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”.  

Denis Sassou Nguesso and Jeune Afrique & Les Depeches de Brazzaville

While there is no doubt that, local media houses mentioned earlier have proven links to the Nguesso family albeit surreptitiously, but the media houses that have direct or glaring connections with Denis Sassou Nguesso are: Jeune Afrique and Les Depeches de Brazzaville. According to Apollinaire Aya, a staff at the Paris, France office of the department of Communications of the presidency of the Republic, headed by Claudia Sassou Nguesso, a lump sum of FCFA 2 billion is earmark annually for: Jeune Afrique and Les Depeches de Brazzaville. Remember, Les Depeches de Brazzaville is the only daily in the country and it is published by ADIAC media group. As if it were not enough to invest in Jeune Afrique, whose editor-in-chief is Francois Soudan, they ( the Nguessos) now control of Forbes Afrique, after the franchise for French-speaking Africa was bought by Lucien Ebata ( read previous article). In short, Forbes Afrique has become another tool in the Nguesso’s propaganda arsenal. While the ADIAC media group has the latest printing press and publishes Les Depeches de Brazzaville, the national printing press has not only been deliberately ruined, its staff are not paid regularly. More, the national daily La Nouvelle Republique publishes occasionally because it doesn’t have a running budget. Even the Congolese News Agency abbreviated ACP, has also been run aground, because the Nguessos wants ADIAC to substitute ACP as Les Depeches de Brazzaville has done with La Nouvelle Republique. The voracious love of the regime and the Nguessos for image makeover doesn’t stop at sponsoring print and electronic media at home or abroad.  As already mentioned, the ruling Nguesso family has destroyed the entire local press: print and electronic. Another example of how the Nguesso have orchestrated the decay of the press can be seen in how they treat or manage the national radio and television: CNRTV. The paradox is that, the national radio and television which is the pivot of propaganda of the system, sometime lack recording tapes, video cameras, microphones or its vans doesn’t have fuel to carry reporters around to cover stories or events. 

Nguesso owned Media Houses in Congo

To crown the Nguesso family capture and control of local media, each member of the Nguesso family has a TV or Radio station or is planning to create or launch one. Maurice Nguesso, the elder brother of President Sassou Nguesso as you already know, owns MNTV, which is a subsidiary of the media group, MNCOM. Claudia Sassou Nguesso, daughter of President Sassou Nguesso and his communications adviser, owns Top TV, while his nephew, Jean Jacques Bouya, owns Equateur Service TV through a proxy called Jean Didier Elongo. Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso owns VOX TV and Vox Magazine, General Norbert Dabira owns DRTV, Elvis Digne Okombi Tsalisant is the owner of TPT Pointe Noire, General Jean François Ndenguet owns Le Troubadour newspaper. And more, in their respective villages and localities, government ministers own radio and TV stations such as Radio Paris Abala, in Abala owned by Henri Ossebi (see profile) or Raymond Zephyrine Mboulou(see profile), who owns a radio in his village of Ngo in the Plateau region. The fact that, they are controlling the nation’s print and electronic media is not satisfactory   as far as they are concern. And as already mentioned they have also gone into frenetic investments into foreign media by buying advertorial spaces in pan African media such as Africa 24, Vox Africa, France 24 and TV 5. The advertorial binge of the Nguessos and their government increases during pre-presidential and post presidential election periods. For these media are needed to cover the way the presidential election is conducted in order to please and improve their image in the international community. 

Congo: a Central African regional laboratory or testing ground

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 culturally, pro-democratic and business oriented. I also had another objective besides my inner most desire to encourage free speech and the destruction of a system, which I quickly assimilated to be diabolic.

My other objective was that, I wanted Congo to become an English-speaking country or to love Anglo-Saxon culture. For I have always thought rightly or wrongly and this perhaps, because I am from Anglophone Cameroon and an Anglophone nationalist, that, the French language for all its praises and decorum was a language of oppression and economic degradation.  The French language made most French-speaking Africans not to be independent minded and more, that language made it also easier for France to continue to dominate most or all French-speaking African countries. Hence, in my secret ambition to make or contribute to make Congo to become English-speaking or to develop  love for the English-speaking world and also look beyond France, I did all I could, to sign a partnership with the Voice of America (VOA) and started broadcasting English language programmes on MNTV/MN Radio. Besides the above, VOA programmes also came as help to our shortage of internal productions. 

Although there were some programmes in French such as Washington Forum on Television, most of the programmes from VOA that were broadcast on radio were in French hence, I didn’t care whether they were broadcast or not. However, mindful of the power of the radio because, it remained the main medium that had and still has the capacity to reach the homes of several Congolese, hence, I ordered that, the broadcast of VOA English language programmes on radio as well.  My targets were young Congolese who were born between 1990 and 1997, although these groups like those born between 1978 and 1980 downward, have only known Denis Sassou Nguesso as president, with a short but violent period of Pascal Lissouba. The first groups were more open to democratic progress and change than the second. For they were more  ready to listen or watch other radio and television stations other than Radio France International or TV5 or France 24 from France and more, they like American culture and the English language.

My other observation was that, Congo with its influence within the sub region, its rich culture and striving intellectuals who were almost all living in exile because of Denis Sassou Nguesso, was for me a central African regional laboratory or testing ground. If there was any regime change or respect of the constitution by President Denis Sassou Nguesso, it might influence what is happening in Cameroon where Paul Biya and his corrupt regime have been governing Cameroon for 33 years. It might also influence the Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Congo was everything or was the fulcrum in the pro-democratic plans that I had for a part of Africa that is a hideout of the worst dictatorships on the continent. The most difficult experience that I had in Congo were not the challenges of censorship or death threats or  best expulsion, which eventually happened on the 26^th of September 2014. The most difficult thing was to get a team to work with as earlier mentioned. This was so because, Congo as already mentioned, has a problem of acute shortage of qualified labor or manpower.

Nonetheless, I had to rely on the help of Alexandre Pierre Bougha who was the Director of Programmes. The other pair of sure hands was Sam Nick Owosso, who was the technical Director and also Alain Shungu, the news Director. Frustrated and appalled by the standard of the journalists that, I had or met at MNTV/MN Radio, I once asked Alain Shungu this question: why an experience journalist like you could employ or recruit people or journalists who could not read or write French or even the two national languages of the country, namely: Lingala and Kituba? He replied: the 10 who could read and write were the ones that I recruited or recommended that they should be recruited. The rest, he concluded: were recommendations from Maurice Nguesso or Simon Zibe, the adviser of Maurice Nguesso on matters of Communications. It was around those ten journalists who had amongst them a talented and I think a gifted journalist called Prince Bafoulou. Besides Prince Bafoulou, there were other talents such as Herve Ekirono, Serge Bakola aka le Francais, Guy Blaise de Seydoux Mamadou, Leho de Paris Bantsimba, Esther Bikoumou and Alexan Vinet Foundou, Davy Mossa and Emery Patrice Orbargui, they constituted the core of the newsroom.

It is also true that, Herve Ekirono, Guy Blaise de Seydoux , Serge Bakola aka le Francais and Stanislas Okassou, were reporters who came over from the daily Le Fanion, when it was closed. But they brought in a fresh blood with their talents into the TV and Radio. I also noticed some promising reporters and presenters such as Stella Lurnelle Mfina, Oliviane Bayanga and Olga Tchitembo. It is also true that, I made a mistake, when I was about to appoint the first news editor of MNTV/MN Radio. Instead of appointing Prince Bafoulou, I appointed a certain Yvon Armand Amoko aka le Pape. He too was talented and much more experienced than all. But Yvon Armand Amoko aka le Pape drank a lot. He was an alcoholic that I have never seen before. I don’t know whether it was because of the consequences of the civil war or whether it was his family brother that made such a brilliant journalist such as Yvon Armand Amoko aka le Pape to love the bottle, the way he did. However, I was told that, it was curse that was cast on their family.

But I don’t believe it, for I am of the opinion that, you are what you decide to be. Yvon Armand Amoko aka le Pape has visited several revival churches to help cast out the demon of alcoholism in him had failed. In the battleground that Yvon Armand Amoko aka le Pape body became, “Satan the devil”, defeated God in and out.   I think the appointment of Yvon Armand Amoko aka le Pape as the first editor-in-chief of MNTV/MN Radio was also the first fundamental strategic mistake that I did and wish I regret because I or we lost Prince Bafoulou. It is true that, Congolese or within MNCOM, there was a dearth of professionals, but Prince Bafoulou was an exception. He had his training in journalism not in Congo but in the Republic of Benin, a country well respected for its free speech and solid democratic credentials. From that mistake, I learnt five things in management: don’t rush, don’t judge on appearances, and don’t listen to what people say on others, make your own patience assessments and always work with the best. While the credit for what MNTV/MN Radio has become most often is directed to me, the one who instituted or the real architect of our success on TV and Radio was Alexandre Pierre Bougha, for he was the one who created most of the programmes on Radio and Television.

Alexandre Pierre Bougha is a very intelligent man with a strong analytical mind. And I learn at MNCOM that, to succeed, always surround yourself with the best minds. A good leader or anyone who wants to succeed must not be afraid of brilliant and intelligent people. Besides the challenges to have a team of train journalists or technicians which was solved as time went by especially with on the job trainings and my capacity to adapt and operate with empiricism. The other challenge was how to work independently without the government or the ruling family interferences. In Congo, in has to pointed out that, the ruling Nguesso family are present everywhere. It is a kind of a republican monarchy. Any person with a license to operate anything must be close to the ruling family. The first privately owned Radio and Television Station to operate in Congo is called DRTV or Dabira Radio and Television. But officially, it is called Digital Radio and Television. This TV and Radio station is owned by General Norbert DABIRA who is indicted in France for war crime.

It had to do with the role that he is alleged to have played in the 1999 Massacre of Congolese Refugees returning from the DRC. The Massacre is popularly known in French as Les Disparus du Beech. However, General Norbert DABIRA is not the only high profile Congolese general close to President Denis SASSOU NGEUSSO that has been indicted for war crime. The other notable indicted war criminal is General Jean François NDENGUET. Although General Norbert DABIRA is from the North of Congo like President Denis Sassou Nguesso and of the same tribe, President Denis Sassou Nguesso never wanted him to have or open his own Radio and Television station. That was what General DABIRA ones told me. I asked him the reason why he replied “the President and his family are accusing me that, I supported their 1997 coup d’état against the democratically elected government of President Pascal LISSOUBA very late”.

He concluded: “were it not for the intervention of Maurice Nguesso, when he still had influence on his younger brother before the arrival of Jean Dominique OKEMBA, I won’t have had the authorization to operate my Radio and Television station operational today”. I asked him again: why was President Denis Sassou Nguesso not willing, besides the fact that you failed to join them at the beginning of the 1997 uprising against president Pascal Lissouba?  He replied: “President Denis Sassou Nguesso thought that, by authorizing me to have a media or a Radio and Television station to be precise, I will get involve into politics, thus challenging his desire to remain in power for life. They are always like that in that family. They want others to work for them as slaves.  Even his uncle, who is the Minister of Justice, Aime Emmanuel YOKA, always thinks that, they are superior to other”. It has to be noted clearly that, because of the intervention of Maurice Nguesso, DRTV is alive and broadcasting today in the Republic of Congo. But the editorial line of DRTV  is not very different from the state owned broadcaster, Tele Congo. 

Maurice Nguesso’s greatest sin: Independence

Hence she decided to rename MNCOM Media Group not as Maurice Nguesso Communications, but as Media Numerique Communications. MNCOM was incorporated in Congo in 2009. All these were being done while Maurice Nguesso was still sick or convalescing and when he fully (Maurice Nguesso) recovered, he (Maurice Nguesso) decided to think bigger than the plans of his daughter, Lydie Hortense Kourissa.  Maurice Nguesso enjoys grandiose things and he has that God given quality to make or do great things. So he (Maurice Nguesso) decided that, besides the Radio, Television and newspaper components of his group, he decided to add a modern printing press called Impremerie Ayessa. Ayessa is the surname of the mother of Maurice Nguesso. Furthermore, Maurice Nguesso also decided to add a digital television or terrestrial television with a bouquet of 33 foreign and two national television stations. In fact, he became also a distributor of Television channels, mostly foreign. His bouquet of digital television was called Mosaiq TV. This distributing or pay per view television station, called Mosaiq TV became a local rival of a French multinational called Canal Plus that was doing the same business. There are three differences between Canal Plus with Mosaiq TV or the parent company MNCOM. 

Canal Plus was larger, richer and well organized or better managed, whereas MNCOM was an example of disorder or was at the image of Congo.  Disorganized or influenced by his children and other legions of friends, that doesn’t remove the fact that, Maurice Nguesso was the first before the government to introduce terrestrial television broadcasting in Congo.  Maurice Nguesso is a pacesetter within his family in several domains. The media group MNCOM was therefore made up of MNTV/Radio, Le Fanion daily, Mosaiq TV and Impremerie Ayessa. At the head of this group was Mrs. Lydie Hortense Kourissa. But as mentioned above, the place was like a rudderless ship. However things began changing when, Mr Florent Koumba, an accountant from Gabon, was employed in 2011. Prior to his arrival, MNCOM had no business plan. It was in reality a venture created by someone who was sick and tired of the monotony existing within the Congolese media landscape, where the there was no freedom and the domination of the national broadcasters was nauseating.  

Nevertheless, one observation that I have made regarding most investments or companies created by Maurice Nguesso are that there are a lot of expectations at the beginning than the long term realities.  Simply because of Maurice Nguesso’s almost childish enthusiasms and his inferiority complexes toward some of his French whites advisers who know little or nothing about the reality of the country and region. Theirs is to come and milk him dry. Maurice Nguesso also seems to like people who have some sophistry in the way they speak, even though they may not master what they are talking about. Hence he is most often than not, hoodwinked by those French whites and even blacks who come more to get their money than deliver to what they were paid for. Unfortunately, those who love Maurice Nguesso and also respect him and who also know their jobs are not well treated by Maurice Nguesso. The professionals who would have turn things around for Maurice Nguesso are not paid or their contract terms are seldom respected. That is Maurice Nguesso’s greatest sin.

However, he (Maurice Nguesso) knows whenever he wants to or is free from the sometimes parasitic and negative influences of  some of his friends and family members, how to have confident in any person whose expertise is proven and interferes very little, once he has delegated.  But what is the point, or of what value it is, when the person who has been given responsibility is not paid? Or the terms of his/her contract is not respected?  As far as his media group is concern, its appears as though, when the MNCOM Media Group was incorporated, some experts from France, who were whites, told Maurice Nguesso that, with the creation of the pay per view television and its bouquet of 30 channels called Mosaiq TV, the said channel will become the cash cow of the group with an expected monthly return from subscribers to stand at FCFA 100 million. Armed with that, false financial forecast, Maurice Nguesso via his daughter, Lydie Hortense Kourissa went out on a recruitment spree. They recruited 200 staff. He used his group to partly help solve his younger brother’s inability to create jobs to Congolese. He confuses or took a private initiative for a public venture or civil service. 

One of the weakest links of Maurice Nguesso is that, he loves his brother of a president too much than his younger brother loves him.  If not, it is beyond comprehension, why his younger brother did allow that, his media group should be destroyed and also that, the media group is not considered or to be clear, given contracts as it is the case with TOP TV, that is owned by Claudia Sassou Nguesso, the niece of Maurice Nguesso and daughter of President Denis Sassou Nguesso? Why did his younger brother not intervene when I was expelled from Congo after my younger sister was gang raped by people who have since been freed without any form of trial? Recently during the earth summit in Paris code named COP 21, TOP TV was taken to Paris by the government along with other TV channels such as DRTV owned by General Norbert Dabira, but MNCOM or MNTV its subsidiary was not included. Simply because Maurice Nguesso is hated by some members within the ruling family and these ones seems to be the ones who are influencing the President of the Republic. But, I personally think, President himself must not hide behind others, he doesn’t like freedom of speech and real democracy as a person.

But Maurice is hated by some members of family because he is independent minded and he also wants MNCOM media Group to give a voice to all Congolese and also be independent. Those who hate Maurice Nguesso within the ruling family view his attitude as inimical to their aspired eternal rule over the nation-state of Congo.  But the paradox in all this is that, Maurice Nguesso is doing this because, he wants to give a good face to his younger brother and his government. For whatever he does, he wants credit to be given to his younger brother. In fact, MNCOM media group had a blotted work force. As for the Radio and Television arm of the group, before I could come, they were just playing traditional Congolese music and had no programme schedule and no editorial line. I was the one with the help of others that, I met such as Mr Sam Nick Owosso that we laid the foundation or reorganize the radio and television in order to give it a professional face. For a while, I headed concomitantly the print media wing, which publishes the daily called Le Fanion.