Congo-Brazzaville's 82-year-old president says won't be in power 'forever'

Congo-Brazzaville's 82-year-old President Denis Sassou Nguesso, who is standing for re-election this month, says he will "not remain in power forever" but refused to be drawn on his possible successor.

Sassou Nguesso, who has led the oil-rich Central African nation with a tight grip for a total of more than four decades, faces six other candidates in the March 15 presidential vote.

The rules of democracy are not the same in a country where "50 percent or more" of the population "cannot read or write", Sassou Nguesso told AFP in an interview at his residence in the southern city of Dolisie on Monday.

"I see that, in Africa, the countries that have made certain progress are those that have enjoyed real stability, and even long‑serving presidents in power," he said.

Corruption allegations

Congo-Brazzaville, a former French colony which gained independence in 1960, is rich in oil, but nearly half of its six million people live below the poverty line.

The Sassou Nguesso family has faced several corruption allegations, which the Congo-Brazzaville authorities have claimed are attempts to destabilise the country.

Pointing to the construction of roads, ports, and universities, along with efforts to expand agricultural production, the president dismissed accusations of squandering the country's resources.

"These resources have been used to bring the country to its current level, which it did not have at all when our country gained independence," he said.

"We want young people to understand that all the work we are doing is also to prepare the conditions for their arrival. Because we will not remain in power forever, and their turn will come," he said.

'Preparing for the future'

The career military officer first led Congo under a one-party system from 1979 to 1992 before losing the country's first multi-party elections to former prime minister Pascal Lissouba, whom Sassou Nguesso then overthrew in a civil war in 1997.

His political opponents have systematically contested all his election victories since 2002.

NGOs and civil society groups regularly condemn violations of civil liberties and threats against political opponents.

Two candidates who ran in the 2016 elections -- General Jean-Marie Michel Mokoko and Andre Okombi Salissa -- are imprisoned for "undermining national security" in 2018 and 2019.

Scoffing at the word "opponents" to describe the men, Sassou Nguesso insisted they were preparing an armed insurrection against him.

"They are not going to die in prison. One day we will release them," he added.

If successful at the polls, it would be Sassou Nguesso's last five-year term allowed by the constitution.

But he declined to speak of a successor.

"It's not a matter of grooming a particular man; it's about a whole set of things we are preparing in a holistic way for the country's future," he said.