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

Congolese state captured by the Nguessos

In my understanding, although I could not find anybody to support or back it up, BMCE’s entry into the share of LCB Bank was just a ruse orchestrated by the President Sassou Nguesso to expatriate money from Congo to Morocco without raising any further eyebrows from the international community or from Congolese civil society organisations and political parties of the opposition. Denis Sassou Nguesso is therefore into the oil, publishing, banking and agro industrial sectors while his elder brother, Maurice Nguesso is the owner of the of the largest  and most diversified media group in the country: MNCOM. This company that is managed at the image of the country and it had the first digital network in the country via its pay per view TV: Mosaiq TV, Free to air TV: MNTV. He also owns radio stations in Brazzaville and Oyo, known as MN Radio and Maurice Nguesso owns the most modern printing press known as Impremerie Ayessa. He (Maurice Nguesso) also has shares in banks and aviation companies. As Maurice Nguesso’s profile had already shown, he is also into the logistics, micro finance, oil and agricultural sectors.

Claudia Sassou Nguesso

As for Claudia Sassou Nguesso, she is the Communications adviser to her father, and also owns a TV station called Top TV. Besides being into politics because she is also a Member of Parliament for Talangai electoral constituency, representing the ruling PCT Party, she is also into the oil sector through a company called Kontinent. The majority shareholder of Kontinent is Yaya Moussa, the former IMF country manager for Congo Brazzaville. Yaya Moussa, who is Cameroonian, is reported along with French man, Mathieu Pigasse and many others, whose names are not known, are claimed to have helped the Congolese government to doctor the country’s statistics in order for her to qualify for the IMF and World Bank Poor and Highly indebted Countries scheme. This information, I got from people working at the Presidency of the Republic in Brazzaville.  But according to some experts that, I spoke to, they are unanimous in declaring that, logically, the Republic of Congo won’t have qualified for the HIPC Programme if their statistics were not doctored as aforementioned. Hence the government requested the assistance of brilliant economists and with the complicity of a member of the IMF to lie for example on the population figure of the country.

Yaya Moussa

Earlier, we wrote that, Yaya Moussa and many others contributed in helping Congo to doctor its statistics. To compensate Yaya Moussa for having helped Congo scale through the hurdles put in place by the IMF and World Bank, the government gave licenses to his company aptly called, Kontinent, to operate in the Telecommunications and Oil sectors. And on the board of Kontinent Oil, which is a minor actor in the oil sector, Claudia Sassou is a board member. But she is not alone. According to people in the know, the other members of the family who are on the board of Kontinent are Antoinette Sassou Nguesso and Jean Bruno Richard Itoua (see profile).  While Kontinent Oil is still a minor actor in the Oil sector in Congo, she is certainly going to grow as they Nguessos are members of the board and also control who does what or who is offered what in the sector. One other thing which has to be made abundantly clear about Congo is that, all statistics and other data from the country are wrong. But to the discharge of Brazzaville, they are not the only country in Africa that lied for example on its population figures in order to make sure that, they not only qualify for the HIPC programme but had their debts cancelled by the Paris and London Clubs of lenders.

Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso

Another major beneficiary in the system is Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso. He is the heir apparent to his father. Barring some seismic changes, he will be the 7^th president of Congo. He is being groomed for the top job. His father is doing everything for Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso’s smooth accession to power.  It is no surprise that, in 2012 he was elected as the lone and unchallenged MP for Oyo and he has been propelled into the Politburo of the ruling party.  For security proof, the President is arresting and jailing anybody viewed as a potential rival to his son. It explained why people like Andre Okombi Salissa are today in jail. So the ground work is being set for Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso to be propelled at the head of Congo between 2021 and 2023. Along with his elder sister Claudia, affectionately known as Koko, they are the most loved out of wedlock children of Denis Sassou Nguesso for reasons already explained. Denis Christel, who is variably known as Kiki or Prince Aladdin, is an oil trader by profession and one of the deputy managers of the state owned Societe Nationale des Petrole du Congo: SNPC. Denis Christel is the octopus of the family. He has stakes in all major state companies and he has created his own even though headed by close associates.  He is also into philanthropy and has created an NGO called Foundation Perspective Avenir, under whose banner he is carryout benevolence services in order to launder his image and also that of his family. 

Congo Brazzaville: La Republique du MABOBA or Eat, Drink and Sex

DRC & Cameroon

Whereas in the DRC, youths have famous musical stars such as Koffi Olumide, Faly Ipupa or a businessman such as Moise Katumbi to copy from or take as role models and in Cameroon, youths also have a football star such as Samuel Eto’o or businessman such as Baba Danpulou to look after or consider as role models, but in Congo it is different.

Congo Brazzaville: a unique place

However, as earlier mentioned, it will be unfair for me to claim that, Congolese youths are disproportionately lazy or that, the country doesn’t have endogenous businessmen or cultural stars for youths to look up to as role models. Congo being a unique place, its famous musician currently, Rogatien Ibambi aka Roga-Roga is famous according to Congo Brazzaville standard, but supported or promoted by Jean Dominique Okemba. Its known businessmen: Paul Obambi (see profile) and Vincent Gomez (see profile), are front men for politically connected leaders, even though they are in denial. Even the youthful, Veron Mankou, who claimed to have created the first African smart-phone and who now promotes of Vox TV and Vox magazine, is supported by Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso. This simply means that, most of those who could have provided an alternative are not really inspirations out of the political box. Instead their success help perpetuate  the generally held notions that, politics, especially supporting the ruling Nguesso family, holds the key to success for men and  for Congolese women and girls, getting married to an old baron of the ruling party or prostitution are the only paths to success.

General overview: La Republique du MABOBA

My perception of Congo is that, it has become like Cuba during the reign of Fulgencio Batista. It is the paradise of leisure and pleasure with it unique trademark: La Republique du MABOBA: Manger, Boire et Baiser or in English: Eat, Drink and Sex.  It is a trademark that most political and economic leaders connected to the ruling PCT party are proud sell to their guests. This is also the only country in the world where government ministers are proud to claim that, all their country can offer are: Eat, Drink and Sex. This will be developed at the conclusion of this book. Besides the above, the country has also become the land of hypocrisy and a strange kind of flattery, which are mixtures between French good manners and strange Congolese traditions. It is also the land whose current leadership has made a travesty of all Congolese and African cultural values. In Congo, as you will read later on, adults seldom grow old, hence matured men refused to be referred to as “fathers.” They prefer to be called “Grand frère” or elder brother. 

Bienvenu Okiemy: the mechanical former defender of an evil system(profile)

Bienvenu Okiemy: he is the youngest member in Denis Sassou Nguesso’s government. Until his recent appointment at the ministry of culture and arts, he was Congo’s minister of Communications and minister in charge of relations with the national assembly and government spokesman. He was born on the 14^th of July 1972 in Brazzaville. Before his entry into the government, he was vice dean at the faculty of law of the Reims University, France. And he is a Barrister at the Paris bar council. He is an intelligent man and an intellectual who has authored two books and written several articles related to law, published in several journals. But he is also an opportunist to many. To his enemies and detractors, he is an opportunist who cherry picks his fights. His detractors also claim that, since he joined the government as minister of Communications, he has reneged on all what he formerly stood, for while he was in France. Bienvenu was for honesty and the rule of law, but now he has joined the camp of the dishonest and lawless, crows some of his detractors. One of such is Patrick Eric Mampouya, who is one of Congo’s famous blogger. He says that, Bienvenu Okiemy was smooth until he decided to join the Sassou Nguessos in the pillage of the country’s wealth and resources. As for Maurice Nguesso, he is of the opinion that, young people such as Bienvenu Okiemy are the only hope for his younger brother.  Bienvenu is a member of government, but he does not fanatically defend a system that has little or nothing worth defending.  He has his style which adapts to the current dispensation. He is very different from his predecessor Alain Akouala, in that, he is reactive and not proactive in the defense of the family and regime.

Perhaps he doesn’t want to suffer the same fate as his predecessor who put his life and reputation on the line to defend Denis Sassou Nguesso and his family, just to be thrown out of the government in the most ridiculous way. Alain Akouala, when he was unceremoniously dropped out of government, it was claimed that, he would go to Paris to become Congo’s ambassador, replacing longing standing Henry Lopez. In was a monumental shameful lie fabricated by people who think that, they are the demi-gods of Congo. In fact, it was just a ruse hatched out by the children of the President to show Alain Akouala the door in a subtle manner, simply because he (Alain Akouala) is bold and independent minded to their taste. And more, he is not subservient to their (children and family of the President) whims and caprices.  Bienvenu Okiemy by contrast, is doing just his job. But it has been interpreted by some members of the ruling Nguesso family and also by some zealous ministers who owe their positions to one of the children of the president that, he is not convincing enough Or doesn’t want or not fit. Bienvenu Okiemy is mechanical when it comes to defending the regime on subjects that he knows the regime and the family are legally wrong.

And it can be discerned, when he is responding to questions of Journalists on Radio France International or Africa 24, that, he is simply forcing things out, because he has to. He is a good man who has decided to join an evil course or system. And it seems to me that, all that he is interested in is to make his fortune and also help his family and friends.  Bienvenu Okiemy is a very generous man with his friends and also loves his family.  Having lived in France for a very long time, he acts and behaves like most French people, who see Africans and African countries as a milking cow that needs to be milked dry. On the subject of constitutional change in Congo, which is a very hot and controversial topic, he says privately that, the government has no legal logic to back up their claims or plans to change the constitution. In clear terms, the government is wrong. That is the intellectual spirit in him which speaks privately and it is honest. But the evil virus of politics and quest for wealth makes him to sing a different song in public. In short, he doesn’t have the courage to express his real thoughts openly, for fear not only to be shown the door out of government, but with the added risk of sudden death. Therefore, I am of the opinion that, his current change of ministerial post is for him, a welcomed relief.  He would be free from the verbal abuses and excesses of Claudia Sassou Nguesso, who really a pain on his back.

He will also no longer have to be spending sleepless nights in search for the appropriate words and terms to defend a system that perpetually shots itself on its legs. And on the controversial “Bien Mal Acqui” judicial saga and the case of the beach massacres code named “les Disparus du Beach,” he doesn’t want to get involved   as his predecessor Alain Akouala was. He once told me that, power in Congo will leave the north for the south, if honest and transparent elections were held and he also told me that, southern Congolese are better and highly educated than northern Congolese. And he concluded that, the real battle between the north and the south regions of Congo was that of intelligence and he was of the opinion that, the south was way ahead of the north. Politically, Bienvenu Okiemy is not a heavy weight. He relies on the supports that he gets from Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso and Aime Emmanuel Yoka, respectively son and uncle of the President of the Republic. In other words, he is a featherweight and not a broad day street political fighter like Alain Akouala. However, he is not one to be neglected, for he has a formidable survivalist instinct. Hence, his real ambition is to become minister of justice, a post currently held by Aime Emmanuel Yoka, one of his two God fathers.

This means also that, behind the smiles and manifestation of naivety, he is not just a political survivalist, he is an ambitious person who might contrary to my claims and observations, outlive Denis Sassou Nguesso period. It might explain the reason why, he did everything in 2012 to be vetted by the ruling PCT party as an MP for Bondji. Had he succeeded, it would have been at the detriment of one of the two local barons. Namely: Denis Ngokana and Rudolph Adada.  It also explains the reason why both local barons of the ruling party look at him with suspicions. His detractors accuses him of being a tribal oriented person and also that, he has mismanaged or used the funds of the ministry of Communications to enrich himself. It is an accusation that he rejects, although it comes from his elder sister, who was once his principal accountant and assistant at the ministry of Communications. I do hope that, the mistakes that, he committed while at the ministry of Communications, won’t be repeated at the ministry of Culture and Arts.  Bienvenu Okiemy’s administration of the national television and Radio stations, it is claimed by most staff of the state owned media was also a disaster and this if proven, is a disappointment for a man of his intellectual height. 

His frequent misunderstandings or dog fights with Jean Obambi, a senior journalist and Director of the state owned Television paralyzed the smooth functioning of a media that would normally be at the disposal of the people and serving the interest of the people. To his discharge, without that fight, state owned media in Congo has never served the people but working for the propaganda and self aggrandizements of President Denis Sassou Nguesso, his government and his family.  Under him, it is reported by workers that, Congolese national television and radio also promoted and favored incompetence at the expense of competence. Furthermore, he did not allow contradictory views on state media. All what were accepted were the ideologies and supporters of the ruling party. To his discharge he was simply respecting the instructions from the Presidency of the Republic. But for all his intelligence and other qualities that he has, I don’t think he has any future in the politics of Congo in a situation, where by Denis Sassou Nguesso and his family are no longer in power.  Bienvenu Okiemy is a brilliant man who is currently an intellectual waste, from the time when he opted to join a system that doesn’t give value to intellectuals but celebrates brutes and incompetence. His real future is the academia and not in the murky crocodile infested political river of Congo Brazzaville.

Profiles of Edgard Nguesso,Willy Nguesso and Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso

Within that large diverse ruling Nguesso family, there are many who supported press freedom and were very supportive of what I had initiated at MNTV/MN Radio. The ruling Nguesso family is not a homogenous set up. It must be pointed out clearly.   The children of Maurice Nguesso who are also nieces and nephews of the President and his other nieces and nephews are different.  There are also the children of Denis Sassou Nguesso or the legal ones as opposed to those born out of wedlock and who were massively recognized through the pressure of late Edith Lucie Bongo Ondimba and Maurice Nguesso. Some in the first are well mannered, but the worst are the newly recognized Nguessos. They are the ones, who have ruined the little good reputation that (he) President Denis Sassou Nguesso could have garnered amongst Congolese. The newly minted Nguessos are those that are into show and tell attitudes and other scandals such as harassments and rape reported in Congo.  

As I had already mentioned, there is the special case of Mrs. Lydie Hortense Kourissa, who is the eldest of the Nguesso children. It is also true that, she was reticent at first at how and what her father wanted MNTV/Radio to become editorial wise and this was so because of the pressure that, she received from her husband, Mr Jean De Dieu Kourissa. But, at the end after she understood that, what I was doing was not at the detriment of the regime but instead propping it, she became my bulwark against the barrage of attacks, which she received on my behalf from her family. Even her husband, Mr Jean de Dieu Kourissa, also became my great supporter and also defending I whenever need be. He also started giving me information on what went wrong within the ruling party. He was not doing so because he hated his party, but he wanted his party to carry out reforms and adapt to the changing realities in the society. Jean de Dieu Kourissa and Arlette Soudan Nonault are amongst the few members of the ruling party and ruling family that understood that, they were out of touch with the reality, hence the urgent need for reforms. 

Edgard Nguesso

And within the ruling family, there was another good man. His name is Edgard Nguesso.He is calm, open minded and tolerant. He likes honest intellectuals, bold politicians and professional journalists. But the fact that, he is an active soldier prevents him from exercising or showing his true potentials to the Congolese public. 

Willy Nguesso

I have also met with Willy Nguesso and Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso. The first, we had met twice. The first time was in Ewo, a town located in the north of Congo or to be precise, in the north western part of Congo. We met at around 11pm at the initiative of Juste Mondele. I was stroked by his simplicity and honesty. He told me or we spoke about many things that night with Willy Nguesso. I was surprised at his mastery of international politics and current affairs. But what I could retain in the long conversation that ended at about 1 am in the morning, were the following: I am what I am today, not because I am very intelligent, but more because of the position that my father have in this country as president of the Republic and I think, we need to be humble enough. Then he also told me that: the ruling Congolese Workers Party or t PCT has killed two Congolese presidents. Namely: Marien Ngouabi and Alphonse Massamba-Debat. And he concluded: Pierre Ngolo and Michel Ngakala are extremely wicked and opportunistic people who spend their time smearing their comrades to the President of the Republic. I (Willy Nguesso) myself, I am a victim of the communist calumny orchestrated by both Pierre Ngolo and Michel Ngakala. Fortunately for me, Sassou Nguesso is my father. I can imagine how others in this country are suffering or are victims of conspiracies hatch out by people such as Pierre Ngolo and Michel Ngakala. Besides calling or referring to Pierre Ngolo and Michel Ngakala as incompetent, opportunistic and slanderers, Willy Nguesso did not have kind words for his cousin Mrs. Arlette Soudan-Nonault. He described her as a talkative, bellicose and a radical who misleads his father or in the western terminology, his uncle, who is President Denis Sassou Nguesso. I was very happy without encounter. For I left with the impression that, Willy Nguesso was not only a simple man but, more so a honest man.

Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso

I was also happy because, I saw another Nguesso, besides Maurice Nguesso and Lydie Hortense Kourissa and Rodrigue Nguesso, who hated communism and was a liberal. I have met with Christel Sassou Nguesso three times. Once on board a flight from Brazzaville to Paris and the second time was in the restaurant of Four Season Hotel in Washington DC and the third time was in the village of Boukuoelle. Boukuoelle is a small village or a neighborhood in the Village of Edou.  And Edou is some 4km from the town of Oyo, which is also the name of the district. I discovered that, Christel Sassou Nguesso was every inch different from his cousin Willy Nguesso. He was somehow distant with a tinge of arrogance. I don’t know whether it was because of the reputation that I had already forged in the sub-conscience of some members of the ruling family, but I discovered that, he was distant and having lining of pride. He was almost already destroyed by people who were around him and already calling him President of the Republic. One of such was the former minister of Communications and current minister of Culture, Mr. Bienvenu Okiemi.

Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso looks calm with no apparent trace of a man who can command or have the ambition to command.  But he is being groomed by the likes of Michel Ngakala and even his father to start thinking of ruling Congo. Our meeting in Boukuoelle, Edou was in 2012. It was at the heat of legislative elections.  I came to interview him and this time around he was accessible. It is strange how during campaign arrogant and distant politicians become accessible. Christel Sassou Nguesso was consisting for the Oyo electoral district, of which he was the lone candidate. Although he was alone, he needed the intervention of his uncle Maurice Nguesso in order to be elected.  For in Oyo district, the population doesn’t like the Nguessos and they detest Christel Sassou Nguesso, because they think he is not wholly Congolese. In Oyo district, he called: KIKI LE Zairois.  Why because his mother is from neighboring DRC and in the Republic of Congo, DRC natives or nationals are held in utter contempt. However I was taken aback by some declarations of Christel Sassou Nguesso off record. He was openly criticizing the fact that, his father was tolerating corruption and also allowing his friends to do whatever they please.Was he sincere? Or was he doing or talking the way he was speaking because I was there? I can never tell. But, I left with a mixed feeling. However, what I was certain was that, the scheme was already in place for him to succeed his father.

Jean Dominique Okemba: also known as Satan, the devil

She admits that, he (Denis Sassou Nguesso) commits mistakes in the way he manages the country, but she almost always throws the blames on others. It is a classic response or reaction from all those who are supporting President Denis Sassou Nguesso. They will almost always tell you that, he is good, but his entourage is bad. And this question: who appoints the bad people in his entourage?  In the ruling Nguesso family, the whipping boy or Turkish head is Jean Dominique Okemba also known within and without the clan as Satan the devil. Vice Admiral Jean Dominique Okemba, who is the nephew of President Denis Sassou Nguesso doubles as secretary general of the Congolese National Security Council and special adviser to his uncle of a president. Vice Admiral Jean Dominique Okemba is certainly a very influential figure within the galaxy of power of the ruling family and the country and the hatred that he attracts is proportional to the real and imaginary influences that he commands within the administration. He is attributed all what are heinously done by the regime and never what are good.  Hence his (Jean Dominique Okemba) nickname: Satan, the devil.

Paradoxically, those who hate Jean Dominique Okemba the most are not ordinary Congolese, but a section of the ruling family, which is his own family, in particular, some of the many children of President Denis Sassou Nguesso. They hate him not because he has done anything appalling to them, but simply because, their father (Denis Sassou Nguesso) who is Okemba’s uncle has puts a lot of confidence in Jean Dominique Okemba. Furthermore, Jean Dominique Okemba also has money, but he doesn’t brag as is the case with Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso, the son of Denis Sassou Nguesso who is one of the deputy managers of the Congolese hydrocarbon corporation abbreviated in French as SNPC. Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso is in charge of the sales of the country’s crude within SNPC. Besides money and influence, some members of the ruling clan are of the opinion that, Jean Dominique Okemba is secretly nursing plans to succeed his uncle who is their father. This aspect of the ruling Nguesso family feud or why Denis Sassou Nguesso has confidence in Jean Dominique Okemba will be developed.

The conduct or attitude of a section of the ruling clan toward Jean Dominique Okemba shows that, there is a simmering internal family civil war within, that may blowout into a conflagration. Our or should I say, my conversations with Lydie Hortense Kourissa also showed that, Denis Sassou Nguesso for all the noised made on how he surrendered power in 1992 was just a farce. The forces working against him were stronger and since he is a professional dissimulator and manipulator, he transformed his defeat and humiliations into democratic political victory. But time has come to expose him as a man who loves power and who will die like his late father in-law Omar Bongo Ondimba or his elder brother and friend Paul Biya in power. What I also noticed with Mrs. Lydie Hortense Kourissa was that, even though she was a practicing Christian and humbled, she was sensitive to anything that had to do with the regime of her uncle. She has a great love and respect for her uncle, Denis Sassou Nguesso. 

But on our debate on how MNTV/MN Radio should be managed, she gave up the fight not because she was convinced or wanted an independent media as I advocated, but it was more because she loves and respects her father’s opinion. She tilted her father’s way when she discovered that, her father never wanted to have a propaganda tool but a truly independent media outfit. This is where Maurice Nguesso is different from most members of his ruling clan. He is a strategist and a patriot doubled with a sense of business. He knows better than most that, his younger brother and also their clan is not loved by ordinary Congolese. Hence he does everything he can to solicit the love of ordinary Congolese.  Maurice Nguesso told her daughter: even though I have created my Radio and Television station to defend my younger brother, he has not given me a cent to set up this structure. It will help him if he allows it to prosper. But that, I doubt because he is under the influence of Jean Dominique Okemba and my daughter Claudia.

And then he turned toward to me and said: My son Elie Smith, you go ahead and work as you were doing at Telesud. Allow Congolese from all shades of opinions to express themselves freely on my Radio and Television station and newspaper. But, they must not defame or incite tribal, ethnic or regional hatred. I also don’t want to hear anything nationalistic on my media. We are all Africans and you are from Cameroon and the CEMAC sub region. CEMAC is the French abbreviation of a six member state sub regional political and economic body that fully stands for Economic and Monetary Union of Central African States. He added: those around my younger brother such as Jean Dominique Okemba our extended nephew and my daughter Claudia Leboumba Sassou Nguesso are deceiving my younger brother. Maurice Nguesso went on:  I have told my younger brother on several occasions that, he must allow Congolese to express themselves freely.

Maurice Nguesso continued: My brother seems to have forgotten all what he used to tell me when he had lost power in 1992.  This was what my brother Denis Sassou Nguesso used to tell me when he was no longer in power:  he would like to have a strong opposition and a strong independent press, which will force him to improve and deliver the best services to the Congolese. But today, I can’t recognize my brother anymore. All his declarations to me were just wishful thinking and thoughts. They are today promises in the wind because of Jean Dominique Okemba.  Maurice Nguesso seems to throw the blame on the failures of his younger brother on the doorsteps of their nephew Jean Dominique Okemba. While it is true that, Jean Dominique Okemba who is known differently as vice president or the very special one has influence on Denis Sassou Nguesso his uncle, I would want to stick with the opinion of Colonel Marcel Nstourou. He once told me that, President Denis Sassou Nguesso always likes to hide behind others to act in order to appear as the good one or the victim. He adds that: Denis Sassou Nguesso has the attitude of a feline. He appears kind and sometimes weak, but in reality his is very violent, especially when it comes to his desire to stay in power.

Therefore, Jean Dominique Okemba who doesn’t like contradictions himself and by extension free speech, is not the one influencing Denis Sassou Nguesso to dislike press freedom, the president likes a press that showers praises on him and all what he does and nothing.  Denis Sassou Nguesso is a dictator, who thinks that, he was created by God to rule Congo. And as long as he is alive, he wants to be president of Congo and also have influence within the sub region and beyond. Armed with the support of Maurice Nguesso, I went ahead and established the editorial line, which was liberal and pro-democracy oriented. Personally, noted the heavy influence of Communism on Congolese and I hell bent at contributing in destroying it at my small level.  I consider Communism as a policy that was vile.  Communism in my humble opinion encourages personality cult culture, absence of a culture of merit and worst of all dictatorship. I felt it was an opportunity for me to encourage Congolese to be more liberal, pro-democratic and business oriented.