English

Mbombo Jean-Marie

doi:10.5897/ijpds2017.0309

Abstract

Some African leaders cause problems in Africa when they breach peace accords, rig elections or manipulate their respective constitutions in order to remain in power indefinitely. At the same time, they expect a frustrated opposition to come along through national dialogues and help to quench the fire which they have deliberately ignited. It appears however that lasting solutions to political crisis are yet to be found in countries such as Burundi, Congo and Gabon to name but a few. This paper focuses on a series of actions initiated by the government of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in recent times. Such actions included the reluctance of the Kabila administration to fund the Independent Electoral Commission, the Constitutional Court’s interpretation of Article 70 of the Constitution that ruled in favour of the incumbent to remain in power until a new president is elected and the inconclusive nature of the national dialogue to discuss the future of the country beyond 2016. The study relies on secondary data (review of extant literature) and adopts a paradigm of elite clientelism in order to make sense of the current political stalemate. Findings suggest that the government-initiated political dialogue was a sophisticated strategy of dividing the opposition and rewarding a few sympathisers to the regime with political appointments in order to maintain the status quo ante. The study calls on donor countries to step up pressure on the regime and condition their development aid on its readiness to hold credible elections in order to avert another major crisis looming. Key words: National dialogue, constitution, Kabila, elite clientelism, term limit, conflict.

Highlights

At a book launch in Addis Ababa in 2008, renowned economist George Ayittey coined the catchall phrase „African solutions to African problems‟ (Fiquremariam, 2008), urging political leaders to stop recycling colonial clichés that no longer work for the people of Africa in the 21st century
A call for national dialogue that came at the end of the Kabila‟s last term in office is taken at face value as a nice way of finding an appropriate solution to the Congolese perennial problem of leadership
The study has argued that the presidential call for a national dialogue was not intended to produce appropriate solutions to the problems of the D.R

Summary

INTRODUCTION

At a book launch in Addis Ababa in 2008, renowned economist George Ayittey coined the catchall phrase „African solutions to African problems‟ (Fiquremariam, 2008), urging political leaders to stop recycling colonial clichés that no longer work for the people of Africa in the 21st century. A call for national dialogue that came at the end of the Kabila‟s last term in office is taken at face value as a nice way of finding an appropriate solution to the Congolese perennial problem of leadership The latter transpires in the political history of the country through a series of legitimacy struggle at the helm of power right from the beginning of the First Republic and throughout subsequent regimes. According to the new compromise, Mr Etienne Tshisekedi was expected to lead the Transition Council and so pave way for President Kabila to leave power in 2017 Another point of agreement had to do with the appointment of a Prime Minister from the opposition quarters known as Rassemblement, to be charged with the duty of forming a transition government. Far from being an innovative strategy of the Kabila administration to remain in power, it translates the legacy of the past being re-enacted by new actors as the historical narrative below suggests

A BRIEF HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

CONCLUSION