Mrs. Lydie Hortense Kourissa: Denis Sassou Nguesso was chosen by God to govern Congo

However, the problem with Mr Jean De Dieu Kourissa MP and others like him within the ruling party is their collective fear to lose their privileges coupled with the fear of reprisals.  When Jean De Dieu Kourissa MP heard that, I wanted to have a television station that will give balanced news and views on national and international issues, he cringed.  He was afraid of the consequences that I will sustain from the ruling party of which he was an MP.  For Mr Jean De Dieu Kourissa MP knew that, the ruling party seldom likes the truth and they abhor any professional journalist who won’t sing their praise. It was a tough time for. And I had special debate with Mr Jean De Dieu Kourissa MP on the editorial line that I wanted to put in place, if they wanted me to work for them. I told them that, the survival of MNTV/MN Radio lies in being professional and objective. Anything short of those latter mentioned, no Congolese will ever bother to listen to them or watch their radio or television, because they know it is another attempt, for the ruling family to control the country media wise as they are already doing politically and economically.

I added: the national television and radio are already making a lot of propaganda for President Denis Sassou Nguesso and there is no place for real news or any kind of contradictory news or debates. In addition:  you or your family already has TOP TV, which belongs to Claudia Leboumba Sassou Nguesso, the daughter of the president. Another media from the elder brother of the president with the aim to promote the ruling family and the policies of the government will only generate or exacerbate a national family fatigue or rejection. However, if your media are professionally balanced or objective, I told them, people will give an ear your radio or watch your television station and more, there are greater chances that, after this regime ends, which is a likely scenario from my observations, MNCOM might survive. Mrs. Lydie Kourissa quibbled when I said that, should the regime ends, MNCOM might outlive it. She asked: so you want our regime to end? I replied: it is a democracy, I suppose. And if it is really one, then it has a life span that is terminal and not everlasting. Then I also told them, that, I had my own personal and professional reputation to preserve. If they wanted me to work for them, they should allow me a free hand in the editorial policy and a greater autonomy in the management of MNTV/MN Radio.

Mrs. Lydie Kourissa was not willing or not satisfied.  She was afraid, for she knew the way I was working at Telesud. In other words, Mrs. Kourissa knew me better than any member of the ruling family. She knew that, I said openly what I thought and abhorred injustices and dictatorship. Hence she feared my request for a free hand in the editorial policy of MNTV/MN Radio. But she had another sledge hammer above her head: her love not for political power, but more her uncle of a president and also her husband, For the period when her uncle left or lost political power to Professor Pascal Lissouba was to her a very traumatic moment. This was so because she saw how her uncle suffered, but always put up a brave democratic face for the cameras when he was out.  I discovered that what Denis Sassou Nguesso wrote in his book: Le Manguier, le Fleuve et la souris in 1997, was the greatest political lies of all times in Congolese post independence history. It was his Mien Kampf. He deceived Congolese or took them for idiots, the same way as did Adolf Hitler.

The real Denis Sassou Nguesso was in the biography written by journalist, Andre Soussan, wherein he prepares the ground to make people think he(Denis Sassou Nguesso) was born to rule, since  as he claims, he was chosen by clan elders at the expense of his older brothers to be initiated into the tribal cult in their village of Edou. My conversations with Mrs. Lydie Hortense Kourissa, who seems to love and respect her uncle perhaps more than her biological father, Maurice Nguesso was not only edifying, but more revealing. It was not as though she was spilling the bin, but it showed one thing, the love and profound admiration of a niece to her uncle of a president, chosen by God to rule Congo. She once told me that, there is a tree at the centre of the school where her uncle studied in the Niari region of Congo, to be précised in Mbonda, where as young as he was, he carved on the trunk a tree the word: Prince. Then, she asked me: was that not a spiritual inspiration from God as the bible writings on the wall? Since Mrs. Lydie H. Kourissa is a born again Christian, she thinks honestly that, God had chosen long ago her uncle to govern Congo. 

Congo: a country without privately owned media

How did they get those certificates?  This will be answered on the chapter on: “Congolese cultural values”. One thing amongst many that I have noticed while in Congo, especially amongst its elite is that, corruption and exam cheat has become a style or an acceptable culture. The elite are the ones who help their children to cheat during exams.  It is not as though there were no examination cheat or corruption in other African countries that I have visited, stayed and worked. The difference between Congo and other African countries that I have visited and stayed and work is that, examination cheat and all kinds of corruption is not only accepted but supported by the government. This is a country where the administrations of the lone state University and other state institutions have refused computerization or digitalization for fear that; it might stop or reduce frauds of all kinds. Some elite, in particular those belonging to the ruling PCT prosper in corruption. 

Then after observing the Congolese media landscape, I discovered that, most of the media houses or media outfits were owned by members of the ruling family: daughters, sons, brother, cousins of the President of the Republic. The only other people allowed to have media houses in Congo were people gravitating around power circles. Therefore, the so-called private media houses in Congo were a farce. They were also everything but private. Those so-called private media houses were not very different from the state owned National Radio and Television in the way that, they treated news stories that concerns any national and international events. Most media houses in Congo, especially electronic, were just making propaganda of the system and the ruling family. The only area where there were some independence or free views were in the print media that were truly privately owned.  To show how the ruling PCT and president Denis Sassou Nguesso abhorrs private or independent media, the government even decided to ground the national daily called La Nouvelle Republique in favor of a privately owned daily called Les Depeches de Brazzaville.  

In fact, Les Depeches de Brazzaville is owned by the president of the Republic and managed by a French former journalist by name Jean Paul Pigasse. While the private print press was trying to be objective, it treatment or handling of news was albeit sometimes sensational and also close to the views of the opposition or the majority of Congolese.  However, the outreach of the print privately owned media was limited in Congo. And this because of two things: the cost of a newspaper and educational barrier. A weekly newspaper in Congo cost FCFA 500 or $1, a sum that most Congolese don’t have and to make matters more complicated, most Congolese cannot read French. While most Congolese cannot read or write in French, which is the country’s official language, they cannot also read or write in the two other alternate national languages which are: Lingala and Kituba. The most appropriate means of communications in Congo like most African countries is radio. But in Congo, Radio and Television stations were as already mentioned the exclusive preserve of the ruling family and those close to them. It is not as though others could not have radio or television stations.

But licenses will never be given to any one or group of people who don’t belong to the ruling family or whose political orientation is not vetted by the ruling family and the ruling Congolese Workers Party or the PCT.  Mindful of this unique reality in Congo, I therefore decided and this with the support of Maurice Nguesso to have a television station that will meet my aspiration, which was to be more balanced and professional in the coverage of news and events nationally and internationally. It was not an easy task, for there were some resistances and the resistance came principally from Mrs Lydie Hortense Kourissa. But the reality was that, Mrs. Kourissa was simply delivering or piling on me the pressure that she was receiving from her husband Mr Jean De Dieu Kourissa MP. Mr Kourissa is an MP for the ruling Congolese Workers Party or the PCT and a modern man who also contributed that I should come and work with his father in law. Mr Jean De Dieu Kourissa MP is a living example that, not all who are members of the ruling party and also members of the ruling family are bad or not ready for progress in all aspects.

However, the problem with Mr Jean De Dieu Kourissa MP and others like him within the ruling party is their collective fear to lose their privileges coupled with the fear of reprisals.  When Jean De Dieu Kourissa MP heard that, I wanted to have a television station that will give balanced news and views on national and international issues, he cringed.  He was afraid of the consequences that I will sustain from the ruling party of which he was an MP.  For Mr Jean De Dieu Kourissa MP knew that, the ruling party seldom likes the truth and they abhor any professional journalist who won’t sing their praise. It was a tough time for. And I had special debate with Mr Jean De Dieu Kourissa MP on the editorial line that I wanted to put in place, if they wanted me to work for them. I told them that, the survival of MNTV/MN Radio lies in being professional and objective. Anything short of those latter mentioned, no Congolese will ever bother to listen to them or watch their radio or television, because they know it is another attempt, for the ruling family to control the country media wise as they are already doing politically and economically.