In the struggle for justice, freedom, equality, and dignity inspired by the selfless sacrifices of martyrs, heroes, and heroines among over two million that perished, South Sudan at last became independence on July 9, 2011.
Before it became independence, the Black People in the South of Sudan sat down to define the values that can determine the future Country that was later to be called South Sudan and after long discussion agreed on the values on which they could be managed after the independence.
The Agreement that they reached began with We, the People of South Sudan, Grateful to the Almighty God for giving the people of South Sudan the wisdom and courage to determine their destiny and future through a free, transparent, and peaceful referendum in accordance with the provisions of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, 2005, they made the Bill of Rights or a covenant among them and between them and the current government.
When they above Agreement that was manifested through the Referendum of 2011 which over 90% people of South Sudan accepted to live as independent people of the greater Sudan, they authorized His Excellency Salva Kiir Mayardit to lead them. As part of that authorization, he read out the Covenant in form of Declaration of Independence of South Sudan on July 9, 2011. As a matter of fact, as reflected in the beginning of the Preamble of the Transitional Constitution, 2011 as amended, the Covenant Agreement before the Independence of South Sudan began with, WE, THE PEOPLE OF SOUTH SUDAN., which ushered in the Independence of South Sudan.
Moreover, the Agreement which is expanded in the Bill of Rights is described as a covenant among the people of South Sudan and between them and their government at every level and a commitment to respect and promote human rights and fundamental freedoms as enshrined in Articles 9 to 34 of the Transitional Constitution. The Bill of Rights is defined in Article 9 (1) of the Transitional Constitution as the cornerstone of social justice, equality and democracy.
In addition, the beginning of the Agreement in the Preamble of the Transitional Constitution as WE, THE PEOPLE OF SOUTH SUDAN makes it clear that South Sudan is not for a particular tribe or group or community but it is the inclusive nation for all the people of South Sudan founded on justice, equality, respect for human dignity and advancement of human rights and fundamental freedoms as provided for under Article 1 (5) of the Transitional Constitution.
As the nation established to care and benefit all South Sudanese, the Preamble of the Transitional Constitution of South Sudan, 2011 in para.8 provides that South Sudanese through their leaders are conscious of the need to manage our natural resources sustainably and efficiently for the benefit of the present and future generations and to eradicate poverty and attain the Millennium or Social Development Goals.
The proper utilization, equal and equitable allocations of national resources through proper management of the national incomes of South Sudan as provided for under Article 177 (2) of the Transitional Constitution can lay a strong foundation of South Sudan where the united, peaceful and prosperous society based on justice, equality, respect for human rights and the rule of law exists. The responsibility of proper, equal and equitable allocations of resources is solidly in the hands of the people of South Sudan through their government at all levels.
The government is elected or appointed and given under the law the duty to manage the resources transparently and accountably. The government cannot be excused to use the resources of the country as it wishes because it is the appointed government. Such an impunity of ignoring the duty to be accountable and transparent is a crime under the laws against corruption and corrupt practices. The government or a political party or the system that ignores the need for accountability is anti-citizens and the citizens are supposed to single it out and destroy through peaceful and political means.
The people are the basis of the country as the national sovereignty is vested in them and the authorities have the duty to exercise their state power through its democratic and representative institutions established by the Constitution and the law. By the virtue of the national sovereignty, the future of any country including the future of South Sudan is in the hands of the people who have power to change the government in accordance with the law and if the law fails then the last resort should be through peaceful means as we witnessed in Sudan.
However, in the situation of South Sudan where illiteracy is the highest marked by the clear absence of political education and enlightenment, the approach of Sudan or Arab Spring nor through force like what we witnessed from 2013 to 2018 is not advisable as the tribes compromise the ills that can destroy them even where they are clearly victims of such ills.
In the situation as it is described in the foregoing paragraph where tribes are stronger than the nation, tribalism automatically overrides nationalism. The basis of this nationalism reverse is found in the situation where a strong tribe or semi-tribo-political party that behaves like a religious organization exists. Such a political organization or individuals in political party clothing is or are always busy copting individuals or groups of individuals that serve their interest rather than greater interest from all tribes or communities.
As the political party or individual members that behave like religious organization or associations goes by what the individuals say, it always ignores hypocrisy of those they recruit as they are taken away by the language but not their conducts in managing the national affairs.
Thus, the conduct of those individuals put in the heart of power become hell to the nation and her citizens. The future of the nation and its destiny is therefore left in the hands of the individuals described above whose ideology does not go beyond power and resources as we see in the case of South Sudan.
The law provides that the future of South Sudan is in the hand of people of South Sudan according to the paragraphs 1 and 2 of the preamble of the Transitional Constitution which provides—We, the People of South Sudan, Grateful to the Almighty God for giving the people of South Sudan the wisdom and courage to determine their destiny and future through a free, transparent, and peaceful referendum in accordance with the provisions of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, 2005.
The use of the phrase as–the wisdom and courage to determine their destiny and future…means theoretically that the destiny of South Sudan is in the hands of the people of South Sudan guided by the constitution, which is the road to the future of a united, peaceful and prosperous society based on justice, equality, respect for human rights and the rule of law.
As the road that guides the citizens towards their future, the Constitution is treated as the supreme law of the land that has a binding force on all persons, institutions, organs and agencies of government throughout the Country. This is because the authority of government at all levels is derived from the Constitution and the law. It is the reason the states’ constitutions and all laws must always conform to the Constitution itself.
The importance of the Constitution as the living documents is seen in the way its define the future of the citizens and imposition of the duty on the citizens to defend the Constitution. The Constitution prohibits any person or group of persons from taking or retaining the control of State power except in accordance with the rules provided for in the Constitution.
The Constitution makes it unlawful for any person or group of persons who attempts to overthrow the constitutional government, or suspend or abrogate the Constitution to be treason. It gives every citizen the duty to resist any person or group of persons seeking to overthrow the constitutional government, or suspend or abrogate the Constitution. All levels of government are required to promote public awareness of the existence of the Constitution by translating it into national languages and disseminating it as widely as possible.
The Constitution further requires the authorities ensure that constitution is part of the syllabus that is taught in all public and private educational and training institutions as well as in the armed and other regular forces, by regularly transmitting and publishing programmes in respect thereof through the media and press. As we have seen above, it is unlawful for any person to overthrow the government or the existing government that took the power through legal means to change the constitution without the approval of the citizens. Under such circumstances citizens are required to defend the Constitution and the Constitutional order.
As it can be understood from the foregoing discussion, the future of the South Sudan as defined is in the hands of the people of South Sudan and it can be achieved through observing and implementing the provisions of the Constitution. Thus, theoretically, under the Constitutional order future of South Sudan is in the hand of the people of South Sudan, which is contradicted by reality.
The question in respect to South Sudan at the present or in reality is, whose hands is the future of South Sudan, is it in the hands of the ARC and SPLM-IG or in the hands of the South Sudanese people? Before we answer this question in the definite term, let us define the abbreviations used in this paragraph. The ARC in full stands fir Africa Resource Corporation, which is the Construction Company monopolizing the construction of roads in South Sudan. When it comes to the SPLM-IG in full, it stands for the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement in Government.
The SPLM-IG is a remnant of the mainstream of the Sudan peoples’ Liberation Movement (the SPLM) that broke up into several small parties after the outbreak of conflict in 2013 in South Sudan. Though there are several attempts that have been made and are still ongoing as the Arusha Agreement is still intact that still calls for the unity of different SPLM political groups through Arusha Agreement, there is still no common ground to bring all different factions of the original SPLM together.
The existence of the different factions of the SPLM that compete for the control of the same resources and the people of South Sudan where transparency and accountability become less important, citizens become the victims and the question as to whose hands is the future of South Sudan is, is it the SPLM-IG and the ARC or the people of South Sudan can only be answered practically rather than through observations and conversations. As the country is going without its workforce being paid for several months, the SPLM-IG is spending millions of dollars on its own unilateral political campaigns in all the regions of South Sudan which are directly funded from the public money by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning without the approval of the Parliament. Employees of the SPLM-IG at its General Secretariat are directly paid by the Ministry of Finance out of public money, which is illegal because it is not allowed by law for one political party to be funded out of the public funds by the government without the approval of the Parliament.
Oil and non-oil revenue is controlled by the SPLM-IG through the ARC Company which manages the road construction project by the SPLM-IG. The ARC is getting millions of dollars on monthly basis without the accountability while the government employees at levels of government are going for six months now without being paid leave alone the development the country. Unfortunately, we do not even see the construction of the roads going anywhere.
Individuals who are managing the projects of the SPLM-IG or who are related to the leaders of the SPLM-IG are richer than the country where they get the same money from. For instance, Warrap Ministry of Information and Communication reported after the recent fundraising to build Warrap State General Secretariat Office in the State Capital, Kuajok that Kur Ajiing donated USD 1 Million to Warrap State Government, Tycoon Makiir Gai donated USD 100,000 and others as reported by the same page donated not less than USD 100,000 to Warrap State Government.
Looking the above examples of the richest individuals from Warrap, one can see that whereas individuals have surplus to donate millions or billions of pounds, the country is finding difficulties in paying poor South Sudanese employees who spent several months borrowing money to use it for transportation to and from the places of works hoping that they would pay back the borrowed money when they get paid after endless promises to be paid by the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning.
Unfortunately, even where the payments are ready like as we saw in the payment of salaries of August 2023 in arrears, the government officials of the SPLM-IG as we saw in Northern Bahr El Ghazal with the use of National Security and the National Police Service unreasonable deducted the money of the poor teachers and when they defended their money, which is their property, they were arrested and might be still in jail now.
To answer the question as whose hands is the future of South Sudan, ARC and SPLM-IG or South Sudanese currently? Practically from the above discussion, we can say that the future of South Sudan is the hands of the SPLM-IG and the ARC that have established controlled over oil and non-oil revenues. The SPLM-IG and its business organizations headed by the ARC represent the forces of repression, all forms of injustice, political sectarianism, regionalism, tribalism, ethnic chauvinism, marginalization and exploitation, religious bigotry, intolerance, harmful customs and gender discrimination against women and girl child.
Currently, there are harmful practices, harmful customs and gender discrimination against women and girl child. Women are being exploited due to their vulnerability as individuals who have taken the resources of the country use them to exploit women, girls and youth.
In fact, the conditions among our people are dismal and far worse than even when we were fighting Arabs. Despite fighting against the Arabs, conditions of works under them were good. The failure to pay civil servants, public officials and members of the organized forces was not public policy as it is the case under the SPLM-IG. One thing that the public has not got clearly is that whereas the government is shared, the allocation of resources is not shared. It is still being determined by the policy of one party which puts the interest of the party above that of the country.
It is not normal to get the Secretary General of the Party like the SPLM-IG thinking of using public resources to cover the expenses of political rallies of the party and also to provide members medical insurance cover from public resources. As many facts indicate, the SPLM-IG has institutionalized corruption and highly appreciates mismanagement.
It is not a crime for some individual leaders within the SPLM-IG in strategic positions to use public resources for personal establishment but it is mortal sin to criticized mismanagement of public resources. It is not a crime for the SPLM-IG for the foreign missions and all civil servants, public officials and members of the organized forces to go for months or even years without being paid but it is a crime to question such practices.
The simplest way of buying your way out of the government on the side of the SPLM-IG is to criticise the leaders on matters of corruption and demanding for accountability. Many good cadres that I know who would have corrected the system of South Sudan within the SPLM-IG have lost their seats in government because of their hostile activities of fighting corruption. Fighting corruption under the SPLM-IG is treated as hostile act towards the party leadership in that particular position where the issue arises. It is a good practice in the SPLM-IG to cooperate and praise the leaders how strong they are though they are not.
Under the SPLM-IG, it is shameful to criticize corruption and question the source of income but it is the pride to take resources without accountability though the citizens in the county where that particular leader comes from are living in tatters. It is the official policy for the SPLM-IG to take resources without the accountability. The future of South Sudan is being shaped by this policy at all levels of the government which is jealously protected by the party.
Hence, it is normal for the workforce of the government to go for several months without being paid while millions of dollars are spent on foreign trips and charity works by individuals as seen in the recent donations to build Warrap Government General Secretariat.
In conclusion, what we see in South Sudan is just like robbing St. Peter to pay St. Paul, which is like cheating the man of God to pay another man of God with the same money that was cheated from God. In the same way, giving government money to private citizens who become richer than the government and then to be the one helping the government is robbing St. Peter to Pay St. Paul.
The government has the duty to budget for the construction of the County, State and national offices. The situation where individuals only contribute to the development is through the community project such as Church, Hospitals, Schools, Agriculture and roads. It is rare to find individuals contributing the government project since the government has its own independent budget officially provided for under Chapter III of every National or State budget annually.
The author is a member of the National Parliament (TNLA) representing Cueibet County in Lakes State on the ticket of the SPLM-IO. He is lawyer specializing in the Constitution law and human rights. He can be reached via: nhomngekjuol@gmail.com.
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