Both national and international public opinion yesterday discovered the face of the new prime minister, successor to Ilunga Ilunkamba
Jean Michel Sama Lukonde Kyenge has been appointed by the President of the Republic to take the reins of the government of the Sacred Union, a new parliamentary configuration born of recent political upheavals
Political upheavals
While 2023 is looming on the horizon and with great strides, the President of the Republic, whose time is no longer a great ally, pressed by the demand for convincing results, plays a game of poker by this strategic choice of the new Prime Minister daring which can be deciphered in four bets
- The bet of the south against the north Katanga
- The bet of the reformed FCC against the whole of Katumbi
- The bet of the technocrat against the backbone politician
- The bet of youth against senility.
1.The bet of the south against the north of Katanga
Originally from upper Katanga, that is to say from the south of the former Katanga province, Jean Michel Sama Lukonde succeeds Ilunga Ilunkamba, Lubakat, a man from the North, as former president Joseph Kabila.
The former province of Katanga still remains an important geopolitical hub. Also, the appointment of Sama Lukonde reassures “a local elite” tense by the latest political tensions that divided the former FCC-CACH coalition, but also the security tensions exacerbated by a resurgence of the bakata Katanga.
To this must be added the igf’s “very careful attention” to the governors of Upper Katanga and Lualaba and the probable judicial outburst of General John Numbi.
And if the former province of Katanga remains at the heart of strategic issues, it is above all in the perspective of 2023, and the presidential ambitions of a certain Moïse Katumbi, Bemba from the south, who was once the prime minister, and who would have refused the ‘offer, probably so as not to share President Félix’s “balance sheet”.
Does the “Sama Lukonde” card have the merit of dividing and ruling? Old tactics from the 1960s of the Tshombe-Sendwe opposition? That of the North-South opposition. Or does it aim to divide the south itself rather, failing to conquer Katumbi itself?
2.The bet of the reformed Fcc against the whole of Katumbi.
By joining the dynamics of the consultations initiated by President Félix Tshisekedi, Moïse Katumbi, with his 90 deputies, could have thought of playing a major political role within the new majority. This was without taking into account the great transhumance of elected officials of the former Fcc who distorted the situation, to such an extent that what could have been a strategic coup now seems to turn into “a game without major gain”.
Second force of the Sacred Union, after the reformed Fcc, the ensemble of Moïse Katumbi does not have a solid margin of maneuver to influence President Felix. His departure from the Sacred Union, even associated with Jean Pierre Bemba, could not overthrow the parliamentary majority strongly consolidated by the defectors from the Fcc, the latter constituting the first political force within the Sacred Union.
And if Moïse Katumbi, in his own calculations of the political future would have refused the Prime Minister’s office, the choice of Sama Lukonde consolidates the leadership of the President of the Republic, the latter, close to the President, and his political party “ACO” of Danny Banza , the head of state’s itinerant ambassador, dissociated himself from Lamuka and the G7 to support the candidacy of Félix Tshisekedi in 2018.
It is therefore a President of the Republic more cheered up and more assertive both in parliament and now in the government which has just been consolidated by the appointment of Sama Lukonde.
3.The bet of the technocrat against the vertebrate politics
While some might have expected the appointment of a strong political figure capable of “managing” this heterogeneous and composite parliamentary majority in order to be able to establish stability in government action, the president chose a technocrat. and whose ACO party does not have any major political weight within this new majority.
And if the profile of a certain Bahati Lukwebo, boss of the ADFC-A, vertebrate of the political scene and former defector of the Fcc, who could probably have had broad shoulders to better benefit from the support of “defectors from the Fcc”, the prospects for 2023 and the presidential ambitions of the ambitious Bahati would work against him.
By setting his sights on Sama Lukonde, has the president found his technocrat without presidential ambitions who could bring him the results of a Matata Ponyo without the inconvenience of a presidential ambition to be restrained?
4.The bet of youth against senility.
Finally, the President of the Republic took the gamble of daring and dynamism in the face of the immobility embodied by the senility of Ilunga Ilunkamba. Does the choice of Sama Lukonde meet this need for renewal of the political class?
Be that as it may, by setting his sights on Sama Lukonde, the President of the Republic has taken a daring bet, a high-flying tightrope walk game where each step is a bet won on a vacuum.
Christian Ndombo Moleka
Prospective political scientist
