Other specialty of some members of the ruling Nguesso family

Besides serving as intermediaries for local and foreign businessmen and women who find it difficult to be paid for their jobs or contracts, the other specialty of some members of the ruling Nguesso family is to obtain money from anybody who wants to meet the President of the Republic without using the official trajectory, which is through the Presidential Protocol. Their intermediary service is not done for free but in exchange mostly for cash. Sometimes such services do backfire, when various actors in the illicit tractions don’t get their cuts. One of such is the case of Sun Dance Resources of Australia who through their Congolese subsidiary, Congo Iron bribed their way into the country as they also did in neighbouring Cameroon. This is how the intermediary service of some Nguesso works: Before taking anyone, in chief foreign businessmen and women to see their father or uncle, a deposit of cash is paid and upon meeting with the President, the balance is given. This money doesn’t only go into the pocket of the children or family member, it also greases the bureaucratic chain of command at the presidency, in particular the Presidential Protocol. Nothing can be done in Congo without the Nguessos giving their approval or facilitating it. Most often, the Nguessos compel investors to accept them into the board of national and foreign companies based in Congo and paradoxically, they almost all, want to be board members without buying shares. Most often than not, investors do acquiesce to the excessive demands of the family members of the Nguessos.

Voracious

The Nguessos are so voracious to a point that, they are involved even in informal sector of the economy such as the sale of smoked fish, caught by artisanal fishermen around the waters of Pointe Noire. If you ever wondered why there are empty spaces at the Maya-maya International airport in Brazzaville, it is simply because, Cendrine Otenello Sassou Nguesso, one of the daughters of the President has taken over the all the available space and increased the rents disproportionately. Whereas it was agreed that, all those who had boutiques in the former airport that was demolished to make way for the ultra modern airport, were to have new placements or boutiques within the new airport. Cendrine is also a majority shareholder in Servair, Congolese subsidiary of cookery firm that works in partnership with Air France. Her half sister, Ninelle Sassou Nguesso is in the service, hospitality and construction sectors through a company known a Group Bentsi. Jenifer and Paule Sassou Nguesso owns KlassExpo, a marketing and Communications firm situated at the ground floor of the Immeuble du 5 Fevrier 1979. The Nguessos are all over. The latter ate just a sample of their grip of the Congolese economy. 

Mayoral mantle of the city of Brazzaville:The origin of the intra ruling Nguesso family feud

Eventually, I decided to suspend the programme after I sensed that, Ninelle Sassou Nguesso, one of the daughters of President Denis Sassou Nguesso and the wife of Hugues Ngouelondele, the Lord Mayor of Greater Brazzaville City Council, had made the phone- in- programme on MN Radio called: “Overture sûr l’info”, one of the main subject of their regular family meetings. Ninelle Sassou Nguesso claimed during their meetings that, it was Jean De Dieu KOURISSA, the husband of Mrs. KOURISSA, who has ordered me to start a smear campaign against her husband (Hugues Ngouelondele). The origin of the intra ruling Nguesso family feud, pitting on one side Lydie Hortense Kourissa, the eldest daughter of Maurice Nguesso and on the other side, Ninelle Sassou Nguesso, the daughter of Denis Sassou Nguesso began in 2007 legislative and Council elections. Why? To cut a long story short, The Kourissas were part of the returnee Nguessos from Libreville, where like the rest of the large contingent of the  ruling Nguessos, they flew in Libreville and stayed there when their sister and cousin, Edith Lucie Bongo Ondimba was the wife of President Omar Bongo Ondimba.

However, when Edith Lucie Bongo Ondimba fell sick and was flown to France for medical treatment, the Nguessos were no longer welcomed in Libreville at the presidential palace known in French as “Palais du bord de Mer.”  The one amongst the ruling Bongo family in Libreville who regarded the Nguessos as an invasion from Congo, was Ali Bongo Ondimba, the son of late Omar Bongo Ondimba and current president. He had a visceral hatred for Edith Lucie Bongo Ondimba, the wife of his father. It partly explains the reason why President Denis Sassou Nguesso doesn’t want to see president Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon.  It is because the current Congolese ruling family was no longer welcomed in Gabon, at least within power circles that, they began planning for their home coming. President Denis Sassou Nguesso never wanted Jean De Dieu Kourissa, the husband of his niece (Lydie Hortense Kourissa) to return home and start idling around.  President Denis Sassou Nguesso can be accused of all things negative, but he is a family man. He has strong love for his family and it is also part of the reason why he has failed in the administration of the country. For he always wants to satisfy his family interest first.  

And since their best profession is politics, the uncle in-law of Jean de Dieu Kourissa decided that, Jean De Dieu Kourissa since he was born in Poto-poto, he must be made a member of parliament.  However what the president never knew or expected was the challenge that would be mounted by another native of Poto-poto by name Nicephore Antoine Fylla de Saint Eudes to the Candidacy of Jean De Dieu Kourissa. Between Nicephore Antoine Fylla de Saint Eudes and Jean de Dieu Kourissa both born and bred in Poto-poto, it is the first who is more popular than the second. Furthermore, the other disadvantaged that Jean De Dieu Kourissa has is that, he is married to the niece of President Denis Sassou Nguesso, who is not loved in Poto-poto because of two things: he is suspected to have assassinated Marien Ngouabi and also because he wanted to modernize the neighborhood. To the natives of Poto-poto, no matter the good intension of the president, modernization to them was a metaphor for expropriation.

And the man who fought against the expropriation of Poto-poto was Nicephore Antoine Fylla de Saint Eudes. But during the 2007 legislative elections that were fraught with monumental fraud in favour of Jean de Dieu Kourissa, the Nguessos were united to give their brother and son-in-law a job. However, what they, in particular did not know was that, the municipal councilors of Greater Brazzaville, even though belonging to the ruling PCT Party don’t like the Nguessos. Furthermore, Jean De Dieu Kourissa is partly ethnic Mbouchi from his mother and partly ethnic Lari from his father. Although he is more Mbouchi, than Lari, most PCT councilors and MPs from the Greater Brazzaville, being ethnic Laris and Kongos had preferred, that, the post of Lord Mayor of the Greater Brazzaville city council, should go to one of theirs.   It was Jean De Dieu KOURISSA, their choice.  The ruling PCT councilors in Brazzaville voted and wanted him (Jean De Dieu KOURISSA) to become Lord Mayor of the Greater Brazzaville city Council. But the wishes of the PCT councilors as well as those of PCT member of parliaments were not taken into consideration.

Regarding why the wishes of the PCT councilors of Brazzaville was not taken into consideration or ignored, Isidore MVOUBA, former Prime Minister, and currently Minister of Commerce, told me that, Ninelle Sassou Nguesso was the one who was vehemently opposed. In other words, if Jean De Dieu Kourissa is not Mayor of the Greater Brazzaville city council and could only console himself with his position of MP, it is because of one woman: Ninelle Sassou Nguesso. However, while not underestimating the influence of Ninelle Sassou Nguesso within the Sassou Nguesso power galaxy, the true game changer was Edith Lucie Bongo Ondimba, the late beloved daughter of President Denis Sassou Nguesso.  According to Isidore MVOUBA,  it was  an alleged intervention from  Edith Lucie Bongo Ondimba, the late wife of late Omar Bongo Ondimba on her father (Denis Sassou Nguesso) that forced or tilted the table in the favour of the husband of Ninelle Sassou Nguesso. The President of the Republic convinced by her late elder daughter to appoint his son-in-law as Lord Mayor of the Greater Brazzaville City Council, instructed Isidore MVOUBA, to ask the ruling PCT councilors in the Greater Brazzaville City Council to drop Jean De Dieu KOURISSA for the proposed post of lord mayor in favour of for Hugues Ngouelondele.

Mr Ngouelondele is the son-in-law of the President Denis Sassou Nguesso while Jean de Dieu Kourissa is the son-in-law of Maurice Nguesso.  Jean De Dieu Kourissa could at least console himself that, he was elected in controversial manner as a ruling PCT MP for Poto-poto, a populous neighborhood of Brazzaville at the expense of Nicephore Antoine Fylla de Saint Eudes. The pressure of Ninelle Sassou Nguesso did not only succeed to maneuver and to put her husband as mayor of the Greater Brazzaville city council and  as you will read later on, she succeeded years later on, precisely in 2012, to make her husband to be elected  as member of parliament for the Gamboma 1 legislative constituency. This time around, the second victim of Ninelle Sassou Nguesso after Jean De Dieu Kourissa was Mathias Dzon.

The husband of Ninelle who was an MP for Brazzaville who was at the end of his mandate, but he succeeded an electoral feat some 300km away from his Brazzaville base, at the expense of the very popular and charismatic Mathias Dzon. Mr Dzon is the main rival of President Denis Sassou Nguesso and there was no way Hugues Ngouelondele could have defeated Mr Dzon in his fief of Gamboma. Hugues Ngouelondele was elected in Gamboma 1 not because he was popular but out of the military bullying the people and brutal electoral fraud.  Ninelle Sassou Nguesso is a very influential member of the ruling family. Although she is cantankerous and most often bullies her half brothers and sisters, especially those born out of wedlock and recently recognized, she doesn’t brag or she is not the show and tell kind of the newly minted Nguessos.  At MNCOM or to be précised MNTV/ MN Radio, she also succeeded to put off air another very popular Radio call-in- Programme called “Good Morning Congo”. It was presented by Willy MESAMOU aka Mr Jekyll. Within the ruling Nguesso family, the Ninelle Sassou Nguesso wing was the most hawkish.

They are also the ones who think that, their father, Denis Sassou Nguesso was born to rule Congo everlastingly. This wing doesn’t like freedom of speech nor democracy. They were the ones who considered that, I had a mission to destroy their divine rule with my independent reporting and management of MNTV/MN Radio. They were also the ones who not only began attacking me and MNTV/MN Radio, but were bent at destroy the media group of their uncle. Their attacks was not only directed on MN Radio, they also attacked the print media that was publishing the newspaper called Le Fanion. That was suspended for a long while just to satisfy the whims and caprices of Ninelle Sassou Nguesso, who was the wife of the Lord Mayor of the Brazzaville Greater City Council. But where they used all weapons available in their distructive armory was on Television. It is true that, most of what Maurice Nguesso does as investments don’t seem to succeed simply because his ambition is simply to create or offer jobs to Congolese. And as already mentioned, on several occasions, most coming to work for Maurice Nguesso or in any of his companies think, that, they don’t need to invest much time to work. 

Ninelle Sassou Nguesso: the hawk of the Nguesso family

That said, in working at MNTV, I sensed all the limitations not only of the ruling family, but also of the entire country. I knew that, I had an uphill task to practice my profession independently. However my first battle did not start, where I expected, that is: with the state security services. My first battle began within the ruling Nguesso family. The Nguesso ruling family was my first battle front and also the most challenging. This was so because, I had to fight with a section of a group of people, who felt that, they had divine benediction to rule Congo forever. And also because of their financial and political power, they have been made by the armies of sycophants surrounding them to think that, they were the most brilliant. But it was not difficult to see that, most of the children of the President were not intelligent, inventive nor creative. For they almost all did the same thing. Their greatest investments or creations were foundations. While others tried their hands in service sectors with common denominators: chaotic management and worst, those who work for them were/are seldom paid. 

And in that battle that I wedged through proxy with a section of the ruling family, I had as my best defender, Mrs. Lydie Hortense Kourissa. And Mrs. Kourissa did this because of three things: she wanted her father’s media house to succeed, she liked and admired the way I was doing my job and thought it will be beneficial to their family and thirdly, as a Christian, she has some conscience. Jean-Bruno Obambi and Olga Mireille Pethas were the ones who brought me the message how Mrs Lydie Hortense Kourissa was my bulwark in front of the ferocious attacks that I was receiving from some of her sisters, brothers and cousins. Mrs. Olga Blanche Mireille Pethas was the private secretary of Mrs. Kourissa when she was the general manager of MNCOM.  Besides working with her at MNCOM, she also assisted Mrs. Kourissa whenever, she had to organize the regular family parties or weddings and other activities that the ruling Nguesso were fond off. 

As for Jean-Bruno OBAMBI, who is a member of the ruling family, he once told me at the Starland Hotel in Douala-Cameroon, where we went to attend a conference organized by Eutelsat, that, during their family meetings, their debates almost always centered on my name. According to the online dictionary Wikipedia, Eutelsat is a French-based satellite provider. That is providing coverage to the entire European continent as well as the Middle East, Africa, India and significant parts of Asia and the Americas. Eutelsat, was founded in 1977 and it is also one of the world’s three leading satellite operators in terms of revenues.  And in Douala and to be precise at that Starland Hotel, where I was with Obambi, we came to attend a conference organized by Eutelsat. The French based satellite operator gathered  selected directors of privately owned media of Cameroon, Congo, DRC and Gabon to brief us to join a new satellite that they wanted to launch and which they hope as its grows will rival another French company predominant in French-speaking Africa called Canal Sat Horizon.  Jean-Bruno OBAMBI insisted to me that, a commanding section of the ruling family almost always asked Mrs. KOURISSA to terminate my contract. 

And at the head of those battling or confronting me was Ninelle Sassou Nguesso, the hawk of the Nguesso family.  She is like most daughters of President Denis Sassou Nguesso. Although married to Hugues Ngouelondele MP , the Lord Mayor of the Greater Brazzaville City Council, she hardly wants to be identified by the name of her husband. They(daughters of President Denis Sassou Nguesso) almost all wants to retain the names of their father, not because they love him so much or their family, but simply because, the Nguesso name is an influential passport in the country. Most Congolese hates Claudia Lemboumba Ikia Sassou Nguesso MP, not because she is actually wicked, but more because she is very close to her father. For some Congolese who hate her claim that, she is not only antipathetic but bellicose. But the ambitions and  ferocity with which Ninelle Sassou Nguesso, the wife of Hugues Ngouelondele puts  to achieve her ambitions is not only full of vendetta it  is coated with an aggressive nature that pales that of Claudia Sassou Nguesso, her half sister. The wickedness of Ninelle Sassou Nguesso, which some people claim that, without the position held by her father, no right thinking man would even accept her for his 10^th mistress, not to say tenth wife, is at the image of her physique.

She is claimed by some Congolese to have won the unenviable crown of the ugliest of the daughters of President Denis Sassou Nguesso. Personally, I do not share that opinion because, whatever her weaknesses, she remains the creature of God. She is pretty. If she was not, the mayor of Brazzaville won’t have been dying for her. And more, beauty is not only about external appearances. Congolese, who are a people who are very conscious of their physical appearance, also claim that, ugly women are also those who are the wicked. Once again here, I do not share their opinion. As far as I am concern, all women are beautiful. Mr Jean-Bruno Obambi is the CEO of Azur Telecom, a local mobile phone company present in three African countries: Congo, Central African Republic and Gabon.