Mathias Dzon: Congo is a republic and not a monarchy

When I discovered the sort of hatred that, Sassou Nguesso harbored against his former finance minister, I went back to Mathias Dzon’s home and asked him this simple question:  why, is it that, President Denis Sassou Nguesso can’t stand or hates you so much? Mathias Dzon replied my question with another one that went thus: you go and ask him the reason why he Denis Sassou Nguesso hates me. Mathias Dzon attempted some answers, but in reality he was evasive and at the end, he never told me anything serious. However, when Mathias Dzon explained to me the role that he played on the side of Denis Sassou Nguesso when they were in exile in France and also when they took power from Pascal Lissouba, after the civil war, I could only guess, the fear that inhabited President Denis Sassou Nguesso against Mathias Dzon was the only reason why Denis Sassou Nguesso hated his former minister of finance. Denis Sassou Nguesso was perhaps afraid that, Mathias Dzon could expose him or their secret dealings to the Congolese and the international community. Interestingly or not, Mathias Dzon was never ready or willing to spill the bin.  

President Denis Sassou Nguesso and Mathias Dzon certainly have their differences to a point that, the second did not attain the burial of the daughter (Edith Lucie Bongo Ondimba) of the first in Edou. But the person who knows the real reason behind the hatred that Denis Sassou Nguesso has for Mathias Dzon is Nicephore Antoine Fylla de Saint Eude. He is very close to both President Denis Sassou Nguesso and Mathias Dzon. Nicephore Antoine Fylla de Saint Eude had even tried to mediate between both men, when they fell out openly in 2007. The official reason it is claimed to why Denis Sassou Nguesso fell out with his former finance minister, Mathias Dzon was because Matthias wanted to field in too many independent candidates in the 2007 legislative elections.  And the second reason, this time around floated by some members of the ruling family is that, Mathias Dzon was angry to have been removed from the ministry of finance as minister. Hence he is against the President. However, this second reason doesn’t say why Denis Sassou Nguesso hates Mathias Dzon. 

In my opinion, the problem between both men might be that, Mathias Dzon’s ambition was viewed by Denis Sassou Nguesso who loves power, as a threat to his domination of the Congolese political landscape. Furthermore and this, contrary to what Denis Sassou Nguesso likes to portray, he is in reality, a very regional and tribal oriented man. Denis Sassou Nguesso wants to be regarded in the north as their champion and protector from southern Congolese that he and other northern supremacists, think are a threat to their existence and current political, military and economic powers or privileges. 

And to see the rise of Mathias Dzon, means a direct challenge to Denis Sassou Nguesso’s role as northern guardian and also leader of the entire Congo. But Mr. Nicephore Antoine Fylla de Saint Eudes has another reason why Mathias Dzon fell out with Denis Sassou Nguesso. The culprit according to Nicephore Antoine Fylla de Saint Eudes is Alain Roux the owner of a mineral water bottling Company called Eaux Mayo. Alain Roux is the cause. He is the one who forced Mathias Dzon to become President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s greatest and most formidable rival. And still according to Nicephore Antoine Fylla de Saint Eudes, Alain Roux was the one who has made or pushed Mathias Dzon to become the opposition leader that, he is today.  Alain Roux is a French businessman living in Brazzaville and he is the friend of both President Denis Sassou Nguesso and Mathias Dzon. 

It is alleged that, Alain Roux was amongst the many French whites who not only supported Denis Sassou Nguesso’s violent power grab from democratically elected Pascal Lissouba, in 1997, they also supplied the then rebel militia of Denis Sassou Nguesso known as the Cobra with weapons that were bought from Eastern Europe, North Korea and that passed through Angola and Gabon. How did Alain Roux force Mathias Dzon to enter in the opposition? Nicephore Antoine Fylla de Saint Eudes told me that, Alain Roux once visited Mathias Dzon and Mathias told Alain Roux that, he wanted to field in independent candidates in the upcoming 2007 legislative elections.  Alain Roux smiled and then asked Mathias: knowing how Denis Sassou Nguesso loves power, are you not afraid that, the president will be angry?

Mathias replied: I don’t care and Mathias added: we are all human beings and we need to have ambitions and more, this is a republic and not a monarchy. According to Nicephore Fylla, Mathias Dzon never knew that, Alain Roux even though his friend was more loyal to the President. And Nicephore Antoine Fylla de Saint Eudes added: it true that, Mathias Dzon wanted to field in candidates of his party in the legislative elections of 2007, but Mathias Dzon was not doing so in an attempt to challenge the power of President Denis Sassou Nguesso. But when Alain Roux reported to the President, he made the President to think and believe that, Mathias Dzon had presidential ambitions. That was when President Denis Sassou Nguesso went mad and decided that, the candidacy of Mathias Dzon and all those he fielded for the 2007 legislative elections should be banned. Surprised at the turn of events, members of the decision making body of the ruling Congolese Workers party abbreviated PCT, decided to also invalidate the  candidacy of Maurice Nguesso, in order to calm down the growing tension that sparked from the disqualification of Mathias Dzon and all those his party fielded into the 2007 legislative elections.

While Mathias Dzon doesn’t want to speak on the real cause of their fallout ,only claiming that, it was because he opposed the way President Denis Sassou Nguesso began running the country, especially regarding economic matters. Mathias Dzon however told me that: President had informed him that, he was no longer going to retain him in his reshuffled cabinet because of his ambitions. Whatever the challenges that I went through in Congo from the hands of  certain members of the ruling family and also from the security forces that culminated in my expulsion, I am happy that MNTV /Radio was the most successful amongst the various arms of the media group called MNCOM. It is true it was a lost making venture financially. But it gradually started operating like a modern company. My plans to turn it around financially were set for the 4^th year and it would have been 2015. My first goal was that, I wanted to establish and give MNTV/MN Radio credibility and then, my second plan was to focus on generation of funds in order to make it truly autonomous. The challenge to make MNTV/Radio both subsidiaries of the media group MNCOM to become professional and also make it attractive was a success by September 2014.

It also proved all those who doubted Maurice Nguesso’s capacity to run a viable company wrong. MNTV/MN Radio won’t have been a success without the support of the entire staff and also the support of Maurice Nguesso, in spite pressure from his family. We had pitiable materials, lack of trained manpower, salaries were not paid regularly but with determination, we succeeded to make MNTV/ MN Radio to become a major media in Congo.  And in the 11^th August 2014 edition of the pan African French language magazine Jeune Afrique, a profile was written, though focusing on me, but it was thanks to the collective work of the MNTV/MN Radio that, I could be known. But it was not easy to work in Congo. Sometimes I had to cover-up some of my journalists who were on the verge of being arrested by the Police.  There are the cases of Guy Blaise Seydoux and Emery Patrice Orbargui.  I had pressure from the ruling Nguesso family and also from the government, especially the Police. Although I have written about the ruling Nguesso family, mostly in negative terms, it would be unfair to generalize or for me to claim that all members of the ruling family are bad. 

My Challenges in Congo:acute problem of skilled labor (2)

I discovered while in Congo when I began working for MNCOM that, for most people who came to work for Maurice Nguesso, a majority came to take as they told me: what their family or the ruling Nguesso family has taken or stolen from Congolese. In order words, most people never really came to work honestly. It also showed how Congolese hated the ruling Nguesso family. What the ordinary Congolese forgot in their general or collective hatred of the ruling family is that, the ruling Nguesso are not a homogenous set up. In that ruling family, there some good as well as bad ones or good as well as bad Nguessos and Maurice Nguesso, for all his short comings, were a “good Nguesso”. However what most Congolese also forgot was that, Maurice Nguesso was very different from other members of the ruling clan, whose fortune are directly attached or traced to the President of the Republic or had received favors because they belonged to the ruling clan. Maurice Nguesso is different from most Nguessos. He is a very hard working man and he had made his fortune even before his younger brother, Denis Sassou Nguesso came to power for the first time in 1979 and  for the second time in 1997 after a short but brutal civil war against the country’s only post independent democratically elected president, Professor Pascal Lissouba.  

To start the broadcasting wing of the private media group called MNCOM, Maurice Nguesso invested three hundred thousand Euros of his personal fortune. But for the entire amount invested to create MNTV/MN Radio, all Maurice Nguesso got were sub standard materials. The reality is that, he was hoodwinked by the very people he put in confidence and responsibility in them, as I had already mentioned above. Then, the icing on the cake that I had as challenge when I was hired from France to come and work for MNCOM was that of manpower. Ask any employer in Congo and he/she will conclude or tell you that, the country has an acute problem of skilled labor.  Even for menial jobs, there is a dearth in the country. There are many graduates with high sounding diplomas, but they are most often than not, not qualified enough because the standard of education has been destroyed by state sanctioned corruption. 30 years of Denis Sassou Nguesso and his ruling PCT in power has destroyed Congo’s educational system, just as it has done with any other sector.

This aspect will be developed later on. Congo is one of the countries in Africa that I know besides Gabon and Equatorial Guinea were most skilled labor are sourced either out of the continent especially from France and Lebanon or from neighboring countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria , Senegal and Benin. As far as MNCOM was concern, a majority of staff recruited to work for MNTV/MN Radio were not trained journalists or technicians. Most could not even speak nor write French or even the national languages which are Lingala and Kituba. What happened was that, those recruiting brought in their family members and friends and Maurice Nguesso himself was not helpful. I was told that, Maurice Nguesso as the boss, made a lot of recommendations for people to be employed that were or could not be rejected even though they were not competent. 

Elie SMITH: Challenges in Congo(1)

When I made up my mind to work in Congo, It was a decision that I took alone. I did not want to ask my wife, for I knew she won’t like the idea. For she had always complained that, I gave priority to my profession and defense for human rights at the expense of our family. She also warned me that, I had to make a choice between my professional adventure and love for Africa or our family.  Sad as it would appear, while I love my family especially my sons, the call or attraction toward Africa with all its risk was simply magnetic. . What my wife did not know is that, since I came from a very poor background, I have seen and witness the injustice of corrupt dictatorial governments. And if I have succeeded, it was because of two things: God or the bible and education. And I am of the opinion that, in order to lift a majority out of poverty, there is need for someone or group of people must lay down their lives against dictatorship. I was and I am ready to die for the promotion and defense and promotion of democracy.  My heart was already turning toward Africa, especially the ECCAS region or Economic Community of Central Africa States.

It is a region that in my humble opinion it is the last hideout of dictatorship in Africa. Democracy is progressing all over the African continent, but not within the ECCAS sub region. The ECCAS was the only region in Africa where democracy is facing formidable opposition from dictatorial regimes and also from a people who seem not to have a spirit of sacrifice because they are victims or accomplices of repressive regimes.  To measure how backward democratic wise are countries of the ECCAS, out of the 11 countries that make up the sub regional organization, only tiny Sao Tome and Principe is a real democracy. Whereas in the 15 member state Economic Community of West African States abbreviated as ECOWAS, 13 are not only democracies, they also have presidents who are less than 10 years in power. The only bad eggs within the ECOWAS sub region are Togo and Gambia. Besides the latter, I was already disappointed with the new management that Pascaline Bongo via her lawyer of a friend by name Palazzo Gauthier had decided to impose on Telesud.

I also wanted to come back to Africa and in a country where I thought I could practice or make an impact. And that country was Congo. Small as Congo might appear, it has an influence and any change or improvement in term of democracy would have an influence around and within the ECCAS sub region.  But in Congo especially at MNCOM, it was a great place and a place full of challenges. The first was to reconstruct from crash a real Radio and Television station with the necessary material and man power that will have an impact on the people and also on the government. Those were my primary objectives immediately set foot in Congo and at MNCOM. The second challenge that I had was who to make Congolese to be interested or listen or watch our Radio and Television programmes whenever we start broadcasting. The first objectives were very difficult to achieve because most of the materials bought to set up or create the Television and Radio station were not professional materials. 

MNCOM Media Group: the ambition of a Congolese idealist

Officially, it is the name of a privately owned Media group abbreviated MNCOM and it was founded in 2009. She is on paper and also in the ambition and hope of it owner, Maurice Nguesso, Congo’s largest privately owned media group. It is the example of how creative and imaginative, the elder brother of President Denis Sassou Nguesso is. But on the sad or wrong side of the coin, it is the grave yard of all the professional and managerial good will. MNCOM also shows how open and conciliatory Maurice Nguesso is. Maurice Nguesso doesn’t only love his younger brother, President Denis Sassou Nguesso. He also loves Congo, Africa and above all, he loves real democracy, where there is real freedom of speech, real free and faire elections and real the defense and protection of human rights. Maurice Nguesso is the exact opposite of his younger brother of a president and all the opportunists and brutes around him.  And because Maurice Nguesso understands many things, especially Congolese and love democracy and a meritorious country, hence he has been sidelined by the extremist fringes that have taken his younger brother of a president hostage.

If for one single instant President Denis Sassou Nguesso could give an ear to the advice of his elder brother, there are some monumental errors that, he is committing today, that he won’t have. Sadly, President Denis Sassou Nguesso is surrounded by a group of people whose only ambition is to stay in power not for the good of the people but for their own and their friends and family.  As far as MNCOM is concern, It only rival is also the officially private media group called or known as Agence d’information de l’afrique Centrale abbreviated as ADIAC Group , the publishers of the country’s only daily called Les Depeches de Brazzaville, headed by a French journalist by name Jean Claude Pigasse. As in everything Congolese, there is another version about MNCOM. MNCOM was built on the ashes of an old project, which was initiated by one of the many Maurice Nguesso boys by named late Simon Zibe assisted by George Eboue. Both are former journalists who have worked with the state owned Congolese National Radio and Television Corporation abbreviated in French as CNRTV. MNCOM was first called Radio & Television Fanion, with its first station created in the village of Edou, which is the birthplace and ancestral home to the Nguessos.

Edou is a sparsely populated village located some 4 km from the town of Oyo and Oyo is also the name of  the same district that has been transformed into hybrid modern and archaic town,  since President Denis Sassou Nguesso came to power for the second time in 1997. Oyo might soon become Congo’s political and administrative capital should president Denis Sassou Nguesso remains in power beyond 2016. Anyway, that is his pet project. For according with a person that the president confided in him, Brazzaville is too hostile to him and his family, hence he wants the capital of Congo to be relocated to his village, in the same way as the former Ivorian President Late Houphouet Boigny did.  While waiting for that, to happen, Brazzaville is still the capital of Congo. Besides the Radio and Television, the Fanion media Group was also the publisher of a weekly called Le Fanion, that eventually became the second daily in the country after Les Depeches De Brazzaville.