So, the peace deal between the D.R. Congo and M23 is as dead as dodo. And President Kabila is cheering, instead of grieving. The energy presidents of the regional countries have expended coaxing the two parties into sitting down with them to painstakingly weave out a solution package proposal for DRC has come to nought.
Suddenly, the carpet was pulled from under their feet and our presidents were left holding on to useless paper.
But maybe it was our presidents’ fault: they sat down with the wrong party. They should have known that Kabila is a spectator to what goes on in his country. Short of sorting out his country’s problems, there is precious little else they can do for him. The leaders know his place as a fact. And they know that, unless they are ready to take on ‘the elephant in the mines’, their hands are tied. Our leaders need to tackle that ‘elephant’, the “international community”.
But before that, does Kabila know how following up with the talks would have empowered him?
I doubt he knows that he’d have reaped dividends. The most important of these dividends is that he would have been introduced to his people. It may sound absurd but Kabila is a stranger to many of his people. There are Congolese who have never heard of Kabila’s name, leave alone seen him – or his less diminutive portrait. To know this, it suffices to visit Ituri Forest, where some people have never seen an invention called “the radio”.
How would Kabila benefit?
These peace talks would not have ended in Kampala, nor with the M23. Our presidents would have passed to Kabila the wisdom that all his people need this dialogue. He would then go out to listen to all grievances and suggestions of solutions. He would cease to fortify himself, brooding instead, in his Kinshasa ivory tower and start to spread out to embrace his population. From there, he and his people can hammer out a development agenda.
As we know, there is no wisdom like that of the people. And so they would advise him to ditch the mineral curse and seal all mines. Minerals only enrich foreign countries of the north, where industries are thriving and his citizens’ abject poverty is unequivocal evidence. The solution is the land. In a vast country whose every inch is fertile, who needs minerals?
The Congolese, intelligent as they are elegant, need only concentrate on agriculture. Their cassava, potato, tea, coffee, maize, timber (controlled) and a variety of their other produce wealth will build their infrastructure and industry. Following which, they can waltz into the family of middle-income countries. Whereupon, the time to now open up their mines and power their industries after which, they can do what they do best. Sing, enjoy their music and make merry.
Most fundamentally, Kabila’s people would advise him that solutions to DRC problems lie with them first and foremost. Once in an organised house, then they can reach out to neighbours before working with, not being babysat by, the “international community”.
Alas, all this has turned into wishful thinking. Kabila and his greedy advisers have thrown the baby out with the bath water. They have squandered the goodwill of the regional presidents who were ready to give of their time. Some of them – precious few, too, unfortunately! – have shown Western do-gooders for what they are and are ready to square up with them.
Kabila and his cronies would’ve gained immensely from a communion with these sages.
Now the DRC has no hope of ever extricating itself out of the quandary it’s in, as a theatre of contests among a raft of hungry Western wolves. And while they are at it, it’s not enough for them to watch through satellites and drones and make sure that this status quo is not interfered with. They have deployed special envoys who have pitched tent on the ground to lend force.
Happy Kabila, like any stranger, thinks his people are happy about this, too. That they also believe that the single bothersome pest that was a threat to DRC has been dealt a terminal blow. M23, which has a Tutsi element like a neighbour, had been twisted to look as if it was the neighbour’s creature problem and the poor fellow swallowed the bait.
If there are many Congolese citizens cheering like Kabila, may God have mercy on DRC!
Meanwhile, though, neighbours are concerned. Now that the Western media, rights groups, charity and other organisations have evacuated from North Kivu, satisfied that the enemy is no more, no one knows what’s happening there. Our regional media, ever dependent on Western media feeds, is not in the know, either.
Everybody remembers that there were reports of looting by the Congolese army on entering Bunagana, near Uganda. The way the reports quickly disappeared, however, there is no telling if they were not immediately quashed. Then there were reports of reprisals against relatives of the M23 fighters, which equally quickly vanished.
The way Kabila is spectator to his country’s affairs is the way he is, to “his” army. So, knowing “his” army, who can believe that it has now miraculously metamorphosed into a disciplined force?
There is strong reason to fear for the lives of the few M23 relatives who did not flee North Kivu.
These Western powers that now have DRC firmly in their grip have never been known to care about such innocent victims. Nor has their weapon of mass destruction; WMD, otherwise ‘acronymmed’, UN.
As spectator Kabila parties, DRC is hurtling down a deep, black hole.
