A Brazzaville Reception for Two Reappointed Ministers
On Saturday 18 July 2026, cadres and natives of the Bouenza department residing in Brazzaville came together for a reception ceremony held in honour of two of their own who had been retained in the government of the Republic of Congo (L’Horizon Africain). The gathering celebrated Rigobert Maboundou, Minister of Scientific Research and Technological Innovation, and Jacqueline Lydia Mikolo, Minister of Commerce, Supplies and Consumption, who also carries the portfolio for the African Continental Free Trade Area. Beyond the personal fortunes of the two figures, the event served as an occasion for a departmental community to reaffirm its cohesion around familiar faces now confirmed at the heart of executive power.
Recognition of Experience and Service to the State
Speaking on behalf of the elders of Bouenza, Martin Bissila framed the retention of the two ministers as more than an individual distinction. Their reappointment, he observed, “illustrates the recognition of their experience and their commitment to the service of the State” (L’Horizon Africain). The remark accompanied an appeal to solidarity and responsibility among the department’s cadres, a register that gave the ceremony the character of a collective compact rather than a simple tribute. In placing merit and continuity at the centre of his address, Bissila lent the occasion the tone of an implicit programme of conduct for those who claim a role in public affairs.
A Plea for Unity Among Bouenza's Cadres
For her part, Jacqueline Lydia Mikolo converted the moment of recognition into an invitation to shared resolve. Expressing her gratitude to the cadres of Bouenza, she stressed the need to “maintain unity, fraternity and solidarity” in order to advance the priorities of development (L’Horizon Africain). Her words, sober in their formulation, tied the honour she received to an expectation of collective effort, situating personal advancement within a broader ambition of departmental progress rather than treating it as an end in itself.
Cohesion, Peace and a Presidential Visit to Aubeville
The prefect Marcel Nganongo widened the horizon of the ceremony. He announced a forthcoming presidential visit to Aubeville on 12 August and called for a strengthening of cohesion, reminding the assembly that “peace is a rare good”, one that demands dialogue and responsibility (L’Horizon Africain). Joseph Bitala Bitemo, closing the sequence of tributes, described the ceremony as at once an act of recognition and “a call to mobilise all the vital forces” of the department (L’Horizon Africain). Taken together, the interventions turned a reception into a moment of civic address, in which acknowledgement of two ministers became a vehicle for a wider discourse on unity, responsibility and the shared stakes of local development.
