The Coordinator Message on Eastern: Million of Congolese are still waiting for the true Easter
THOUSANDS OF CONGOLESE ARE WAITING FOR THE REAL AND TRUE FEAST OF EASTER
In many corners of the world there are celebrations of the feast of Passover today this very evening Saturday March 30th 2024, this moment of change, or of crossing to the other side of life.
As the Archbishop of Gulu in Uganda John Baptist Odama said “my brothers and sisters, forgive me, I know that I have not yet done enough so that you can live in Peace and in dignity, but forgive me and pray for me”. This night we must also recognize that we have not yet done enough for our compatriots to live in peace and dignity.
How to celebrate Easter in a country with more than 8 million Internally Displaced and abandoned in the hands of the International Community and in a country where National Solidarity no longer even exists. How to celebrate Passover when the country’s resources are in the hands of a handful of people who live in abundance and others in destitution with more than 80% of the population earning less than $2 per day. Easter will be a Feast when every worker will have a decent salary, when every young person will have a certainty of decent employment, when every person will be in his/her village.
This moment forces us to make a profound change, our religious institutions are no longer places to lead the people to fight for social justice, respect for human rights, the promotion of democracy at each level, the development of the country especially infrastructure, the protection of the weak and vulnerable, but often they have become places of economic exploitation of believers, the love of money has replaced the message of Christ the Social.
A Civil Society which no longer exists and whose Actors themselves embody the anti-values and whose population no longer turns around and no longer seeks the best but is now accustomed to mediocrity. Our Educational institutions are no longer places of knowledge to produce people who must provide solutions to the problems of Society, geniuses, innovators, job creators, investors, good civil servants of the State but rather mediocre ones.
Our hospitals, which should be places to save our lives, have become simple places to accompany us to die silently, and yet the rich and our leaders find it good to seek treatment abroad, even the period of COVID 19 did not awake our minds in order to invest in our health centers.
Here in Goma, the bullets and cartridges of the Congolese State which should protect and secure us are put in the less credible hands of Security Agents who do not show a minimum of professionalism and the authorities who should regulate this often remain silent , we wonder if we are in this city with the Mayor, the Commander of the 34th Military Region, the Provincial Police Commissioner, and the Governor, the security services which must work with civilians are more of a problem than a solution. It seems more difficult to meet a Security Agent in Goma and he cannot ask you for a thousand Congolese Francs, almost impossible to access the State public service without Money.
And in this town cut off from the rest of the Province our poor mothers who sell little things on the Road to Lanine are from time to time arbitrarily arrested and suffer defenselessly. We have abandoned the message of Christ the Social, I have the impression that when Jesus Christ looks at this city of Goma, this country the DRC, he must regret where he is why he died on the Cross.
Happy Day to those who celebrate Passover.
Kulihoshi Musikami Pecos, Provincial Coordinator of COJESKI North Kivu
Specialist in the Rights of Forced Migrants in the Grand-Lac.
Tel: +243853191163
Email: cojeskinordkivu@gmail.com
