It is only the second week of 2024, but it already feels like the year has been here a long time. Perhaps it is because we are eager to get back to work to act on our plans and realise our wishes as fast as possible. Urgency sometimes appears as time is quickly flying by. Getting back into the rhythm of work after two weeks of holidays or holiday-induced slowdown, and celebrations usually takes time. But it is remarkable how quickly we get back into work when the festivities have ended. Maybe there is a hidden feeling of guilt that we neglected important work in those two weeks. If true, it would signal a significant mindset change. It would be a new feeling when we start to feel guilty about not working or not applying ourselves fully to any task. The end-of-year festive season is not about Christmas and New Year celebrations only. Many other important social events take place at about the same time, the most prominent of which are marriage ceremonies. The number of young people getting married at this time of year is amazing. It seems that couples suddenly realise that the year is ending before they take the important step to marry and there is then a rush to beat a sort of deadline. I suppose by the end of the traditional festive season and now the wedding season that has become a regular feature of the period, people are exhausted. Of course in a different way from the exhaustion of work. Surfeit can also result in fatigue. Work, ironically, is some sort of relief from too much celebration and the spending that goes with it. And while we get back to work, it is also time to reflect. We have finished taking stock of the past year. We have counted our blessings and been grateful there were no curses. We have ticked our achievements and frowned at our failures. That is all in the out tray ready for the archives. As individuals and collectively, we are also done with making wishes for the New Year. Many of these will be realised. Others will not. But we will not know until we start working for their realisation. And so it is time to get to work. The in-tray is already overflowing. Hence the urgency. Some important events are already lined up. The big one to look up to this year is the general election in July. It will be a special one, the first time the presidential and parliamentary polls are held at the same time. They will be the usual celebratory type, much to the disappointment of some foreign countries who expect and pray for violence and even death. That, however, does not mean they are not competitive. They are actually fiercely contested, but in the Rwandan way – organised, disciplined, and peaceful. Only the uncultured brawl in public, calling each other names, or using other forms of insult. In early August, we shall have a new government and parliament. There will be new faces in both, mostly young people who are expected to put us firmly on the road to upper middle-income status. Expect the same culture of work, a little faster, certainly. A few oldies will remain to give counsel and temper the possible overenthusiasm of their younger colleagues that some might interpret as recklessness. Old in our context means fifty years. We will have to get used to the five-year electoral cycle. That will require some adjustments in planning. But the goal remains the same - getting to Vision 2050, preferably before that date. Before we get there, however, we will have to contend with unwelcome happenings in the region. Most of them are internal problems in other countries that their leaders cause or refuse or fail to deal with, and instead, externalise and blame them on others. Some of these leaders lack the political and diplomatic nous to engage meaningfully with other regional or world leaders. Not far from here, there is one such leader with a rustic mentality and low ambitions and expectations to match. It appears he is even prepared to sacrifice his troops for the proverbial thirty pieces of silver. Will he eventually recognise his mistake, and be stricken by guilt and remorse like the original taker of the silver pieces? And maybe not take his life like the other one, but do the decent thing, be contrite, and correct course? In the DRC next door, political and security issues remain, with no solution in sight. Ethnic cleansing, war on own citizens and threats of war against neighbours continue. The leadership there believes they can shoot away their political problems. They also seem bent on complicating further an already complex political and security situation in eastern DRC. Two new developments add to the complexity without necessarily providing a solution. One is the deployment of a Southern African Development Community (SADC) force from a region that is already heavily militarised. Its mission, according to Congolese authorities, is to shoot the M23 rebels out of existence. The SADC force has come to replace the East African Regional Force (EACRF) that President Tshisekedi threw out because they saw their mission differently. It is doubtful whether the SADC forces will have better luck. They are likely to find that the situation is different from what they have been told. Some in the EACRF initially thought of their mission in such straightforward terms. The reality on the ground changed their mind. If SADC the force insists on fighting and defeating M23, that might pave the way for the extermination of an entire section of the Congolese population. They will then be accomplices to ethnic cleansing and possibly genocide. How will they and the leaders of their countries live with that? In any event, that will not end the problems in DRC, only exacerbate them. Another complicating factor is the birth of a new politico-military formation in DRC – the Congo River Alliance. This one will not be easily wished away or dismissed as an organisation of foreigners. Nor can it be conveniently put in an ethnic box and blamed on a particular country in the region. It is going to give Congolese authorities a headache. Instability is bound to increase. The regional environment is challenging. However, it will not limit Rwandans’ expectations.
