Nobel prize winner Dr. Denis Mukwege and opposition leaders, Martin Fayulu and Senator Augustin Matata Ponyo Mapon have accused President Felix Tshisekedi and his government of sacrificing the general interests of the country to enrich themselves.
In a joint statement issued on December 26, 2022, the trio says the Democratic Republic of Congo was going through one of the darkest moments of its existence.
They have cautioned that if the people of Congo did not wake up by taking responsibility to act for their country with courage, loftiness, wisdom and determination, they would have themselves to blame for allowing its fragmentation and ultimately its balkanization.
Dr. Mukwege, Mr. Fayulu and Ponyo have heaped blame on President Tshisekedi and his government describing the regime as “irresponsible” and “repressive”.
“This regime is a reliable partner of Rwanda and Uganda who are attacking our country and illegally exploiting its natural resources. The Congolese people thus became both the target and the victim of those to whom they had graciously accorded their hospitality.
“This regime violates the Constitution every day and thus sacrifices the general interest on the altar of private interests, undermining public morality by favoring the use of anti-values such as corruption, embezzlement of public funds, clientelism, tribalism and nepotism and have no respect for fundamental freedoms and human rights, thus jeopardizing the sovereignty of the Congolese nation,” they state in one of the strongest worded statements to have emerged from the opposition in recent times.
Dr. Mukwege, a respected gynecologist who founded Panzi Hospital, Fayulu, an ex-oil executive and former prime minister Ponyo, highlighted President Tshisekedi’s failure to provide an effective army as an indictment on the Congo’s integrity.
“The government has favored a policy of outsourcing national security to foreign forces and, worse, to States at the base of the destabilization of the country, the plundering of its resources, and serious abuses. This is likely to prolong and aggravate instability.
“Furthermore, the regime in place seems to be concentrating the means of the State in the worrying quest to retain power through fraud in a context characterized by the shrinking of the democratic space, the attack on freedom of the press, muzzling of civil society, and attempts to exclude opposition and resistance leaders from the race to the top of the state,” they have charged.
The trio states that in the absence of unity and national cohesion, the people of the DRC will find it hard to overcome the existential challenges it endures and faces a bleak future.
