I'm sorry to say that judging from what I have seen, Obasanjo will not succeed. Here are my reasons why: 1. He sees the rebel in the DRC and does a military inspection of their army as if they are a national army. 2. He comes up telling the world that the rebels have legitimate concerns which means that their aggrssion is somewhat justified. 3. He ignores to take into account the fact that Nkunda has been refusing all along to cooperate with any ongoing peace process in the DRC. 4. He has not observed the fact, the DRC governement is an elected government. Not only that, but the people of Congo are overwhelmingly against this war and Nkunda for that matter. 5. He has given the impression that negotiations should be carried out as it was 7 years ago. No one in Congo can afford to be dragged back in those kinds of negotiations. Congo should be moving forward. Time for disputing power and policies with the help of certain statemen or UN envoys is and should be over in the DRC. Power should be disputed, and that is to be encouraged, through people (by election) and in parliament. 6. To put the elected government of Congo in the same level as the rebel is a great insult to the people of Congo and Obasanjo seems to have done just that, in my humble opinion.

Incidentally, the first military assignment for the young OBJ in the 1960s after graduating from Sandhurst was a tour of duty in the DRC when, in an attempt to checkmate the Soviets incursion into Africa, the western powers caused the overthrow of a popularly elected govt of Mr. Lumumba in favor of a military junta of Mobutu thereby leading to civil wars that rages till today. Good job, OBJ. Given his 1960s history in the Congo and his peacekeeping leadership efforts of recent, as soon as the Congolese and the Rwandan warring factions heard of OBJ's appointment, they began to make plans for a ceasefire. Here is what Rwandan President Paul Kagame has to say about OBJ's appointment - "I think he is the right person because of the knowledge he has on the conflict dating way back when he was Nigerian President he is also doing the right thing of first understanding matters on the ground to come up with a clear picture." Obviously, OBJ's good works precedes him; otherwise, he wouldn't have been selected as UN's envoy. The more reason the DRC's problem resolution may succeed this time. As the saying goes, a prophet is not recognized in his hometown, sadly.

I bet Kagame would have been as delighted if OBJ as a mediator in Rwanda had reviewed FDLR rebel troops and legitimize their grievances.