Excuse Mechanisms that Cause Some Governance Drawbacks in South Sudan

Do not trouble the trouble until it troubles you.

Let’s wait and see; it will work itself out alone.

Time heals; so do not get bothered.

What is the hurry for anyway? There is no hurry in Africa.

We seem to have been okay the way we are, why change?

My people are different; they are sure to resist.

We have always done it our way and it worked.

Do you think you can do more than what we have done?

Our region and priorities are different from yours.

Our culture and regulations cannot accommodate these changes.

We are too small and young; that is not for us anyway.

We only have a skeleton staff; they are not enough for that work.

We are not licensed to do so; it doesn’t have the mandate.

Do we have the go ahead from authorities above?

Does our constitution allow this?

That’s too bold a decision. Do we have the authority?

We do not have the quorum.

It’s not within our plans and priorities.

It is not in the budget; wait until we budget for it.

Is this in line with the National Development Plan?

Wait until we are of age; that is beyond our capacity now.

We do not have skills; nobody here can handle it.

We do not have the experience to implement this.

That’s outside our organizational boundaries.

It is too early for that; that is being over ambitious.

You are living beyond your time.

We are approaching this emotionally, let’s be a little more rational.

We have to tread on this very, very carefully, and consider all the implications.

Have you verified the facts? Don’t take it at face value.

We do not have the full information.

Let’s form a committee to look into that matter.

That is too expensive. Does the benefit justify the cost?

We tried that before; it never worked.

Where has this worked before?

The season is not right for it now; may be when it will be a bit better.

We are too busy around here; may be next year.

Do we really have the time?

It is not an emergency; let’s give ourselves more time to think over it.

Let’s pray about it and wait for God’s right time for intervention.

That is outdated; we use to do that long ago.

There is no use talking about it; remember the donor fatigue.

We are already overloaded; we can’t take more.

Stakeholders are not genuine in this; they have hidden agenda.

It sounds too theoretical; perhaps only good for academic argument.

It is the economy to blame.

It is the Arabs and Khartoum to blame.

That sounds too simplistic; it is not worth paying attention to.