Isidore Mvouba (born 1954John F. Clark and Samuel Decalo, ''Historical Dictionary of Republic of the Congo'', fourth edition (2012), Scarecrow Press, page 305.) is a Congolese politician who was Prime Minister of Congo-Brazzaville from 2005 to 2009. He is a member of the Congolese Labour Party (PCT, or ''Parti congolais du travail'') and held key positions under President
Denis Sassou Nguesso
Denis Sassou Nguesso (born 23 November 1943) is a Congolese politician and former military officer. He became president of the Republic of the Congo in 1997. He served a previous term as president from 1979 to 1992. During his first period as ...
beginning in 1997.
Mvouba was Director of the Cabinet of the Head of State from 1997 to 1999, Minister of Transport from 1999 to 2005 (with responsibility for coordinating government action beginning in 2002), and Prime Minister from January 2005 to September 2009. After his post of Prime Minister was eliminated, he instead served as Minister of State for Transport, responsible for coordinating ministries relating to infrastructure, from 2009 to 2012. Subsequently, he was Minister of State for Industrial Development from 2012 to 2016. He has been President of the National Assembly since 2017.
Pool Region
Pool ( kg, Mpumbu, Nsundi, Mbula Ntangu) is a department of the Republic of the Congo in the southeastern part of the country. It borders the departments of Bouenza, Lékoumou, and Plateaux. Internationally, it borders the Democratic Republic ...
, and became a railways engineer, working at the Congo-Ocean Railway (''Chemin de fer Congo-Océan'') beginning in 1976. Unlike most southerners, he continued to support President Sassou Nguesso when multiparty politics was introduced in the early 1990s. When Sassou Nguesso stood as the PCT's candidate in the August 1992 presidential election, Mvouba served as his campaign director; Sassou Nguesso was badly defeated, placing third in the election.
Pascal Lissouba
Pascal Lissouba (15 November 1931 – 24 August 2020) was a Congolese politician who was the first democratically elected President of the Republic of the Congo and served from 31 August 1992 until 25 October 1997. He was overthrown by the form ...
, who won the election and succeeded Sassou Nguesso as president, invited Mvouba to take up a ministerial post in the government formed after the election, but Mvouba refused. Subsequently, on 25 December 1992, he was appointed as Minister of Youth and Sports in the power-sharing government of Prime Minister Claude Antoine Dacosta, which was to serve until a new parliamentary election was held in 1993.
Mvouba was spokesman of the pro-Sassou Nguesso
United Democratic Forces
The United Democratic Forces ( bg, Обединени Демократични Сили, ОДС/ODS) were a center-right electoral alliance in Bulgaria, led by the Union of Democratic Forces.
Members of the coalition
1997
* Union of Democrati ...
during the June–October 1997 civil war. The civil war resulted in Sassou Nguesso's return to power in October 1997, and Mvouba was appointed as Director of the Cabinet of the Head of State''Profiles of People in Power: The World's Government Leaders'' (2003), page 117."Programme Summary - Radio France Internationale 30th October 97 1830 gmt", Radio France Internationale, 31 October 1997. (with the rank of Minister) at the end of the same month. He held that post until being appointed as Minister of Transport, Civil Aviation, and the Merchant Marine on 12 January 1999.
It was announced on 14 February 2002 that Mvouba had been appointed as Sassou Nguesso's campaign director for the March 2002 presidential election. Sassou Nguesso won this election with no meaningful competition. Subsequently, in the government named on 18 August 2002, Mvouba was promoted to the position of Minister of State for Transport, Privatization and Coordination of Government Action. He was appointed as Prime Minister, responsible for coordination of government action and privatization (although not
head of government
The head of government is the highest or the second-highest official in the executive branch of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presides over a cabinet, ...
National Assembly
In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...
Ambroise Noumazalaye
Ambroise Édouard Noumazalaye (September 23, 1933Rémy Bazenguissa-Ganga, ''Les voies du politique au Congo: essai de sociologie historique'' (1997), Karthala Editions, page 442.November 17, 2007June 2008 local elections, Mvouba was President of the National Coordination of the Rally of the Presidential Majority (RMP), the coalition supporting Sassou-Nguesso. After Sassou-Nguesso was re-elected in the July 2009 presidential election, he appointed a new government on 15 September 2009, in which Mvouba's post of Prime Minister was eliminated; Mvouba was instead appointed as Minister of State for Transport, Civil Aviation, and the Merchant Marine. He remained the highest-ranking member of the government. The government was also reorganized into four broad sectors, with one minister assigned responsibility for coordinating each of the four sectors; Mvouba was one of the ministers chosen as a coordinator and was assigned the basic infrastructure sector.
Mvouba remained Acting Secretary-General of the PCT until 2011, when Pierre Ngolo was elected as Secretary-General at the PCT's sixth extraordinary congress. At the congress, held in July 2011, Mvouba remained a member of the PCT Political Bureau. A month after his election, Ngolo officially succeeded Mvouba as PCT Secretary-General on 25 August 2011.
Following the July–August 2012 parliamentary election, Mvouba was moved to the post of Minister of State for Industrial Development and the Promotion of the Private Sector on 25 September 2012.
In 2013, Mvouba spent over five months in Paris for health reasons. He eventually returned to Congo-Brazzaville on 19 September 2013. Upon his return, his office stated that he was in good condition and was returning to work.
After Sassou Nguesso's victory in the March 2016 presidential election, Mvouba was dismissed from the government on 30 April 2016. He was succeeded at his ministry by
Gilbert Ondongo
Gilbert Ondongo (born 1960"Ondongo Gilbert", ''Congo Brazzaville: Les Hommes de Pouvoir'', number 1Africa Intelligence 29 October 2002 .) is a Congolese politician who has served in the government of Congo-Brazzaville as Minister of State for th ...
National Assembly
In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...