On January 10, 2019, Felix Tshisekedi became the president of DRC after he was announced as winner of elections with 38.57 percent of the vote against Martin Fayulu's 34.8 per cent.

 Fayulu called the results an "electoral coup," which he said was forged by Tshisekedi and the then President, Joseph Kabila. 

Apart from riding on the fame of his father and taking over the leadership of his father’s political party, Tshisekedi ascended to power through vote rigging with no strong political support. Kabila wanted to use him as a caretaker for five years and then allow him to bounce back in 2023.

 

On March 6, 2019, Tshisekedi and Kabila agreed to form a coalition government. The idea came after Tshisekedi was not able to gain enough support in Parliament.

 

Tshisekedi had not been able to push through his choice of Prime Minister, with Kabila blocking his proposals in Parliament. However, on April 12, 2021, Tshisekedi formally ended his two-year coalition with Kabila and his allies when prime minister Sama Lukonde formed a new government. Tshisekedi succeeded to oust the remaining elements in his government who were loyal to Kabila.

 

After divorcing Kabila, it became clear that Tshisekedi was determined to go alone for the presidency come 2023.  However, from the above background, Tshisekedi knows that he does not have the majority support that can enable him to win the 2023 elections without an alliance with other political parties.

 

Now that the elections are drawing near, Tshisekedi is a desperate man who wants to keep the presidential seat by all means, including postponing elections.

 

Since the time he divorced Kabila, Tshisekedi has filled all important positions in government with his tribesmen from the Luba tribe, hoping that they will help him to rig elections. There is a general outcry from majority tribes on the nepotism within Kinshasa that has killed patriotism.

 

When he was sworn in, Tshisekedi pledged to "build a strong Congo, turned toward development in peace and security."

 

 

This pledge remains a dream.

 

 

There is a general consensus in DRC that in the last five years, there is nothing tangible that the Tshisekedi government has achieved. Instead, the situation has gone from bad to worse in terms of insecurity, poor economy, corruption, nepotism, hate speech, genocide ideology and disunity of the Congolese people.  

 

 

Based on average income per person, DRC is counted among the five poorest countries in the world, despite its enormous mineral wealth. In 2021, nearly 64 per cent of Congolese, about 60 million people live on less than $2 a day, according to the World Bank.

 

 

 Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on hiring foreign mercenaries, forcing the government budget to rise from $9.94 billion dollars in 2022, to $16 billion in 2023.

 

 

With all this kind of failure to revive the economy, unite Congolese and bring peace, Tshisekedi is running away from accountability. At the back of his mind he is aware that he cannot win the forthcoming elections.

 

For this reason, he wants the war in the east to continue so that he can find a convenient excuse to declare that elections cannot be held. He wants to buy time to keep the warm presidential seat.

 

Instead of investing in the peace process, he has armed militia groups like Mai Mai, FDLR, Nyatura and others to fight alongside his weak government forces, FARDC, to stay in power.

 

Although Tshisekedi has labored hard to divert attention by claiming that the war in eastern DRC is not his own making or failure but a result of “foreign aggression” hence shifting blame to Rwanda and others, French President Emmanuel Macron recently helped to clear the air. Macron told the DRC president to own up to his problems.

 

“Since 1994, you have never been able to restore the military, security or administrative sovereignty of your country. It's a reality. We must not look for culprits outside,” Macron told Tshisekedi.   

 

On several occasions, DRC government forces have provoked Rwanda by shelling bombs on its territory and sending soldiers on the border to stage attacks against Rwanda.

 

This is done hoping that a full scale war between Rwanda and DRC would break out.

 

 Tshisekedi believes this would shield him from accountability for his failure to bring peace and development in DRC.