29, December 2018
The three front runners in Congo Kinshasa’s elections 0
Three men dominate the field of 21 candidates vying to become next president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa’s second-largest nation:
– Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary –
Little known outside DRC circles, Shadary, 58, is a faithful supporter of President Joseph Kabila and, some say, his likely puppet if he wins Sunday’s election.
Kabila would “almost certainly remain the string-puller behind the scenes,” said Indigo Ellis from risk analysis company Verisk Maplecroft.
“Shadary has no special qualities other than absolute loyalty” to Kabila, an analyst at a political NGO based in Kinshasa told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Typically dressed in a smart suit and tie, Shadary served as interior minister during a period marked by violent crackdowns on demonstrators after Kabila held onto power beyond his constitutional mandate at the end of 2016.
He and 13 other officials have been hit with EU sanctions for rights violations. In retaliation, the DRC has told Europe to withdraw its envoy from Kinshasa by polling day.
Shadary initially entered politics as a member of the UDPS, DR Congo’s oldest and biggest opposition party.
In 1997, after the fall of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, he was elected vice-governor of Maniema province and a year later became governor.
After Kabila took power in 2001 following the assassination of his father, Shadary helped him found the People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD) a year later. He is now its permanent secretary.
Shadary speaks Swahili and Lingala, the two languages used respectively in eastern and western DRC. He is a devout Catholic, with eight children.
– Felix Tshisekedi –
Felix Tshisekedi, 55, hopes the elections will hand him the presidential prize that eluded his late father Etienne, who founded the DRC’s mainstream opposition party, the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), in 1982.
Tshisekedi junior took the helm of the party after his father died in February 2017. Known to his friends as “Fatshi,” he gained a Belgian diploma in marketing and communication and rose doggedly through the party ranks.
But he has never held high office or had management experience and is hobbled by the lack of his father’s charisma. “Etienne was stubborn and proud,” says one observer of the country’s opposition.
“(But) Felix is more diplomatic, more conciliatory, more ready to listen to others.” On November 11, Tshisekedi joined six other opposition leaders to rally behind a single unity candidate, Martin Fayulu, to take on Shadary.
But the deal was rejected by the party’s rank and file. Tshisekedi and fellow opposition leader Vital Kamerhe swiftly abandoned the deal and ran on a joint ticket, effectively weakening and splitting the opposition. A father of five, he attends the same Pentecostal church in Kinshasa as Fayulu.
– Martin Fayulu –
Martin Fayulu, 62, is an outsider who shot to front-rank status in the final weeks before the elections. Fayulu came to prominence two years ago as a fiery critic of Kabila’s efforts to cling on to power.
Often seen at the front of protest marches, he was arrested several times and was even struck on the head by a rubber bullet. Although his Engagement for Citizenship and Development party holds just three seats in parliament, Fayulu was thrust into the limelight last month when he was named the consensus choice of opposition stalwarts meeting in Geneva.
Two days later, the deal fell apart when Felix Tshisekedi, bowing to grassroots pressure, decided to pursue his own election bid.
Fayulu has relentlessly toured the country to make his pitch. He is also backed from behind the scenes by two political heavyweights — ex-warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba and businessman Moise Katumbi, an exiled former provincial governor, both of whom were blocked from running.
Fayulu studied in France and the United States, later taking up a role in 1984 with the US oil group which became Exxon Mobil. He stayed with the oil giant for nearly two decades, working in Africa and eventually rising to the rank of director general.
If elected, he has pledged to invest $126 billion in the economy and create 20 million jobs over five years. A Lingala speaker, Fayulu owns a hotel in Kinshasa located between Kabila’s residence and the president’s office.
AFP
30, December 2018
Ambazonia: Understanding the Tapang Ivo-Barrister Kongny Nsahlai Affair 0
Meet Barrister Emmanuel Kongnyuy Nsahlai, the California lawyer who is suing Ambazonia front line activist, Tapang Ivo Tanku in a US court. His father, Christopher Nsahlai, from Jakiri in the NW region was a former minister of transport and ambassador to the Central African Republic. His mum is Beti and a relation of the former first lady, Jeanne Irene Biya; which means Nsahlai and Biya are “moyos” since they married from the same family. A graduate of University of Arkansas, Barrister Nsahlai was admitted to the State Bar of California in 2000 but in 2002, his law license was suspended for failure to pay his Bar fees.
The California Lawyers Association describes Nsahlai as a Workers Compensation attorney and this raises a red flag why he would be involved in a complicated human rights case. The address of Nsahlai Law Firm provided in the lawsuit -3250 Wilshire Blvd, Ste 1500, Los Angeles, CA-90010 – happens to be the same address of another law firm, Onwaeze & Nwabuzor. The phone number provided by Nsahlai-(213-797-0369) has a voice recording referencing the law offices of Onwaeze & Nwabuzor; owned by Emmanuel Nwabuzor and Victor Onwaeze, with 4 employees and an estimated annual revenue of $429,288.
All these red flags raises fundamental questions why a relatively obscure attorney without even an office, would decide to engage in such a lawsuit on behalf of some anonymous plaintiffs who claim to be US citizens. The questions then becomes: if the regime really wanted to take action against Ambazonia activists in the US, why pick this featherweight lawyer?
The answer lies in the relationship between Paul Atanga Nji and the Nsahlai family. In the countdown to the 1997 presidential election, Atanga Nji, then general manager of a mafia money-laundering outfit called Highland Cooperation Bank, whose only office was its headquarters at the Yaounde Hilton hotel, hatched a sinister plot to ban the SDF from contesting the election after repeated threats from Fru Ndi that another stolen victory risk precipitating all out war. The plot involved presenting Ambassador Nsahlai as the candidate for a potential coalition of CPDM-satellite opposition parties led by the UDP of Lawan Bako; as a counterpoise to Fru Ndi and its boisterous base of supporters in Bamenda.
The regime hoped such a move would incite SDF militants to target Nsahlai and his family. To crown it all, Atanga Nji conspired with the Nsahlai family to fake the kidnapping of Mrs Nsahlai; to give the regime the excuse it wanted to blame the SDF, ban Fru Ndi and impose a state of emergency on the NW region. The Nsahlai family knew the story was fake, and did not bother to alert the police. Rather, one of the Nsahlai daughters came to The Herald office in Yaounde to report her mum has been kidnapped in Bamenda. Her story was contradictory; she hadn’t called her Dad to inform him and her reason for not alerting the police was unconvincing. After grilling her, I let her know that I will be writing the true story that the kidnap of Mrs Nsahlai was fake. Atanga Nji came to the rescue. Atanga Nji paid FCFA 1, 000, 000 to get the fake story published as a missing person’s report, but all that was inconsequential because the SDF decided to boycott the election.
So, does it surprise anyone that Ambassador Nsahlai’s son will agree to do the dirty job for the Biya regime? Atanga Nji has been getting away with murder. He and his handlers are war criminals. He is directly responsible for the Ambazonia genocide. His death squads are killing innocent Anglophones and blaming it on rival Ambazonia fighters; all in a desperate effort to divide Anglophones and weaken the resistance. The Beti cabal are looking the other way shrugging their soldiers and saying: if Atanga Nji wants to slaughter his own people to protect Biya’s power, then so be it! Atanga Nji is too ignorant to understand that there is no military solution to the crisis. So all his antics, including frivolous lawsuits by fifth columnists and regime apologists targeting Ambazonia activists abroad will never defeat the resistance. Ambazonia shall overcome.
By Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai