Inongo, 15 May, 2021 / 12:45 pm (ACI Africa).
The Bishop of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) Inongo Diocese has cautioned politicians in the Province of Mai-Ndombe that is within his episcopal see against the tendency to engage in “sterile quarrels and debates.”
In his May 1 statement obtained by ACI Africa, Bishop Donatien Bafuidinsoni says he is concerned about the politicians’ focus on their selfish gains instead of championing development initiatives that can benefit the inhabitants of the Province that was created in 2015.
“We are astonished that, faced with the current major development issues and challenges, the provincial political class chooses to indulge in sterile quarrels and debates, even though the socio-economic situation of the population is only getting worse day by day,” Bishop Bafuidinsoni says.
He adds, “Indeed, without a common vision, our politicians spend most of their time defending their own interests and those of their party and sponsors; fighting for a position; being corrupted by string-pullers and fishermen in troubled waters who take the whole province hostage. It is therefore questionable whether they were really elected to represent the people.”
The politicians’ laxity in steering development “is evidenced by the absence of basic structures, roads, businesses, access to drinking water, electricity, a university or higher institutes worthy of the name,” the Congolese Bishop says.
