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

The Republic Congo: At the image of the retrograde culture of the northerners

According to the diplomat, Congolese in general, not only girls or women are not to be blamed for being lazy and perverse in their ways of life.  He continued: “They are at the image of the Mbouchis governing the country, who have evaluated their retrograde traditions and culture into a way of life and which has sadly been adopted by the government and Congolese people”.  While the Congolese diplomat that I met in Washington DC seems to have an implacable hatred for Marien Ngouabi and most northerners, which made me to take some of the points and observations he made with some circumspections, there are nonetheless some aspects or some points that, he raised during our conversation that, seem in my opinion that, he was not exaggerating. This had to do with the aspects of non respect for women which seems preponderant among people from the greater north and in chief, the Mbouchis. Although Congo is a majority Christian country, the paradox is that, the Mbouchis in power have made polygamy official. Perhaps they have done so for reasons earlier mentioned. But intelligent as they sometimes are, especially when it comes to do despicable things, the governing Mbouchi push for polygamy in Congo was wrapped and marketed as promotion and respect for African traditions. They sold it that way because of the strong opposition from the largely Christian greater south and evangelical churches.  

It may also explain why, they never made mentioned in their project that, it was the transposition of a retrograde culture practiced mostly in Oyo and Edou.Whatever reasons may have motivated the current system to encourage polygamy, it must once again be pointed out that, in the greater south, because of the influence of the Protestant brand of Christianity and extreme westernization, polygamy has been almost wiped-out or is marginal. By contrast, polygamy is still wide spread in the greater north, because of under education, the dominant influence of animism and Catholicism. Some Mbouchi cadre who are manning the mantle of power in Brazzaville could employ all subterfuges to justify the misogyny on women in Africa and in Congo in particular, but the truth in my humble opinion is that, most Congolese men, especially northerners of the minority ruling Mbouchi tribe of President Sassou Nguesso seems to have very little consideration for women. 

Djibril Bopaka: Profile of a man who epitomizes all that has gone wrong with Denis Sassou Nguesso

El hadj Abdoulaye Djibril Bopaka: he is the head of the Muslim or Islamic Council of Congo and also a former member of the Cobra militia of Denis Sassou Nguesso during the 1997 civil war. He is also the head of a parallel union of owners of enterprises, whose locations and official registry are not known at the ministry of Commerce or at the Brazzaville Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mine and Artisans. The head of the Brazzaville Chamber of Commerce is Paul Obambi. Mr Obambi can’t stand Mr Djibril, because of the duplicity of the second. El Hadj Abdoulaye Djibril Bopaka has the attitudes of rogues or gang leaders. All he does is to impress. One sign is what passes for the head quarters of his many organisations, located near the airport, in street named after him, Avenue Bopaka. It is not clear whether people just decided to call it after him or whether it is official.  On this street, he has constructed a large building, painted Green and White and on and around it, are flags of several countries. This self imposed leader of the Islamic community can’t also tell you whether he is a Sunni or Shia Muslim.  Mr Bopaka is truly a unique character that I have come across on several occasions. Djibril Bopaka for also the noises that he makes about his role during the civil, he is not known for having carried out any act of bravery or fought in any of the battle fronts.

However what he is well known for, are his feats in extortions, even at the height of the civil war. He operated mostly in Oyo, the home district of the President during the civil war. It is reported that, he was almost lynched by members of the President’s family, because of rackets that, he began organizing within the family. He took parcels and pretended to take them to Gabon to give the late Edith Lucie Bongo Ondimba and those parcels never reached their destination. He also did the way when Edith gave him money and gifts for her family and they disappeared along the border between Gabon and Congo.  Another occasion that he was almost lynched was by the traders and fishermen population at the port of Oyo, but the timely intervention of Ambende, the late elder brother of Sassou Nguesso, saved Djibril from being thrown into the Alima River. The traders and fishermen of Oyo were already tired of his racketeering. Djibril Bopaka is an unsuccessful businessman, whose businesses survive simply because he claims to be close to the President of the Republic. The strange man of God and a so-called devoted Muslim doesn’t pay  those who work for him and also misappropriates funds that Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar sends for the expansion of Islam, the building of Mosques, schools and hospitals in Congo. His attitude is the cause of perpetual intra-Muslim confrontations, especially in Pointe Noire, where his authority is rigorously challenged within the Islamic community.   

Within the Muslim community, that he has imposed himself as their leader, he is contested. But because of his proximity with the president of the Republic, he is still the chair of the Islamic community. He is also a strange businessman. He is known to have started business by selling paints. The paint selling business, which he created was called “Bopaka Painture”. He is a man who spends his time to want to speak or imitate the way the president speaks and also organizes rackets of the West African Muslim business community who besides paying taxes to the government and the councils where they operate, they also pays another special tax or levy to Djibril, who claims to defend them. This special tax is called the “Bopaka impot” in French or Bopaka tax in English. He is a corrupt man who spends his time singing the praise and virtue of the fight against corruption. But whenever takes loan from banks, he doesn’t reimburse those loans. His is among those who have contributed in running down most commercial banks in Congo, because they refuse to pay back their loans and nothing happens to them. Currently, he is campaigning for the change of the constitution, for he knows that, in a system which is honest and transparent; his rightful place will be in jail. Yet, these are the type of people who pass for actors or head of civil society organisations in Congo, fighting against corruption or electoral frauds.  He is also a very incoherent man. On one hand, he is calls or advocates for the respect of the rule of law, while other, he wants the president to change the constitution. The only coherent thing that he does best is to find ways and means to line up his pocket. Djibril Bopaka epitomizes all that has gone wrong with the systemic corruption and absence of accountability that Denis Sassou Nguesso has allowed to prosper in Congo, under his rule or should I say, misrule.

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.