Two NAS officials resign over poor leadership, blaming Gen. Thomas Cirilo
Oct 25, 2020(Nyamilepedia) — Two National Salvation Front officials have tendered their resignation letters to General Cirilo citing failure of the movement to meet its initial objectives.
Gen. Thomas Cirilo, leader of teh holdout opposition alliance, South Sudan National Democratic Alliance (File/Supplied/Nyamilepedia)
The two officials are General Lokai Iko, the NAS commander of Kapoeta Area in Eastern Equatoria state, and Lako Jada Kwajok, the group’s chairperson of the international relations committee.
They tendered their resignations on separate occasions but raising the same concerns, blaming mostly General Thomas Cirilo Swaka.
General Lokai Iko said that the reasons behind his resignations are many, one of which is lack of revolutionary spirit to execute the objectives.
“I have been on several occasions observing with profound concern the top leadership of NAS. It lacks revolutionary spirit to execute the objectives of the Movement by taking risks and venturing as principles and tenets of any armed revolutionary Movement,” read part of the resignation letter.
He accused the movement of lacking trust while delegating responsibilities to its members.
“Delegation of responsibility where necessary is a component of good leadership to achieve its desired goals. Chairman, there’s lack of trust at the leadership level when it comes to delegation of responsibilities. We had lost huge opportunities that would have shaped and changed the dynamics of the situation in the country. This is all due to the monopoly of power and decision at the top of NAS,” he added.
According to General Lokai, many actionable and goal-oriented resolutions that were proposed and agreed upon by the NAS leadership to advance the cause of the revolution and that of the impoverished people of South Sudan are neither acted upon by the top ranks of NAS leadership.
Lako Jada Kwajok in his resignation letter reiterated on the poor leadership in the movement.
He said the course of the movement contradicts the well-known objectives of the revolution and also contradicts the reasons Cirilo listed in his resignation letter from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the government of South Sudan.
“I had been very loyal to you through the thick and thin and expected nothing less than leadership that sticks to course no matter how formidable the obstacles and how treacherous is the road. A conviction drives me and many others that as long as the people remain behind the Movement, no power on earth could stop it from achieving its objectives. We believe that the overwhelming majority of the masses support our original goals and not what you are leading the Movement to at present.” Jada said in his letter.
“A significant change in the course of the Movement. I have witnessed with tremendous pain how the objectives of the Movement are being watered down or abandoned. You (the Chairman) and a small group within the leadership appear to have a different agenda than the rest of us,” statet part of the letter.
Other issues that Jada pointed out are weak leadership, deliberate squandering of opportunities that would have placed NAS at the top of the political landscape in South Sudan, lack of strategy, Poor policy and lack of transparency.