Justin Lekoundzou Itihi Ossetoumba (1941 – 25 November 2021) was a Congolese politician. He was a founding member of the
Congolese Labour Party
The Congolese Party of Labour (french: Parti congolais du travail, PCT) is the ruling party of the Republic of the Congo. Founded in 1969 by Marien Ngouabi, it was originally a pro-Soviet, Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist vanguard party w ...
(PCT), and during the PCT's single-party rule he held important party and government positions in the 1970s and 1980s. He served in the government again from 1997 to 2002 and was elected to the
National Assembly of Congo-Brazzaville
The National Assembly (french: Assemblée nationale) is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of the Republic of the Congo. It has 151 members, elected for five-year terms in single-seat constituencies.
Colonial elections
* 1946–47
...
in 2002.
Political career
Lekoundzou was born in
Boundji
Boundji is a district in the Cuvette Region of northeastern Republic of the Congo.
The city is served by Boundji Airport
Boundji Airport is an airport serving the city of Boundji in Cuvette Department
Cuvette is a department of the Republ ...
, located in the
Cuvette Region
Cuvette is a department of the Republic of the Congo in the central part of the country. It borders the departments of Cuvette-Ouest, Likouala, Plateaux, and Sangha, and internationally, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Gabon. The capi ...
of northern
French Congo
The French Congo (french: Congo français) or Middle Congo (french: Moyen-Congo) was a French colony which at one time comprised the present-day area of the Republic of the Congo and parts of Gabon, and the Central African Republic. In 1910, ...
."Who's Who", ''Congo Brazzaville: Les Hommes de Pouvoir'', number 1 Africa Intelligence 29 October 2002 . Under
Marien Ngouabi
Marien Ngouabi (or N'Gouabi) (December 31, 1938 – March 18, 1977) was the third President of the Republic of the Congo from January 1, 1969, to March 18, 1977.
Biography
Origins
Marien Ngouabi was born in 1938 at the village of Ombellé, Cu ...
, he was included on the five-member Executive Committee of the ruling National Revolutionary Council (CNR) as President of the Organization Commission on 21 June 1969. When the PCT was founded in December 1969, he became a member of its Political Bureau and was assigned responsibility for state enterprises; he remained on the Political Bureau until December 1971. Lekoundzou was then Minister of Industry, Mines, and Tourism from December 1971 to 30 August 1973. He was also director of the Pointe-Noire
oil refinery
An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refined into useful products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, lique ...
for a time.
In 1979 Lekoundzou was again elected to the PCT Political Bureau;Bazenguissa-Ganga, ''Les voies du politique au Congo: essai de sociologie historique'', page 263 . at that point the body consisted of ten members, and he was assigned responsibility for planning and the economy. Lekoundzou was
Minister of Finance
A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation.
A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...
from December 1983 until he was instead appointed Minister of Rural Development on 21 August 1987; he held the latter post until he was replaced in the government named on 13 August 1989. Also in 1989, he was assigned responsibility for organization in the PCT Political Bureau and became the regime's second-ranking figure, 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 ...
. In the multiparty 1992 parliamentary election, he was elected to the National Assembly as a PCT candidate.
After Sassou Nguesso returned to power in October 1997 at the end of the 1997 civil war, Lekoundzou was appointed Minister of State for Reconstruction and Urban Development on 2 November 1997. After a little more than a year, he was instead appointed Minister to the Presidency in charge of National Defense on 12 January 1999. In the May 2002 parliamentary election, Lekoundzou was elected to the National Assembly as the PCT candidate in Boundji constituency; he received 58.09% of the vote and won the seat in the first round. Following the election, Jacques-Yvon Ndolou was appointed to replace Lekoundzou as Minister to the Presidency in charge of National Defense on 18 August 2002; Ndolou succeeded Lekoundzou in that position on 21 August. Lekoundzou was then chosen as President of the Parliamentary Group of the Presidential Majority on 24 August 2002.
Factionalism and political activities in the 2000s
Leading the conservative faction of the PCT, Lekoundzou opposed moves by the reformist faction in the party, led by PCT Secretary-General
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, 2007François Soudan "« Je n'ai ni à m'excuser ni à me justifier »" ''Jeune Afrique'', 25 February 2007 .Rémy Bazenguissa-Ganga, "Congo", in ''Africa Yearbook: Politics, Economy and Society South of the Sahara in 2006'' (2007), eds. Andreas Mehler, Henning Melber, and Klaas van Walraven, Brill, pages 224–225. Lekoundzou and his supporters dominated the PCT Central Committee, while Noumazalaye and his supporters dominated the Political Bureau; their differing visions for the future of the party produced an extended round of intra-party squabbling.
On 31 January 2006, Lekoundzou was flown to France for emergency medical treatment due to a "cerebral affliction", while one of his aides also fell ill; some suspected that they were victims of poisoning. Although it was widely believed that Lekoundzou would die, he survived and returned home to a hero's welcome later in 2006. His return initiated an escalation of the intra-party dispute; trying to gain the upper hand, Lekoundzou called for a party congress, and his faction held its own congress in October 2006. The situation was at least superficially resolved by December 2006, when a party congress involving both factions was held; Lekoundzou was elected to the Political Bureau, but the power of the conservatives in general was weakened. In an early 2007 interview, Sassou Nguesso said that Lekoundzou, who had been living in France for some months, was there for health reasons as far as he knew, not as a result of any bitterness between them.
Together with
Jean-Pierre Thystère Tchicaya
Jean-Pierre Thystère Tchicaya (January 7, 19362007 parliamentary election. The members of the Presidential Majority Parliamentary Group were critical of the approach employed by Lekoundzou and Tchicaya, however.
Lekoundzou was still in France due to illness when the June 2007 parliamentary election was held,Rémy Bazenguissa-Ganga, "Congo", in ''Africa Yearbook: Politics, Economy and Society South of the Sahara in 2007'' (2008), eds. Andreas Mehler, Henning Melber, and Klaas van Walraven, Brill, pages 232–233. but he nevertheless stood for re-election to the National Assembly as the PCT candidate in Boundji constituency."La liste complète des députés" , ''Les Dépêches de Brazzaville'', 11 August 2007 ."Elections législatives : les 44 élus du premier tour" , ''Les Dépêches de Brazzaville'', 2 July 2007 . Although he was unable to campaign, he was easily re-elected; he won his seat in the first round with 68.82% of the vote. He did not attend the opening session of the National Assembly on 4 September 2007.
As part of his opposition to the "renovation" of the PCT, Lekoundzou founded the "Marien Ngouabi and Ethics" Association; this association has had a difficult relationship with the rest of the PCT and the authorities. The association's spokesman, Jean-Pierre Lokénia, was arrested on 6 May 2008, and in response, Lekoundzou—who was ill and being treated in Cotonou,
Benin
Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the nort ...
—said that he was considering returning to Congo to take Lokénia's place as a prisoner. His wife, Emilienne Lekoundzou, said that the association was founded only as a means of organizing PCT conservatives and was not hostile to the government; she also said that Lekoundzou had obtained Sassou Nguesso's approval before founding the association. On 17 May 2008, the association held its constitutive general assembly and elected Lekoundzou as Honorary President, entrusted with the guidance of the organization, while Marion Madzimba Ehouango was elected as its Executive President and Lekoundzou's wife was elected as Deputy Secretary-General.
He died in Brazzaville on 25 November 2021.Décès de Lekoundzou : Sassou va-t-il mourir dans les heures qui suivent comme promis ?