Laurent Nkunda: The Rogue that Africa Does not Need

Nkunda terrorizes Eastern Congo like a spoilt brat who thinks the world owes him -- owes him something he knows deep down he cannot say in front of grown men ; grown men who will not hesitate to tell him what they think. Obasanjo is such a man. Obasanjo says he does not know what Nkunda really wants, and has gone to Eastern Congo to find out. Let Nkunda not waffle, and let Obasanjo not let him get away with it!

Of course, Nkunda knows what he really wants, but he dare not speak its name lest he and whoever his godfather(s) are be publicly exposed at long last for what they really are (and have been): self-aggrandizing plunderers disguised as the region's conscience, and using as their calculated cover the world's enduring sense of guilt regarding the Rwanda genocide of 1994. But the world, it seems, is gradually turning around to the view that Kigali itself (like Nairobi) is providing spirited cover for one or two of the genocide culprits.

What Nkunda really wants, most discerning observers believe, is this and more of this: Click here. But that wealth belongs to DRC, which no "hot pursuit" excuses can detract from.

I think before they left Nairobi last week, the African leaders gathered here should have asked President Kagame point blank what he really wants in Eastern Congo. They did not invite him here for nothing. They should have proceeded to tell him, as diplomatically as possible, that neither he nor Nkunda will get it. They should have told him that DRC has its owners, the people of the Congo -- disorganized and demoralized as they may presently be. He is not one of them! They should have told him that a peaceful and prosperous DRC (a "lung of the earth") would be more consequential to Africa's future prosperity than Rwanda will ever be -- much as we love Rwanda.

What Obasanjo should tell Nkunda to his face, after he hears what is likely to be a fudged answer, is to get out of the Congo and to behave himself. Perhaps only he, an ex-military man, can tell off Nkunda in that fashion -- and get him back to common sense.