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Victor Nendaka Bika

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Victor Nendaka Bika
Head of Security Services of the Republic of Congo
In office
1960–1965
Minister of Interior
Under Prime Minister Evariste Kimba
In office
October 1965 – November 1965
Ambassador
to the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany)
In office
1969–1971
Personal details
Born(1923-08-07)7 August 1923
Kumu, Buta District Oriental Province
Died22 August 2002(2002-08-22) (aged 79)
Brussels, Belgium
Political partyMNC-Lumumba, MNC-Nendaka, MPR
SpousesAstrid Mbooto, Jacqueline Bwebwe

Victor Nendaka Bika (7 August 1923 – 22 August 2002) was a Congolese politician from the Democratic Republic of Congo (previously known as Zaire). Nicknamed "Oufkir" reminding Mohamed Oufkir, the right-hand man of King Hassan II in the 1960s and early 1970s, Victor Nendaka was the first Director of Sûreté Nationale du Congo (Congo's Security Services) after independence in June 1960. Nendaka once belonged to the Congolese National Movement (MNC) of Patrice Lumumba. For personal reasons, Victor quit the MNC and created MNC-Nendaka in March 1960. In his capacity as Head of Security Services, Nendaka is believed to have played a paramount role in the arrest, torture and transfer of Patrice Lumumba to Lubumbashi (then Elisabethville) where the first Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba was brutally executed;[1] allegations that Victor Nendaka vehemently denied on several occasions, one of which being at the hearings of the Lumumba's commission at the initiative of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives.Victor Nendaka died on a Thursday, 22 August 2002, at age 79, while in exile in Brussels, after Mobutu's regime was overthrown by the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire (AFDL or ADFLC) led by rebel leader Laurent-Désiré Kabila and backed by President Paul Kagame's Rwanda in 1997.

Early life and family

Victor Nendaka was born on 7 August 1923 in Kumu, Buta Territory, Bas-Uele District in the North-Eastern Congo, also referred to as the Orientale Province. He was the only child to his mother Elizabeth. However, he had stepsisters and stepbrothers, among whom Goningame Josephine and Pae Pierre. Victor went to The Frères Maristes School in Buta. He married Astrid Mbooto in 1943. Victor and Astrid had six children: Gabrielle, Andre, Monique, Claude, Victorine and Astrid. He died on 22 August 2002 in Brussels.

Political career

  • 1960 - 1965: Head of Congo's Security Services (Sûreté nationale du Congo)
  • 18 October 1965: Nendaka was Minister of Interior in the Prime Minister Evariste Kimba's government, appointed by President Joseph Kasa-Vubu
  • 28 November 1965: Nendaka became Minister of Transport and Communications in Mulamba's government, appointed by President Joseph Désiré Mobutu.
  • 16 August 1968: Nendaka took over the position of Minister of Finances, after cabinet reshuffle by Mobutu, who by the same token had cumulated the functions of Prime Minister, Minister of National Defense and President of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
  • From 1969 to 1990: Nendaka held a number of high-profile positions - Ambassador of the Republic of Zaire in Bonn (Former West Germany; 1969) - Member of the Bureau Politique of Mobutu's notorious political party known as People's Revolutionary Movement ( Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution - MPR) - Vice-President of the Bureau for the Central Committee (Vice-président du Bureau du Comité Central du Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution - 1983, President and Chief Executive Officer of the State-run coffee commodity agency known as Office zairois du Café (Ozacaf).
  • 19 May 1983: In an order signed by General Likulia Bolongo raising President Mobutu to the rank of Marshal, Victor Nendaka, in his capacity as Vice-President of the Bureau of the Central Committee, second authority in the land, addresses a speech filled with praise for President Mobutu.[2] Dubbed a sycophancy, the speech was written by the special advisor to President Mobutu, M. Nimy Mayidika Ngimbi.

The Binza Group

Larry Devlin[3] in his memoirs entitled Chief of station, Congo: a memoir of 1960-67, describes the role of the Binza Group in the aftermath of Congo's independence. Victor Nendaka Bika, Joseph Désiré Mobutu and Justin Bomboko formed an informal trojka that was at the center of power from 1961 to 1967. Larry Devlin writes: "After the assassination of Lumumba in January 1961, the new Congolese government was guided by what became known as The Binza Group, named for the hilly district in the suburbs of Leopoldville, where most of its members lived. Mobutu, Nendaka and Bomboko were its core". Other influential members of the Group were Cyrille Adoula, the labour leader, senator; Damien Kandolo, deputy commissioner for the interior; Mario Cardoso, deputy minister of education in Lumumba's government and who resigned after only a week; Albert Ndele, finance commissioner and later Governor of National Bank; Jonas Mukamba, deputy commissioner for Interior.

References

  1. ^ De Witte, Ludo (2001), The Assassination of Lumumba, London: Verso, ISBN 1-85984-410-3
  2. ^ Nimy Mayidika Ngimbi, José Patrick (2006), Je ne renie rien: Je raconte... - L'histoire d'un parcours sur un parcours d'histoires, Paris: L'Harmattan, ISBN 978-2296005471
  3. ^ Devlin, Larry (2007), Chief of station, Congo : a memoir of 1960-67, New York: PublicAffairs, ISBN 1-58648-405-2
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