Claude-Ernest Ndalla - Political Career Since The 1990s

Political Career Since The 1990s

Ndalla was associated with opposition leader Bernard Kolélas and his party, the Congolese Movement for Democracy and Integral Development (MCDDI), during the 1990s, and he helped to recruit fighters for the Ninja militia loyal to Kolélas. During the June–October 1997 civil war, Ndalla objected to the MCDDI's moves toward an alliance with President Pascal Lissouba and defected to the side of Denis Sassou Nguesso and his rebel Cobra militia.

The civil war ended in victory for the Cobras on 15 October 1997; Lissouba and Kolélas were ousted and Sassou Nguesso regained control of the country. When Sassou Nguesso formed a government on 2 November 1997, he appointed Ndalla as Minister of Youth Redeployment and Sports, in charge of Civic Instruction. He was not included in the next government, appointed on 12 January 1999; subsequently he was appointed as Political Delegate of the Head of State, in which capacity he acted as Sassou Nguesso's representative.

Ndalla strongly backed Sassou Nguesso when the latter stood as a candidate for the March 2002 presidential election. He was present for the launch of the support committee for Sassou Nguesso's candidacy on 6 February 2002, and on that occasion he elaborated his view that Sassou Nguesso was "a symbol of hope, peace and freedom" by symbolically assigning a positive characteristic to each letter of the name "Sassou", in French: "S is for security (sécurité), A is for joy (allégresse), S is for concern for others (souci des autres), S is for the salvage of the property of the people of Mfilou (sauvetage des biens des gens de Mfilou), O is for organizer of peace (organisateur de la paix), and U is for national unity (unité nationale)". Ndalla subsequently worked on Sassou Nguesso's campaign as head of the coordination of the support committee for the Mfilou district of Brazzaville.

In his capacity as Political Delegate of the Head of State, Ndalla presided over a meeting of the Youth Committee for Peace in the Pool on 24–28 April 2002. The meeting called on the security forces to show restraint in the Pool Region while also urging Ninja rebels to disarm. He was present at the Marien Ngouabi Mausoleum for a ceremony at which the eternal flame commemorating Ngouabi, which had been extinguished during the 1997 war, was rekindled on 11 November 2002.

On 30 January 2003, Sassou Nguesso appointed Ndalla as a Special Adviser to the President. Ndalla accompanied Claude-Alphonse Nsilou, the Minister of Urban Affairs, during the latter's campaign for a seat in the June 2007 parliamentary election, calling on the people of Bacongo's second constituency to give Nsilou a majority in the first round of voting.

Speaking in mid-2007, Ndalla expressed dismay regarding the poor state of Congo-Brazzaville's prison conditions and said that the system needed more money. He also noted that the prisons could cause increased criminalization among inmates, making them more dangerous to society upon release.

On 1 October 2008, Ndalla participated in the founding of the Convention for the Rebirth of Congo (CRC), a pro-Sassou Nguesso political grouping that was created through an agreement signed by five parties, eight associations, and nine individuals. Gabriel Bokilo was designated as President of the CRC, while Ndalla became its First Vice-President. In Bokilo's absence, Ndalla chaired an ordinary session of the CRC National Coordination on 15 November 2008.

At a forum for peace in Congo-Brazzaville, held in Paris in April 2009, Ndalla gave a presentation on "the major political currents in Congo from 1956 to the present day". Drawing on decades of political experience, Ndalla argued in his presentation that democracy had to be developed gradually and consolidated through peace.

In an October 2009 presidential decree, Sassou Nguesso barred top officials from travelling abroad for the remainder of 2009 except in cases of urgency. Speaking to the BBC, Ndalla explained that some officials were taking needless and expensive trips outside the country, sometimes merely for their own pleasure. He said that henceforth travel plans would have to be reviewed and they would be allowed only if they were considered to be worthwhile.