The self made man called Maurice Nguesso

Besides claiming not to be a Communist like his younger brother, Maurice Nguesso also enjoys proclaiming that, he is a bona fide capitalist.  Maurice Nguesso likes to remind all those around him that, his education was achieved through the help or that he was educated by white French people, during the period of colonialism. Hence, he has a kind of inferiority complex toward White people, especially French whites. He is a black African and proudly Congolese with a lining of a panafricanist, but of the soft version. Not the kind of panafricanist who will want to throughout of the continent people who are not of negro-African ancestry. Because of the high dose colonial influence, he thinks France and French whites are the most superior beings on earth. Sadly, he is not the only one who has a sickening inferiority complex toward White people in Congo and around the African continent. Even his younger brother who is president of the Republic acts the same. Maurice Nguesso once told me that, when he finished schooling in Owando or Fort Rousset, as it was formerly called, he(Maurice Nguesso) got a  job with a French company called Orostom and worked with them or assisted their geographers.

Owando is the headquarters of the Cuvette region and the second populated town in the north after Gamboma. Maurice Nguesso is hard working and certainly not a Communist, if one were to consider his words. But Maurice Nguesso acts like a socialist in the way he manages his companies. The way he manages his businesses has attracted a lot of criticisms from his admirers as well as his detractors. In reaction to those criticizing him that, in all his companies, he employs many workers or has bloated work force, with little or no business plans, his response is that, Congolese do not have jobs, hence he acts they way he does. He also says: his objective is not to make money, for he has sufficient wealth that will outlive his existence.  He simply wants to offer jobs to Congolese. He also adds that, if all wealthy Congolese like him invested in the country instead of investing abroad, the unemployment rate in the country would have fallen and the poverty rate would have also reduced. While it is true that Maurice Nguesso is a self made man, but there is no denying that, the accession of his younger brother to power in 1979 has also helped him. With the training that he received from the French geographers at Orostom coupled with trainings that he received in France and Algeria in the area or field of Hydrocarbon, he was propelled to the post of Director of the state owned Hydro Congo, the ancestor of the current SNPC or Societe Nationale du Petrole du Congo.

But his management of the state owned Hydro Carbon Corporation according to people close to the only post independent democratically elected government that was led by Professor Pascal Lissouba, Maurice Nguesso was not only a poor manager, but  also corrupt. That explains the reason why, Maurice Nguesso was arrested and sent to jail along with his friend Nimi Mandigou. It is an accusation that is roundly and soundly rejected by Maurice Nguesso.  According to Maurice Nguesso, he was a victim of political differences pitting his younger brother Denis Sassou Nguesso against President Pascal Lissouba.