Rwanda is at it again. She loves throwing her little weight about and harassing her good-for-nothing giant neighbour D.R. Congo into submission. This time around, the Congolese M23 rebel army which she backs has captured Goma, the minerals rich regional capital of eastern Congo D. R. The next goal of the M23 with the active puppetting of Kagame is to face down to western Congo to take Kivu its capital. Despite assurances that she does not have any further aggressive designs on Congo D.R. territory, it is most probable that after taking Kivu, its next goal would be to march unto Kinshasha and possibly effect a regime change, sack Felix Tshisekedi, the President of the so-called Congo Democratic Republic and plant in his stead a more pliant man who will do the bidding of tiny Rwanda. Were it not for the truce now in force, the M23 mission to Kivu would have been accomplished, setting the stage for higher ambitions.
It is worthy of note that seeing the menacing mien on the faces of the determined M23 and their sponsor and backer, Paul Kagame, some wise but alarmed regional leaders quickly organized a meeting to find a solution to the crisis. But extremely harassed and angry Congolese President Tshisekedi refused to attend the meeting because Paul Kagame was also going to be in attendance. He could not just bear to see himself beholding the face of Kagame whom he rightly considers his chief tormentor.
But some of us cannot quite understand Tshisekedi man: you do not have the military might and strategy of overcoming tiny Rwanda. If you had, there would have been no need for that meeting to which you were invited to attend in the first place. What is more, Rwanda would not have dared to show any form of aggression towards you at all. The sheer size of your country and what is contained in her would have cowed Kagame into submission without him daring to raise his head and arms to challenge you.
Burundi which is backing you is doing so largely because she also lives in mortal fear of Rwanda. Yet, you unreasonably squandered the opportunity to use the platform of that meeting to cry for help for your besieged and humiliated country. What sort of statesmanship and diplomacy is this one? For me a non president, this would have been a golden opportunity to storm the meeting with his bulk and pursue an aggressive campaign rallying his fellow presidents who are tired of Kagame’s meddlesomeness to his side and give Kagame stern warning to keep off from his Congo. But the man chose to sit down there in Kinshasha, filibustering about the impropriety of having Kagame attend the meeting. This, to me, is like a lion fearing a cat!
He should have gone to the meeting and if the worse comes to the worst look for an appropriate opportunity to dramatise your anger and frustration by banging the table to drive home your message that you and your Congolese people are no more ready to stand the contempt of rude and arrogant Kagame and his tiny, rocky mountainous country.
But I can understand why God has allowed Congo D.R. , Burundi and others to suffer at the hands of tiny Rwanda. A good number of these Central African countries are governed by leaders who are steeped in corruption, who are irresponsible, unfaithful and unorganized as compared to Rwanda led by a disciplined, organized and committed man who is superintending her affairs. They need the jolting of a Rwanda led by a more serious-minded leader to wake them up from their slumber to pursue the business of governance with a greater sense of responsibility.
In a word, D.R. Congo and others of its kind in that region need to engage in serious soul searching by asking themselves the question: why are we the way we are that in spite of our intimidating sizes and wealth, a cat is defying us, challenging us to go to hell fire? Kinshasha has been repeatedly told by Rwanda that it counts for nothing. This is what should worry Tshisekedi and other leaders of that region.
Some years ago, it was this same tiny Rwanda that organized an army of the Banyamulenges in eastern Congo that marched thousands of miles to Kinshasha and sacked Mobutu and installed Laurent Kabila in his place. When Kabila could not live up to the biding of this same Kagame, he organized a force that went and sacked him. What has made Rwanda so fearsome that they can change a government at will in Congo D.R?
The Holy Book says that righteousness exalts a nation and the sin of bribery and corruption shall be a reproach to any who believes in that lifestyle. D.R. Congo shall continue to suffer the reproach which sinful living brings a country which engages in it.
