Enjoying substantial popularity among the Bangala people, he headed the Parti de l'Unité Nationale and worked as a key opposition member in Parliament in the early 1960s.

Bolikango began his career in the Belgian Congo as a teacher in Catholic schools, and became a prominent member of Congolese society as the leader of a cultural association.

The Republic of the Congo became independent in 1960 and Bolikango attempted to organise a national political base that would support his bid for a prestigious office in the new government.

[9] He authored a novel in Lingala entitled Mondjeni-Mobé: Le Hardi, which won a consolation prize for creative writing from the Conference on African Studies at the International Fair in Ghent in 1948.

[13] Bolikango soon befriended Joseph Kasa-Vubu and sponsored his election as secretary-general of ADAPÉS in order to bring him into UNISCO, thereby furthering the latter's political standing.

[18] In 1958 he resigned from his teaching post and went to Brussels to represent Catholic education at the Expo 58 event, holding responsibility for public relations at the Missions Pavilion.

This led him to study press, radio, television, film, and mass education techniques at the Office of Information and Public Relations for the Belgian Congo and Ruanda-Urundi.

In August 1959 he was appointed Assistant Commissioner of Information in the office,[19] making him one of only two Congolese to ever hold a second grade civil servant position in the Belgian colonial administration.

[20][e] In that capacity he initiated a comparative study of information services across Sub-Saharan Africa, compiled details on Congolese politicians, gave numerous speeches, and helped design Bantu language courses at the University of Ghent.

[25] Like other members of the original Congolese establishment, Bolikango sought a gradual decolonisation process during which the Belgian authorities were to be amicably negotiated with.

[32] Following the electoral defeats, Bolikango decided to organise the Interfédérale,[h] a federation among various regional and ethnic groups of the northern Congo that became the basis of his new Parti de l'unité Congolaise.

[8] In April 1959 Patrice Lumumba asked Bolikango to become director of his nationalist political party, the Mouvement National Congolais[j] (MNC), but he never committed to a decision.

[37] From 20 January to 20 February 1960 Bolikango attended the Belgo-Congolese Round Table Conference in Brussels to discuss the Congo's future under Belgian rule, serving as the leading delegate for ASSORECO.

Bolikango was eager to win a prominent government office and aimed to form a broad coalition with the Ngombe, Mongo, and Ngwaka peoples and other minorities in the province to achieve it.

This could be best accomplished, in his view, through an alliance of his own groups, the FUB and ASSORECO, with UNIMO, FEDUNEC, UNILAC, and local chiefs who had not already put their support behind the PNP.

In his opening address at the congress, Bolikango said that while "parties based on ethnic foundations" made the first step toward a unified Congo, the "national interest" of the country rested upon a "unity of will".

"[8] The UNIMO leadership was skeptical of Bolikango's unified outlook for the Congo and remained independent, although he secured the support of the Ngombe, some of the Ngwaka and Bangala, and chiefs from the Lisala, Bongandanga, and Bumba regions.

[45] In spite of its attempts to garner more national appeal, the new party retained its regional bias and failed to amass substantial outside support, costing Bolikango much of his backing in Léopoldville.

Realising that Lumumba's bloc controlled Parliament, several members of the Cartel became eager to negotiate for a coalition government so they could share power, especially Bolikango,[52] who hoped to secure the position of Defence Minister.

During the Congo Crisis that followed Congolese independence, Bolikango acted as a United States Central Intelligence Agency informant.

[67] He participated in the Tananarive and Coquilhatville conferences of March and April 1961, representing Équateur and Ubangi, respectively, to seek a compromise on constitutional issues.

[42] Throughout June he worked alongside Cyrille Adoula and Marcel Lihau to negotiate a settlement between the central government and a rival Free Republic of the Congo in the eastern portion of the country.

[69][u] After the conference Bolikango helped to mediate negotiations between Adoula and secessionist figure Moïse Tshombe, leader of the breakaway State of Katanga.

[75] In late 1963 Laurent Eketebi left PUNA and allied himself with the Budja tribal minority in the provincial assembly, destroying the concept of a unified Bangala tribe that Bolikango had used to elevate his social and political standing.

The subdivision damaged PUNA's political clout, as it had a strong following in Coquilhatville, the Équateur capital, but not in the outlying areas, where it relied on control of the provincial administration to ensure its presence.

His ideas attracted more support than during his previous attempt, as there were provincial assemblymen in Ubangi already petitioning their government for reunification and numerous CONACO politicians had initiated a campaign to eliminate Cuvette-Centrale Province after losing a local struggle for power.

[81] On 4 April Mobutu dismissed Bolikango from his ministerial post, ostensibly for "lack of discipline and refusing to follow received orders.

"[42][82] This firing was the first of many Mobutu would use to pressure established Congolese politicians, though Bolikango was not left disadvantaged for long;[83] on 4 July 1968 he was appointed to the political bureau of the Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution[x] (MPR), the state party, serving there until 16 December 1970.

[42] In his later life Bolikango served as managing director of the Sogenco construction company and general delegate to the Société zaïroise de Matériaux and STK parastatals.

Rumors surfaced in the capital that Bolikango was planning to use his regional political esteem for subversive purposes, so the Mobutu regime closely monitored his activities.