Portrait of the 2010 Burundian presidential Candidates

With a dozen of candidates already announced for the coming presidential Burundian election, we thought we can give a short portrait of each candidate. Today, we wish to talk about Leonard Nyangoma. Please feel free to add additional information that you might know about this candidate: Here we exercise free speech to objectively inform. Remember:"Utora nabi ugatwarwa nabi"!

It is almost impossible to summarize the feats of Honorable Leonard Nyangoma in few pages. But I can fearlessly allow myself to state that Mr Nyangoma has contributed to the freedom, and the fulfillment of the independence of the People of Burundi at the rank of Prince Louis Rwagasore: Where as Rwagasore fought the white men, Nyangoma and his followers fought injustice, fought inequality, fought against the colonization of some Burundians toward their fellow Burundians. In the following paragraphs, we wish to explore the biography and major political accomplishments of honorable Leonard Nyangoma actual presidential candidate of the CNDD party he founded after the assassination of SE Melchior Ndadaye in 1993.
Honorable Leonard Nyangoma was born in Bururi, a southern province of the Republic of Burundi in 1952. He graduated from the University of Burundi in 1979 obtaining a degree in Mathematics. His public service has been in the field of education. Those who had had a chance to be taught by this genius recall those times where such a thing as Maths Club existed in High schools…
Nyangoma is a known pioneer of the workers’ union movement in Burundi: he was a leader of the Burundian workers’ movement since 1988 to 1993. Among his greatest initiative is his fierce participation in the creation of the current coalition of the protection of Human rights known to many as League Iteka, the creation of the current union of teachers known to many as syndicat SLEB…we can go on and on! What most morons of the Burundian political history ignore, is that Honorable Nyangoma stood up to denounce publically the ethnic and regional discrimination of the political regimes of the time (see Ninde.org).
In the struggle for equality, Honorable Nyangoma co founded Frodebu in 1988. His role as a great organizer led to a massive victory in 1993. His plan was to bring politics to the communities, to the hills and actively involve the mass, a simple principle, which is indeed what Democracy is all about. He was then elected as Member of Parliament in 1993 and appointed as Minister of public service and refugee affairs.
Honorable Nyangoma was among the top leaders targeted by the Burundian army in the planned assassination that left the Hutu community mourning the death of SE Ndadaye Melchior and many of his collaborators. Some Tutsi were targeted and killed such as Jules Bimazubute, etc. Nyangoma was then appointed by the leaders in Exile to head a massive popular resistance against the murderers. Thus was born the CNDD and its armed wing FDD; that was in September of 94. NO ONE, can deny the fact that the real popular resistance and the walk toward the kind of peace that Burundi has today starts here. This is not to undermine the effort by Palipehutu and Frolina that were born before this date, however, a national campaign against the Buyoya regime and those convinced of a Burundi for only some began here, with the Leadership of Leonard Nyangoma.
One has to mention that in the years that followed, problems inside and outside the party led to a separation between CNDD and CNDD-FDD. For those who are free enough to think, we understand that regionalism is a sensitive issue any enemy can use to divide a party of the magnitude of CNDD.
Today, Nyangoma remains the most vocal leader of opposition that dares to publically denounce the abuse of power, the incompetence and corruption of the Nkurunziza led government. His party, CNDD writes annually an objective report of the shortcoming of Mr Nkurunziza and his regime.
Leonard Nyangoma was elected as a presidential candidate for the CNDD. We wish him the best of luck and we would like to finish this with a quote from Ninde.org about Nyangoma. It is in French and we apologize for those who don’t read the language of Moliere. Translation on demand!
“Léonard Nyangoma, un homme qui positive fermement.
D’après ceux qui connaissent Nyangoma Léonard, il est un homme sans haine ni rancune. Des gens, Nyangoma Léonard retient surtout ce qu’ils ont fait de bon. Mais il corrige fermement les erreurs et n’accepte rien sans l’examiner. Il est fidèle en amitié, sait plaisanter avec mesure et finesse, il communique en animateur dynamique. Il travaille beaucoup, aime écouter et observer, recherche la critique positive et répond le plus tôt possible aux messages ». Ninde.org.