Referring to the letter from April 15, 2024, from the Steering Committee of Bana Kin Asbl, the Minister of Culture, Arts, and Heritage addressed a referenced letter in which she requests, as a matter of urgency, a sum of money for the organization of the commemorative activities for the death of Papa Wemba scheduled for April 24, 2024. A request that was widely commented on social media over the weekend.

"Why must this request be made through an emergency procedure as if the date were improvised? And yet it's a date known to all," wonders a Congolese internet user. Faced with the multiple urgencies the country is dealing with, others consider such a commemoration inappropriate, necessitating the disbursement of a significant sum of money, fearing that this money could be diverted.

For a government that has been in place for more than 2 years, this could have been planned well in advance. While the national executive is resigning and managing current affairs, seeing such a request for funds comes off as an intention to empty the state's coffers at the last minute before giving way to the new ministers.

Osée Yandi, Intern