Eating with the Blind – MPs with CDF Bellies
By Peter Chol Duom
Dinka proverb says “a person who eats with blind is fatter than the blind”. The Constituency Development Fund (CDF) was designed to support grass-root development projects including provision of clean water, health and education. This is not the case with some of Jonglei State’s MPs. I visited some of the counties in Jonglei State starting with Bor, Twic East, Duk and Pochalla. The primary use of CDF fund which was meanly to develop primary health care units, build schools and maintain infrastructures has been side-tracked to individuals’ pockets. With four counties I mentioned before, no single health care unit or even school has been built with that money.
I visited some schools in Pochalla County and what my eyes saw was really heartbreaking. I found 90% of Pupils of Alari primary school in Pochalla County being taught in an open space. WFP provided plastic sheets to the school and these plastic sheets took some weeks and they worn out.
Not only Pochalla but try to visit some of the schools like Cuieikeer primary, Wunliet primary and Panwel primary school in Kolnyang Payam, Bor County, you will be surprised to see poor children learning under the trees. It makes one to ask question like: why are our children not benefiting from the national cake (the CDF)?
In fact, there are few concrete schools in Bor, Twic East, Duk and Pochalla and these schools were built by NGOs. Taking the sampling: Pariak primary (Bor county), Panpiol primary (Twic East), Poktap primary (Duk county), and Pochalla primary school (Pochalla county) were built by INTERSOS , CHURCH & DEVELOPMENT and USAID and the signboard can clearly tell you which organisation built that school.
Coming to “eating with blind” our communities especially Chiefs do not know their roles and rights just because they are illiterate. They look at the MPs as angels which could not be confronted by peaceful means. Our chiefs are they once working with people at the grass-root levels on voluntarily bases. The deities “MPs” appears in consistencies in a while in December. When they visit, they slaughter bulls to the elders and chiefs to silence talks (or projects) that involve building of schools and health care units. MPs were supposed to consult communities especially chiefs on how to spend the CDF but the funds disappeared in the pockets of our heavy weighted MPs.
Can anyone tell me how CDF money was spent apart from cars which were purchased? How many people using those cars apart from family members? Our problem is that, we focus much on defending our MPs by calling them fathers, uncles, mothers and so forth. The simple question is: what am I benefiting from my uncle Hon. X who is an MP? Absolutely nothing, I’m just struggling down here trying to feed myself and my miserable family so, why praising them. We need to evaluate their impacts in the consistencies other than sharpening their horns.
Our MPs must account for this CDF money otherwise WE [youth, elders, and chiefs] are busy collecting firewood and after that we shall start roasting you alive. We need to see tangible projects developed with CDF fund across three counties of Bor, Twic East &Duk but not land crushers branded CDF.It makes no sense if our poor children are learning under the trees and in open spaces yet your children are studying abroad.
Practically, our MPs have developed their bellies to the maximum and this clearly shows that they are eating with blinds. Their bellies and pockets are still oily with CDF money. Hence, is not too late to demand the miserable balance to use it for repairing or fixing classroom’s doors and windows or even buying hospital beds.
The views expressed above are solely the opinions of the writer and not linked to any group. I can be reached at duompiriit@gmail.com
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