exporters of oil? Do we think we will ever be able to sign any bailout agreement with the IMF in such circumstances of corruption and opaque financial transactions? I doubt”.

Mr Pierre Ngolo, Senate President and secretary general of the ruling Congolese Workers Party or PCT, in a press conference jointly organized with the Jean Pierre Thystère Tchikaya, minister of Hydrocarbons, who is accused of corruption, said publicly that, corruption was the cause of the economic difficulties that the country was undergoing. He openly accused Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso of not only being corrupt but also of nursing presidential ambitions. He concluded by calling on all MPs belonging to the ruling party and who are supporting Denis Christel via his association: “the Congo that we desire” or in French: “Le Congo que nous Voulon”, to stop because, they don’t have his support or that of the party. Paradoxically, Pierre Ngolo and Denis Christel are members of the same party, but are washing their dirty linen in public.

 In a telephone conversation on the 24^th of September, Joseph Kignoumbi Kia-Mbongou, an MP and second secretary at the Congolese national assembly,  accused President Denis Sassou Nguesso and his family of corruption. He said: “the ruling family has used the National Oil Company, SNPC as a corruption conduit”. He added: “in November 2001, a French bank, BNP loaned out FCFA 6.5 billion to SNPC based on collateral of 12.5 billion worth of crude oil barges”. He went on: “this sum disappeared in thin air”. Joseph Kignoumbi Kia-Mbongou was simply confirming a press release that he had made public in which he gave details of all the financial impropriates allegedly carried out by Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso at the SNPC. He concluded: “I want to be at peace with myself. I will make more revelations that I discovered when I was member of the finance commission at the national assembly. The Nguesso family has destroyed Congo”.

Rejection of corruption accusations

In reaction by phone from Brazzaville today Friday, Guy Marius Okana, a municipal councilor at the Brazzaville Greater city council and an aide to Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso said: “attacks from Joseph Kignoumbi Kia-Mbongou, Pascal Tsaty Mabiala or Pierre Ngolo who are accusing Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso of corruption and by extension his father, are campaigns of calumny from a group of people who are not themselves paragons of probity. Pierre Ngolo is a member of the PCT and as such, I would have expected that, any differences that, he has with Denis Christel should be ironed out internally and not publicly, this, in respect of recommendation from the 6^th ordinary congress of the PCT. Sadly he is washing the dirty linen of the PCT  in public. It is unfortunate”. He added:  “Pierre Ngolo is Senate President and secretary general of the PCT, why didn’t he resign from the post of SG of the PCT and allow his deputy, Andre Massamba to continue with the running of the party?  Why are they thinking that Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso has presidential ambition while his father is still president of the Republic? Is it a bad thing for Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso to come in support of patients and staff of the Brazzaville University Teaching Hospital that have been on strike and without pay for several months? When it was time to remove Gabriel Oba Aponou as head of the ruling party in Brazzaville because he was the head of the senate subcommittee on foreign relations or having the dual casket of Senator and regional party head, it was not normal, but when it is Pierre Ngolo, who is Senate President and SG of the ruling party, with doubtful management it is normal”. He concluded:  “Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso does what he does under the aegis of his foundation, Perspective Avenir. He is not corrupt as his enemies are claiming. Let his accusers bring proves and not rumours”. Pierre Ngolo’s accusations were a bold one from one whose meteoric rise politically, is thanks to Sassou Nguesso but was also another indication that, fear has deserted most.

Endorsement of Denis Sassou Nguesso

On the 22^nd of September, in an exclusive interview  granted via phone from the Nairobi international airport, where she was on transit to New York to attend the UN general assembly and UN sponsored international conference on environment, Arlette Soudan-Nonault, who is Congo’s minister of Environment and Tourism and who was representing President Sassou Nguesso, said: “I am happy to announce that, the German organisation, GTZ  has offered the Congo Basin Forest that Congo is leading, the sum of € 15 million or FCFA 10 billion to help improve the Congo Basin Rain Forest management,  a forest which  absorbs 15% of the global greenhouse emissions”. She added: “Soon, it will be the French Agency for International Development or ADF that will grant my ministry, the sum of € 2 million or FCFA 1.2 billion. She went on:  “those grants are an endorsement of President Denis Sassou Nguesso and his government’s determination to fight against corruption”. She concluded: “the IMF should follow the examples of both organisations and countries and sign the bailout agreement with Congo that has been postponed a record six times because of among other reasons: corruption or ideological divergences. But I know that most of my ministerial colleagues are corrupt and I am today a subject of attack from them because they are jealous of grants that, my ministry is receiving and would have wanted that, it should be diverted to other purpose which weren’t designated for or misappropriated as they have done with other assistance from donor countries and organisations. But President Sassou Nguesso is determined to weed out corruption in governance. Hence he has created a new organisation to fight against corruption with more powers and equally be independent”. 

Imminent arrest of corrupt persons

She added: “It explains why some of my colleagues are in panic mood right now. Those who stole money and kept them abroad or who are corrupt because they are close to the President will be arrested. But she didn’t give any names or when the arrest will start.  She however said: “her ministry plans to create at least 10 thousand jobs and will develop historical or memorial tourism and ecotourism with the objective of making Congo become the first tourism destination within the central African region. Toward that, information offices displaying or providing the tourism potentials of the country have been opened at the Brazzaville and Pointe Noire International airports and obtaining of visas for tourism have been facilitated”.

Why is Arlette Soudan-Nonault openly accusing some of her colleagues of corruption?

Professor Elanga Christophe Ndongo Gilles, a political analyst based in Brazzaville seems to have an answer: “the current declaration from Members of parliament belonging to ruling and even government ministers accusing their colleagues and the President of the Republic of corruption is the result of the current infighting within various clans joggling for power. Arlette is the niece of the President and he has used her as a bulldozer or dispenser of bad news in pass, so it is not fortuitous that she speaks the way she has by not showing solidarity with her colleagues.  There's also the rumour of an imminent cabinet change, hence exposing each other increases the chance of either forcing Sassou Nguesso to drop long standing ministers accused of corruption or attempt to bringing rebels or opposition element on board in a bid to forestall any kind of uprising as economic crisis digs deep and discontents rises. But when Pierre Ngolo, Senate President and secretary general of the ruling party openly accuses Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso of corruption, it shows that, the President wants to show the world, especially the IMF that, he really means business in his fight against corruption and he is ready to sacrifice his son. It could also be a political tactics from the President who has not yielded to the recommendation of the IMF to audit the SNPC or the major public works ministry both accused of monumental corruption” he concluded.

Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso: My actions are the constitutional rights of a member of parliament

In the interview that follows, with Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso, MP, says unequivocally that, he has no plans to succeed his father but instead working for the re-election of his father in 2021.

Elie SMITH: Since the publication of your book, there are rumors circulating in the Congo and beyond that, your book is actually your political manifesto for the 2021 presidential race. Can you confirm or deny here your 2021 presidential ambitions?

Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso: No, I am not a candidate in the presidential election of 2021. I wish the President of the Republic, Denis Sassou Nguesso, should and I have been working with others for a few months now, to actualise our goal of helping him to be reelected. To say that my book: “What I believe” is a political manifesto is wrong.  Readers will find in it that, there are no promises, no electoral statement, but a vision of what Congo could be in areas where, the Fondation Perspective D’Avenir that I created can boast of a solid record with less favored citizens of our country.

Elie SMITH: What do you do make of  accusations from some Congolese, who think that your father is encouraging to run for the 2021 presidential election, even though you have refuted the claims,   simply because he wants political power to stay within the Nguesso family?

Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso: These are allegations from Congolese who don’t know who the President of the Republic truly is. These repeated rumours; most often offends him because they are untrue. He has a different idea of ​​his function. The facts still contradict the rumor. If he had encouraged me to run for the 2021 presidential election as the rumour mill claims, why then I have I taken this solemn commitment that, I won’t run for the 2021 presidential election, but support him?

Elie SMITH: You are a member of parliament for Oyo, why carry out humanitarian actions in other places like Kouilou or Niari, which are way out of your constituency? Don’t you think that, it will be difficult to convince people that all you are doing is not because you want to run in the 2021 presidential election?

Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso: This last question is like an obsession. I answered it. For the rest, I did not create this fondation, Fondation Perspective D’Avenir, in order to make a career, but because my natural empathy has always led me to turn toward others. I enjoy helping or coming to the aid of the less privileged.  When I was elected MP in 2012, the after, that is  2013 I did something similar, so there is no link between my mandate and these humanitarian actions, which could or is being be interpreted as laying the ground work for my presidential ambitions.  Granted that, I am a member of Oyo, but I am an elected representative of the nation, therefore, of all Congo. My actions are the constitutional rights of a member of parliament, which is a national representation and not sectional. Let me use this opportunity to recall what our actions and our record are, we have carried out: large-scale vaccinations, community health campaigns, qualified professional training projects and offered scholarships to young people and those from less privileged backgrounds. I have always had as guideline that, the Foundation will intervene wherever there are needs and these simply means all over the national territory. In doing so, I or May I say, we are refusing acts of ethnocentrism or regionalism. Why will I focus everything in Oyo under the guise that I am an MP for Oyo, whereas I could help nationally? Is it bad what Fondation Perspective D’Avenir   is doing nationally? Please I will glad to know.

Elie SMITH: Thanks to your foundation, you have awarded scholarships, paid hospital bills and carried out many other generous actions in the country. Where did you get the money when the country cannot pay medical staff or pensions?

Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso: I thank you for qualifying the Foundation's actions as generous. But I must restore a number of truths. We are autonomous, independent of the State, even if we act complimentarily. It is wrong to say, for example, as you have just done, that we pay hospital bills. We have a mobile hospital, with all the latest technologies. These equipments are gift from our partners in Brazil and Morocco. When we vaccinated 130,000 girls against cervical cancer, the vaccines were offered to us by partners. As President of this foundation, I am constantly looking for sponsors and new partners.

Elie SMITH: As a Congolese, what is your view on the country's economic situation?

Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso: We are having difficulty diversifying our economy and we are too dependent on the oil and oil revenues. I am also aware that, we can’t overnight change an economy that has relied for decades on Oil. But also I think humbly that, we did not go far enough in what we undertook to develop an alternative economy in order to get out of the oil business. Diversification paths are possible. I mention them in my book. The government is committed to the development of certain sectors such as:  transformation   agriculture, forestry, livestock breeding, developing tourism or creating industrial zones, all of which contribute to job creation. It is necessary for the government to be resolute in its plans to diversify the economy, without which we won’t be able fight unemployment and maintained sustained economic growth. My role as MP, like that of the majority that supports the President of the Republic is precisely to help improve the situation even if much has been done under his leadership. It is also to provide solutions to help solve the problems facing Congolese, correct what does not give us complete satisfaction, because do not forget, this is the work of a politician and nothing else.

Elie SMITH: You left the SNPC, was it because of the pressure of the IMF, as some Congolese claim or as a result of a family quarrel?

Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso: When our leaders negotiates with the IMF, I can assure you that the issues and questions are not at the level of the people. So there was no pressure for my appointment in 2011 and parallelism of forms making, there was none so, when I left.  I move to another professional opportunity. It is as simple as that.  As for the other questions, they do not even deserve me to answer them.

Elie SMITH: What doing you make of the recent accusations by Pascal Tsaty Mabiala in parliament, where he claimed Prime Minister Clément Mouamba is afraid of leading a global fight against corruption? And also that, your name protect you from investigations?

Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso: Mr. Tsaty Mabiala is forgetting even the internal rules in parliament, he must in my opinion have a selective indignation or a variable geometry, which in Congo is often, dictated either by “belly politics” or when we are remote controlled by a major player of the presidential majority who wants to mess someone up. But let me reassure Tsaty Mabiala that I am doing very well, and that, the actions that, I am taking with my international partners with my foundation in favor of our fellow citizens from difficult backgrounds will continue because what we are doing is just right.

Elie SMITH: What do you make of accusations by a former trader with the Swiss based company that, between 2010 and 2011 you were paid through a certain Maxime Gandzion the sum of $ 15million for the sale of 13 million tons of crude oil?

Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso: It is an affabulation. I don't know why my name or that of my family must always appears in such cases. The SNPC has specific and responsible managers handling dealings with external companies or traders. And on the specific case of Gunvor, I think Thierry Mongalla has already responded to it in the newspaper La Tribune D’afrique and I support his declaration and may I repeat what he said: “there was no case of corruption at the SNPC in connection with that company. If anyone has proves, let the person produce them”.

Elie SMITH: Thank you very much

Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso: It is my pleasure

Denis Sassou Nguesso & the 1989 UTA airliner bombing

In fact, President Denis Sassou Nguesso had never had plans to leave power and even in 1992, he conceded defeat to Pascal Lissouba simply because, he was under pressure from late President Francois Mitterrand,  following  his alleged complicity  with Muammar Gaddafi in the bombing of French UTA airliner over the  Tenere desert in Niger in 1989. I was told by a person in Brazzaville whom I promised never to release his identity. The same source also told me that, in the Libya versus Chad war over the control of the northern Chadian territory of band Aouzou, Denis Sassou Nguesso was on the side of Libya. He went on: “since Colonel Gaddafi was a friend to Colonel Denis Sassou Nguesso, Libya’s leader, decided to send Libyan bomb experts to Brazzaville to plant a bomb in a UTA flight that was to fly to Paris via Ndjamena, the capital of Chad. And in Ndjamena, President Hissene Habre had to board that plane because, he was going to Paris, France”. My informant went on: “The Libyan plan was that, the plane will take off and explode out of Chadian territory, killing in the process the Chadian leader who was viscerally opposed to Libyan expansionism and who had inflicted heavy defeats on Libyan forces with the aid of French legionnaires”. 

He went on: “In Brazzaville, Denis Sassou Nguesso did inform three Congolese of the Libyan plan: Senator Oba Apounou, General Norbert Dabira and Auxence Ickonga, who was the third African director of Air Afrique”. He continued: “the mutual Gaddafi –Sassou Nguesso secret plan to kill Hissene Habre failed because, late Auxence Ickonga, who was a friend to late President Mobutu, decided to inform the second. And Mobutu in turn informed his friend Hissene Habre, asking him not board the UTA flight from Brazzaville to Paris via Ndjamena".  

He concluded: "sadly On board that, same flight, several Congolese lost their lives amongst them, the daughter of trade-unionist, Bokamba Yagouma. It also explained the reason why, Bokamba had a vitriolic anti Denis Sassou Nguesso approach in the 90s.  When the French discovered the implication of Denis Sassou Nguesso, their protégé in the UTA crash, they decided not support Pascal Lissouba. It was Paris own way to punish their protégé”.  Another informant told me: “when Denis Sassou Nguesso discovered that, it was Auxence Ickonga, who leaked the secret to Mobutu, Auxence was allegedly poisoned by Congo’s president using a woman whose name can’t be mentioned here on”.