Understanding Kleptocracy in Congo Brazzaville

Kleptocracy in Congo is sustained by one man: Denis Sassou Nguesso. And as you had already read, especially in the preceding chapter and some aspects of which will be developed here, Kleptocracy is not only about sustained corruption and the abuse of power, it also involves how a system influences negatively the social, political and economic behaviors internally and externally. While the Congolese diplomat whom I met in Washington DC and whose conversation with me was abundantly mentioned in the preceding chapter thinks Marien Ngouabi bears the responsibility in the current state of the country, on personal view, I don’t think Marien was a Kleptocrat. He was perhaps a rabble rousing dictator. However the Nguessos through Sassou have negatively influenced the country and also neighboring countries. Since the Republic of Congo became independent from France in 1960, the country has known at its helm, 6 leaders: Fulbert Youlou, Alphonse Massamba-Debat, Yhombi Opangault, Marien Ngouabi, Denis Sassou Nguesso and Professor Pascal Lissouba. Among the above, none has exercised or exerted control over the state and stayed in power longer than Denis Sassou Nguesso has.

Furthermore, Sassou Nguesso has also achieved a feat by being the only Congolese leader who has held the mantle of power twice or the job of President, twice. He came to power in 1979 and only left in 1992, when he lost to Pascal Lissouba and he came back to power again in 1997 until date through a brutal civil war. Another achievement of Denis Sassou Nguesso, if it could be considered as one, is that, he is also the only Congolese leader who has the most involved his children and close family member into the management of the country. Sassou Nguesso’s children, grand and great grand children and close family members are present in every sector in Congo like octopuses. However to the discharge of Sassou Nguesso and his family, they are not the only ruling family within the central Africa sub region who has introduced their children and family members into all layers of governance. The best known case within the central Africa region is Omar Bongo who seems to be the regional mentor in administrative nepotism. Even though before him, there was Mobutu in Zaire. Besides Gabon, the other ruling families who are in power, some for close to 5 decades are: the Obiangs in Equatorial Guinea and the Santos in Angola. Both families and their fathers came to helms of their respective countries in 1979 and they don’t seem to have the desire to leave power. The other rising ruling family is that of Laurent Desire Kabila, whose son, Joseph Kabila is in power in the DRC since 2001.

The Republic of Congo's glorious past

Glorious past

Although Congo under Sassou Nguesso may have become a depraved place, depending on which side you stand politically and ideologically, the truth is that, the country wasn’t always the negative place it has become today. Congo has now become a byword for summary executions, wonton arrest of political adversaries and a senseless war wedged in south of the Pool region that has the hallmarks of genocide. This war that is draining the coffers of an already ruined country, started on the 4^th of April 2016, when Sassou Nguesso, in a bid to steal the electoral victory of the opposition, claimed that, they were defending the south of Brazzaville from attacks of Ninjas of Pastor Ntumi. Congo was not what she has become even after the communist through Alphonse Massamba-Debat took over power in 1963. The country used to be a cultural and intellectuals beehive. She had even produced some of the best musicians, writers and politicians such as Zao, Sony Labou Tansi and Tchikaya Utamsi, whose aura transcends the colonially inherited linguistic and cultural barriers of the continent.

 

In media and journalism, even though the Republic of Congo has become hell for journalists and free media, she was the first country in French-speaking black Africa to have a television station. Her Radio, Radio Brazzaville, which later became known as La Voix de la Revolution, although it propounded pro-Marxist revolutionary ideologies, it was a source of information to most Africans, in particular those fighting against colonialism: Angola, Namibia and Mozambique or had colonially back regimes such as those of Cameroon, under Ahmadou Ahidjo, Ivory Coast under Houphouet Boigny or Gabon under Omar Bongo.  Politically in 90s, while neighbouring Cameroon and other majority French-speaking African countries refused to host sovereign national conferences to rethink the forms of their states, Congo was the first country in French-speaking Africa to organize a sovereign national conference. It was a conference that brought together Congolese of different political opinions to discuss the future and form of their country. The conclusions of the sovereign national conference laid the foundation for multiparty democracy, which culminated with the country’s first post independence multiparty presidential elections held in 1992. The incumbent then, was Denis Sassou Nguesso who lost to Professor Pascal Lissouba and conceded defeat. It was perhaps the best period in Congolese post colonial history, for it raised the profile of the country abroad.

Congo is gone

Sadly today, Congo is no longer a paragon in the exercise of independent journalism or free media, but she has become the quintessence of propaganda and manipulations and persecution of journalists and free press.  The Congo of excellence, prestige and leadership is gone. It has made way to a new culture that doesn’t honor pre and post independent Congo. A country which was once a pacesetter in revolutionary ideas such as pan africansim and the liberation of other oppressed Africans, as noticed with the roles they played in the liberation of Angola and the support that, they offered to French-Cameroonian nationalists of the UPC.  Congo is now a land topped by decadent culture of all sorts.

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. 

Anani Rabier Bindji’s own African reality is a travesty

However, one name comes up regularly as the assassin of Marien Ngouabi. It is the name of Denis Sassou Nguesso. How true is the accusation? Why doesn’t Denis Sassou Nguesso absolve himself in a book as he does best, when attempting to market an idea? Why does he want to shoulder such as a responsibility and a responsibility that might live on long after him to hunt his family?  I am personally left in a kind of wilderness. I can’t accuse him for the information gathered on the death of Marien Ngouabi is fraught with lies, inaccuracies, vengeance and outright refusal to cooperate. Anyway, from what I have heard from Anani Rabier Bindji, I am confused. He certainly might hold the secret or the missing link to the death of Marien Ngouabi and also all those who are connected with the death of Marien Ngouabi or who took part. But, the problems with Anani Rabier Bindji are double. He is caught between speaking the truth and also preserving what he calls African reality. But the question that I asked him and that he refused to answer was this: does African reality imply telling or hiding the truth? Anani Rabier Bindji’s own African reality is a travesty, as most intellectuals have done before him or a currently doing.

For Anani Rabier Bindji thinks that, Marien Ngouabi never really knew what he wanted, which might means in my interpretations that, his (Marien Ngouabi) disappearance was a kind of salvation to many. But it doesn’t mean that, he supported his assassination.  Anani Rabier Bindji is also ambiguous. On one hand, he told me Denis Sassou Nguesso is an assassin and on the other, he wants to help Denis Sassou Nguesso in his plans to change the constitution, a project that will make him elongate his stay at the head of Congo and also extend the secret on the cause of the death Marien Ngouabi. These kinds of ambiguity and retention of information regarding the death of Marien Ngouabi that has made me to be reticent and also stop from ruling as many in Congo, who claim that, Denis Sassou Nguesso is the assassin of Marien Ngouabi. It doesn’t in anyway mean that, I am absolving Denis Sassou Nguesso, but I am also not going to accuse him either.  One thing is certain, one day, the truth shall be known and it will help in the national reconciliation of Congo and put her back on the path of glory. In 2009 when I was visiting Congo as a reporter, Chryst Bonaventure Engobo(retired)  was the Director of Presidential Protocol.

Currently, he is the deputy secretary general of the National Security Council of Congo. He has replaced the renege Colonel Marcel Nstourou.  Colonel Chryst Bonaventure Engobo (retired) is quiet and elegant man and also above all intelligent for an average Congolese military officer or at least those that I know. He is a very humble and effaced man and not puffed up with pride or show and tell and brutes of the caliber of General Jean Francois Ndenguet. He is a loyal servant of President Denis Sassou Nguesso and also very patriotic. However, he has a certain admiration for communism especially the Cuban government. He is also a ma of principle who above all respects his words. One thing that I have noticed with this lover of Congolese music especially that of neighboring Kinshasa or the Democratic Republic of Congo is that, he is taciturn and seldom speaks about politics. He is nonetheless accused r considered by people of his hometown of Owando and also some southern Congolese as being a stooge of President Denis Sassou Nguesso.

Colonel Chryst Bonaventure Engobo is also accused of being so loyal to Denis Sassou Nguesso to the point of causing or sparking the 1997 civil war that ended the regime of Congo’s only post independence democratic elected president, Professor Pascal Lissouba. However on this point just as in the case of the assassination of Marien Ngouabi, there are two schools of thought. The first are of the opinion that, Colonel Chryst Bonaventure Engobo is responsible for the 1997 brief but violent Congolese civil war, while a second school of thought is of the opinion that, it was late Colonel Aboya who was responsible. But whoever was responsible is not the subject, but according to Toussaint Mavougou, Colonel Chryst Bonaventure Engobo is as secretive as a feline. But, I must note that, he is a good man who also admires late Marien Ngouabi, but seldom speaks about him in mythical terms as does others from Owando and its surrounding villages. He has chosen his camp, even though, some say at the detriment or at the expense of his own. To his credit, he is the one who really introduced me into Congo and also made me to love that wonderful country.