My fellowship at the NED

This part or chapter, like the whole of this book, was written in two continents and in three countries. The idea first began in the Republic of Congo, but was actualized in Cameroon after I was expelled from the former. It was improved in the United States with the additions of this chapter and also that on Kleptocracy, in titled: The Nguessos: the Kleptocratic Family.  It was precisely on the 31^st of August 2016 that, I decided to make the aforementioned additions.  However, unlike the other additions and modifications, this chapter was written to show my deep appreciations to two organisations: Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ and National Endowment for Democracy, NED, both have been of great help to me when I was expelled from the Republic of Congo. The first offered me an emergency fellowship that enabled me to leave Cameroon, while the second extended my Research Fellowship beyond the official end date. The extension of my research fellowship permitted me to put in writing what I knew about Kleptocracy in Congo Brazzaville and also share it with US  based NGOs fighting against corruption and human rights abuses in Africa  as well as  officials from the State  and Justice Departments among others. The opportunity to present the latter was done on the 23^rd of July 2016 and the theme was: Kleptocracy and it corrosive effects at home and abroad: the example of Congo Brazzaville. And as the preceding chapters have demonstrated, the long reign of Sassou Nguesso has had negative impacts not only in Congo but also beyond: Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo.  

My July 23^rd 2016 presentation was held in close door. It was unlike my first, which was focused on social media and had as theme: the role of social media in the promotion of Free Speech and Democracy in Central Africa.  As earlier mentioned, my Kleptocracy presentation was meant to reveal to the world that, Congo Brazzaville is a major player in the galaxy of Kleptocracy on the same level as other well known Kleptocracies such as Azerbaijan, Angola, Equatorial, Russia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.  The Congolese Kleptocracy may regroup several people, but it is led by one family: the Nguessos. And as elucidated in the chapter: The Nguessos: the Kleptocratic family, their stranglehold onto power has had a negative or corrosive impact not only in Congo Brazzaville, but equally abroad:  Central African Republic, DRC and also in Burundi. And in Burundi, a man working at the presidency of Congo, who doesn’t want to be named, confided to me that, Sassou Nguesso offered financial support to Pierre Nkurunziza at the height of that country’s crisis. The aim of the financial support, he told me, was to help Burundi’s President, Pierre Nkurunziza  and his regime to withstand economic sanctions imposed by the European Union and also to resist the internal prodemocracy up rising. While my informant did not offer any proves other than claiming that, monies left Brazzaville for Bujumbura via Dakar to boost up the regime of Pierre Nkurunziza, I don’t have any reason to doubt him. I don’t doubt him because it looks every inch what Sassou Nguesso is capable of doing.  

Why I choose to stay and work in Congo ( part 3)

The security service hired people who opened different or several Facebook, blog, twitter and Whatsapp accounts, which are/were meant to insult or attack all those whose views are/were contrary to those of the government. These groups of people are known in French as les combatant du web or online warriors.  Then, I did not know that, social media were to play a major role in Congo’s presidential elections as it has done, by exposing the fantastic electoral fraud of President Denis Sassou Nguesso in March 20^th 2016 presidential elections. Congo is a gigantic torture house. And at the head of this formidable machine of physical and psychological torture is General Jean Francois Ndenguet. Their plan is to force their victims to quit or commit suicide. It is another face of Africa. Africa is a strange place. It is a place where things that are not accepted elsewhere are either accepted or tolerated.  This is a continent where some or a majority of its leaders would want to hang on to power, even if it meant killing an entire region or even a country, as it is being observed in Burundi and currently  in  the Pool region of Congo. Africa is a continent where some women will support rape, simply because they want to defend and protect their own interest. Fortunately, once in a while, there are some linings of hope, like the elections that took place in Nigeria and Senegal, which saw the peaceful alternation of power from one civilian regime to another. Congo, represents that small but equally  enduring bad Africa, whose negative images and actions, erodes all the democratic advancements, however small, that is taking place on the continent. 

In term of the respect of human rights and democracy in general, the situation is deteriorating rapidly in Congo. People are being arrested in wanton manner, the press is not free, extrajudicial assassinations are rampant, democracy is destroyed and corruption and immorality has been elevated as a way of life by a government that wants to stay in power everlastingly. Hence, all means are used to perpetuate its plans. All those opposed to the government are arrested, killed or forced into exile.  As regards my job and stay at MNCOM, a media group owned by Maurice Nguesso, the elder brother of Denis Sassou Nguesso, I have read a lot things online, regarding the reasons why I stayed or worked in Congo. Most of it came up, when I took a public stand against the change of the constitution after I was expelled from the country. But some do not know that, it was because of my independent views that I was expelled and nothing else. I also want to make another point clear and it is not in any way aimed at absolving General Jean Francois Ndenguet. He is a criminal, but a disciplined one, who acts only when his masters instructs him to.  I want to make it abundantly clear that, what happened to me, won’t have happened, if Jean Francois Ndenguet did not have the support and backing of the President. Some of my online detractors, especially on Facebook, have even gone the extra mile in claiming that, I had a lump sum salary while working for Maurice Nguesso, hence I chose to stay and work in Congo. But, the truth is that, I didn’t stay or work at MNCOM because of money. May I put the fact straight here on. And throughout this book, I will explain why I stayed in Congo and also worked for the Nguessos. And more, I have no regrets and I do not consider them (the ruling Nguesso family) as my enemies. They are instead the ones who are considering me as an enemy, because they can’t stand anyone who is independent minded. They showed that, they considered me as an enemy when they decided to send thugs to attack me and also gang rape my younger sister.

They wanted to humiliate me and  force me into submission. But I bear no grudge. I do consider myself to be their true friend, especially a true friend of the President Sassou Nguesso. This is so because, I had told him the truth. And a true friend is the one who has the courage to tell the truth. I never wanted President Denis Sassou Nguesso that I held in great esteem to have the fate of Paul Biya, Robert Mugabe, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni or Pierre Nkurunziza. I never wanted him to be humiliated. Sadly, he did not listen and today, he is being ridiculed. He has been humiliated and called names. Had Denis Sassou Nguesso left power, he would have been respected at par with other African great statesmen such as Joaquin Chissano of Mozambique, Dr Goodluck E. Jonathan of Nigeria, Pedro Pires of Cape Verde or Abdou Diouf of Senegal.  As far as Maurice Nguesso is concern, he is not different with the majority of the ruling Nguesso family, that is term of the treatment that he/they gives to people working for them. These are two examples: management workers of the media group MNCOM have not been paid for 17 months while the rank and files have not been paid for 8 months. As concern TOP TV, a media house owned by Claudia Sassou Nguesso, the niece of Maurice Nguesso and daughter of President Sassou Nguesso, her workers   have not been paid for 14 months. Hence I can authoritatively write here on that, the ruling Nguessos, have one thing in common: they seldom pay those who are hired to work for them. At MNCOM, almost all managers who have worked for them have left either without being paid or with salary arrears.

The last two managers namely Laurent Delasus and Michel Rene Mboukou Etoney are two great examples. They have left because the terms of their contracts were not respected. Michel Mboukou is even owed the sum of FCFA 20 million, being his salary arrears or unpaid salaries. I was therefore not working because of any financial advantages because they also owe me a lot of unpaid salary arrears and also, they did not even bother to respect the terms of our contact. The last General Manager of an already death structure is called Florent Koumba, from Gabon. He is the one who gave a clear cut accounting procedure for the group and he also wanted it to operate like a real company. Currently he not paid and more, he is subject of regular humiliations. However, in spite the difficulties and the challenges, I did not bother myself because I knew I was in Congo for a mission and for that reason, I even had to sacrifice my own family. Congo for me was a kind of laboratory to learn how to topple or forced any entrenched dictatorial regime to leave or negotiate with prodemocracy activists and using the forceful combination of old and new media with the help of classic forces: opposition and civil society organisations. For  if  it were  for money, that I came to work for MNCOM, I would have left. This is so because, as already stated above, Maurice Nguesso doesn’t pay his workers and this not a fable or figment from my imagination. It is known by all those who have worked for him. Maurice Nguesso is no doubt very creative, imaginative for his age, but he is surrounded by a profiteering ring and worse, he has fathered children who are busy fighting among themselves to inherit his wealth while he is still alive. In other word, they want to fast lane him to the grave, but the strong, generous and cunning old man, is refusing and resisting death. He has survived several heart attacks. If his children had an ounce of positive and prospective brains, they would have focused their energy and intelligence not at fleecing their old father, but on how to grow and consolidate their fathers investments.  Besides MNTV/ MN Radio, both subsidiaries of MNCOM that, I can without any pretense crow here on that, it had succeeded under my management and this because of the help of people such as Alexander Pierre Bougha and Nick Owosso and certainly with others, all other investments of Maurice Nguesso are monumental failures.

But it is not the fault of Maurice Nguesso, he has tried his best but his children are incapable to recue any of his companies from collapse.  Sadly, poor management  seems to be in the family gene. The way his younger brother runs the industry called the Republic of Congo is also a flop. Furthermore, even if his many children wanted to improve things, they are mostly empty headed and because of pride, they don’t have the humility to surround themselves with professionals. In case they have professionals hired to work for them, they grow jealous whenever the hired professional becomes popular. I have worked for  Maurice Nguesso and as already mentioned, I sacrificed my family and was worst, I was even prepared physiologically to die, for I knew that, one day I will be killed. Hence, every Friday night, whenever I finished my live TV interviewing programme: La Grande Interview, I ended or signed off in French with this phrase: “A Vendredi prochaine,s’il plait a Dieu” or in English: until next Friday, God’s willing. It was my signature. Most viewers never understood the pressure that I was undergoing from a people who never wanted me to do my job as any other journalist would normally do. And I was also determine not to allow them to win in what I knew, was an ideological battle, for I knew that, Congolese deserve to be informed and this, objectively. I was personally tired of the propaganda within state media and also in pseudo privately owned media. I thought, I was on a mission, that must be fought and won, by all peaceful strategic means possible. 

Andre Okombi Salissa:Profile of a war lord turned Presidential candidate

Andre Okombi Salissa: aka “tout bouge”, is a pure creation of President Denis Sassou Nguesso.  He is a former war lord who headed the dreaded Front 400 militia. The Front 400 was   an autonomous militia group, created by Andre Okombi Salissa, but allegedly financed by Denis Sassou Nguesso, during the 1997, short but brutal civil war. It was in spite all the paintings or claims floated around it, a pure pro- Denis Sassou Nguesso back up militia, for his greater militia group, called the Cobra. In other words, the Cobra was the mother shock terror ship of current President Denis Sassou Nguesso, while the Front 400 was feeder militia boat, captained by Andre Okombi Salissa in the turbulent seas of Congo. But they were well-known to be vicious and specialized in surgical precision attacks on civilians and western diplomatic interest. They are reported to have planned and headed the operation to attack the US embassy in Brazzaville and looted the compound.  It was worth reminding readers that, this was during the 1997 short but violently brutal civil war, that some say was sparked by Denis Sassou Nguesso with the support of Jacques Rene Chirac, former French president. While the accused (Denis Sassou Nguesso) and his supporters claimed that, the civil war was caused by the inability of the only post independent democratically elected president of Congo, Professor Pascal Lissouba, to respect the spirit of the 1992 constitution. The said 1992 constitution is believed to have produced the only electoral democracy and change at the helms of the country.   

Greatest deception

However, the great paradox is that, the current president, Denis Sassou Nguesso, who even wrote an epic book in titled : Le Manguier, le Fleuve et la Souris or in English: The Mango Tress, the River and The Mouse, which had two purposes. The first being to denounce the excesses and abuses of Pascal Lissouba in 1997 and second, presents in a subtle manner to the public, his book/campaign manifesto. Denis Sassou Nguesso is at present, doing the same things that he had deprecated in his book/manifesto.  Some people think that, his book was the greatest deception in Congolese political writings, while others are putting in doubt whether he was the author of the book. However those who are putting in doubt Denis Sassou Nguesso’s authorship of Le Manguier, le Fleuve et la Souris, it may be simply that, they may have not read the book.  For to those doubting, it is beyond comprehension, how a respectable man of the caliber of Denis Sassou Nguesso, could trample over his own writing. But according to Anani Bindji Rabier, a journalist: that book is real Denis Sassou Nguesso. All what he said and wrote was simply because, he wanted power and the French were ready to back him on the condition that, he makes the promise to return to liberal democracy. He concludes: Denis Sassou Nguesso is a typical prototype of what an African chief should be. And he is a man with an extraordinary capacity to dissimulate his true character or feeling and that is a common traits found in most reptiles, in particular the Cobra snake or in some felines, especially the panther.

A political creation of Denis Sassou

It was as though; in 1997, Denis Sassou Nguesso was writing what he will do when he assumes power. And this very troublesome question or observation which often comes up, Andre Okombi Salissa, being a political creation of Denis Sassou and whom by chance has now become an adversary of his mentor.Won’t he do or act in the same manner as Denis Sassou Nguesso?  That is, pretend as though he is for the people and when he gets what he wants and which is power, won’t he return to his true self?  If Denis Sassou Nguesso had the effrontery to write a book full of best intensions, and then trample upon it, what assures the public that, his political son won’t behave like his mentor? To the defense and discharge of Andre Okombi Salissa, Everybody has the right for a second chance and he has even confessed of his sins, albeit in general terms. But other questions that beg to be asked are these: were he not shown the door out of the government, would he have ever joined the opposition? Is he sincere?  Why did he wait too long to apologize? Will his victims accept his apologies? To his discharge, too many crimes have been committed in Congo and those accused have they been prosecuted because there is justice in Congo.  The areas of predilections of Andre Okombi Salissa during the civil war and which also became his fief  in peace time, were the cosmopolitan neighborhoods of Poto-poto and Ouenze. He was assisted in his macabre operations during the civil war by Faustin Elenga. And Mr Elenga is today Member of Parliament for Talangai electoral constituency. This constituency is located in the north of Brazzaville and he is representing the ruling Congolese Workers Party abbreviated in French as PCT.  

Well connected

One thing is true though, in the weak and disorganized Congolese opposition, Andre Okombi Salissa and Mathias Dzon are the only two people with the potentials and capacities to succeed or challenge President Denis Sassou Nguesso, for they are fully well prepared with sound established network of supports in the country and abroad. Therefore, Okombi Salissa is a force to be counted upon in the march toward the respect of the constitution in Congo. As already mentioned, he might become the president of the Republic. What is not known about him is where he stands ideologically. He is currently at the head of a powerful well established political movement that was once aligned to the youth wing of the ruling Congolese Workers Party or the PCT. He is also one of the rare former allies of President Denis Sassou Nguesso who has support all over the country. His secret is simple. When he was government minister from 1997 to 2012, he used his ministerial post to create a network of formidable loyal supporters who got jobs or were integrated into the civil service because of his influence.  Furthermore, he has placed his men and women, all over and in strategic places. The only other member of the Denis Sassou Nguesso galaxy who has used his influence to spread his tentacles all over the government is Jean Dominique Okemba and it also explains the reason why, Andre Okombi Salissa is and was the only One, who could confront without fear the dreaded Jean Dominique Okemba. Mr Okemba is arguably the most influential member of Denis Sassou Nguesso’s innermost circle. He is variously referred to as: Satan the Devil, “very special one” or “vice president” of the Republic.

Formidable capacity of mobilization

In a country where there are little or no jobs outside the civil service, because the private sector is feeble or inexistent, Andre Okombi Salissa has succeeded in building a large pool of fanatical supporters who are a kind of reserved fighting force for him, whenever the need may arise. It also explains the reason why his close aides are presently subject to police harassments. As a pure creation of Denis Sassou Nguesso, he is capable of reenacting identically, what his mentor did to Pascal Lissouba in 1997.His only handicap is that, a section of opposition and people of the Pool region who were victims of the exactions of his militia during the civil war still looks at him with some tinge of suspicions. This is so because, he has not yet openly expressed his opposition to the ruling party and he is still an MP for the Lekana electoral district in the Plateau region under the banner of the ruling PCT party. Nevertheless, he has a formidable capacity of mobilization and therefore, he is a nuisance to the ruling party and the President and his ambition to change the constitution and also get re-elected. He is an asset to the opposition and not a liability at the present dispensation. However, all the suspicions on him seems to have been dropped, since he has now openly decided to stand against the change of the constitution, that will enable President Denis Sassou Nguesso to stand for another third presidential mandate. He has recently shown his determination or opposition credentials by joining hands with established opposition party leaders such as Clement Mierassa, Pascal Tsaty Mabiala, Mathias Dzon, Claudine Munari, Paul-Marie Mpouele and new comer Blanchard Oba.  Andre Okombi Salissa, who studied and unspecified course in the former Soviet Union, is claimed by his detractors, to have studied propaganda and mobilization and upon return, he got plunged into the Congolese civil war and was rewarded with a ministerial post immediately after. He held ministerial appointments for 12 years.  Unlike other Congolese of his age group, he has never known unemployment upon graduation.

Coward or opportunist

The same detractors also claim that, he rebelled against his former friends only after his friend and supporter Isidore Mvouba MP, was not given the post of secretary general of the Congolese Workers Party at the 2011 extraordinary congress, that saw the appointment of Pierre Ngolo MP as secretary general.  And according  to Arlette Soudan Nonault, former special adviser to Pierre Ngolo, Andre Okombi Salissa is not only a political coward, he is not logical. If he were bold and logical, he would have quit his post as MP for Lekana and also resigned from the ruling party. However, Okombi Salissa who is taciturn and speaks most often via his communications adviser, Augustine Kallakalla, replies that: there is time for everything. He adds that: he has nothing against President Denis Sassou Nguesso but against his misrule and the tribalism that he has established in the country. As already mentioned above, Okombi is the only person who can stand and challenge Jean Dominique Okemba, the dreaded and most influential man in Denis Sassou Nguesso’s government. And the fact that, he has now taken a bold stand against the change of the constitution, it is certain that, Congo might plunge into another civil war, should Denis Sassou Nguesso maintains his controversial plans to change the constitution and also if General Jean Francois Ndenguet, who acts now more as the head of a militia than the head of a republican Police, tries to forcefully arrest him.

Another Colonel Marcel Nstourou

For  it is reported by well informed sources who do not want to be named that, Andre Okombi Salissa, still has his  armed militia. They are not only based in Brazzaville, but are spread around the country and they will be ready to confront the Congolese Police, which has been transformed into the Pierre Nkurunziza style Police: tribal and violent. Furthermore, since André Okombi  is an ethnic Bateke, a tribe that  seems to have now been ostracized by the current predominantly ethnic Mbouchi  regime,  his(Andre Okombi Salissa) tribal kith and kin who are present  in 8 of Congo’s 12 administrative  divisions or departments, won’t allow one of theirs to become another or second Colonel Marcel Nstourou. Therefore, in the current presidential contest, the most dreaded challenger to the current regime is not the new kid on the block, General Jean Marie Michel Mokoko, but Andre Okombi Salissa. The man to watch in this presidential election of March 20^th 2016 and after, is Andre Okombi Salissa, for he has the money, the capacity to wedge civil and armed warfare and he has the network around the country that, the ragtag regroupings of Mokoko doesn’t have in spite all the euphoria being made around him. 

Anani Rabier Bindji: Denis Sassou Nguesso is not Pierre Nkurunziza or Gaddafi

Another intriguing thing with Anani Rabier Bindji, that I noticed was that, on that day of the 9^th of October 2015, he told me this: “I am not an acquaintance of Denis Sassou Nguesso, but I want to help him in the current difficulties that, he has with his plans to change the constitution. I have called Bruno Thiam who works for Congo’s communications bureau in Paris to see how I can prepare a special programme that defends or support the change of the constitution”. I told him it was Denis Sassou Nguesso who wanted term limits and also that, it was time for him to respect Congo’s constitution. He replied: “knowing Denis Sassou Nguesso, he only accepted term limits because, he (Denis Sassou Nguesso) was under pressure from the French and Jacques Chirac, who had helped him t to topple the government of Pascal Lissouba, the democratically elected president of Congo”.  He went on: “That is the reason why, I don’t want anybody to come and help us to drive away Paul Biya from power, for after their help, they are going to give us preconditions”. Then, I said: “Denis Sassou Nguesso is currently in difficulties with his plans to change the constitution. He may succeed in changing the constitution, but governing will be difficult for him”.

He replied: “No! He has no problem and he is not going to have any problems in term of governing. If Pierre Nkurunziza in Burundi has succeeded in defying the international community, Denis Sassou Nguesso who is more powerful and ready to kill in order to stay in power will do the same and succeed”. I did not want to argue with him because, I have seen more powerful leaders such as Mobutu, Gaddafi and Mubarak fall and I don’t see why Denis Sassou Nguesso won’t.  Furthermore, since Pierre Nkurunziza changed the constitution or forced himself to power, Burundi has become ungovernable and risk going back into civil war. Anani Rabier Bindji is a professional journalist with perhaps unrivaled experience on the political history of Africa, especially French-speaking Africa. However, his problem in my humble opinion is that, he is biased sometimes and honest in some cases. In short, he is controversial, for he almost always have a reason to advance in defense of some leaders of the sub region, sometimes with some logic.  But as written above, the declarations of Anani Rabier Bindji and others on the assassination of Marien Ngouabi leaves everyone in suspense. It provides more questions than answers.

However, I only hope that, when Anani Rabier Bindji’s book will be out, it could provide the missing link, which is if he is honest and courageous enough. But why will he be afraid? He could spill the beans, for he won’t be around anymore to fear for any reprisals. It may explain why, he wants his memoire to be published only after his death.  As promised above, this is another version on the assassination of Marien Ngouabi. This time around, I am basing it on what a top military officer still in active duty in Congo told me. In his declarations to me, he was also accusing Denis Sassou Nguesso for having assassinated Marien Ngouabi.  Is his information better than those of Anani Rabier Bindji? These are what he told me while I was still in Congo.