The speech that never was: President Kiir’s missed call to the nation
Philip Thon Aleu, Juba, South Sudan
November 13, 2015 (SSB) — All reporters and cabinet ministers (ministers seeking to depict in strongest terms their loyalty to President Kiir) were in J1 at 8am Juba time to listen, first hand, to the Nation Address. At 10am, Ateny Wek Ateny, the presidential spokesman, said the speech is rescheduled for 11am.
In sixty minutes, it was 11am and Ateny asked for 20 minutes. Twenty minutes passed quickly and Ateny asked everyone to swift off his/her phone as H.E was about to enter the hall.
It was not true.
So at 11:30am, Ateny and government spokesman minister Hon. Michael Makuei Lueth were responding to questions from reporters. Eye Radio and Radio Miraya had positioned their vans to carry the speech live. The reporters/presenters were disappointed. I could see that in the eyes and hears in voices of radio presenters.
Ateny said President Kiir had “pressing issues to be incorporated” and that necessitated the delay for the nation address. Hon. Makuei had a different version.
“The president had other urgent issues to attend to [other] than the nation address,” he said.
It was a great disappointment to the audiences of Eye Radio, Radio Miraya and South Sudanese readers who were informed of the speech earlier in the week.
So, we took to the social media to release our anger. Several posts attracted my attention.
“If the president had not included the pressing issues, what was he going to speak about,” said one post by Insight South Sudan.
“It is better to call off this address than creating more disappointment,” another one said.
“Congratulations President Kiir for the inconsistence,” said South Sudanese Bloggers Editor Paanluel Wel in his ‘disappointment’ post on Facebook – an expression I shared with him.
So, here is the highest office in the land, beeping the citizens and expecting us to call back! What a missed called.
So H.E the president of the Republic, the commander in chief of armed forces and the supreme leader of other forces, President Salva Kiir Mayardit, we wanted to listen to you. Your words will heal us from the dire economic situation and send dollars dealers screaming for help. Kindly call us back to J1 and we shall be saved.
There is no airtimes to call to J1. It is expensive for the common citizens who don’t even have access to purchase fuel in the divided market. I exhausted my Juba Arabic today, hurdling insults at your security agents for impeding our efforts to fuel our cars at petrol stations.
They came with ‘written authorization’ to fill 1,000, 2,000 litters drums before us. We want the police, the army and security agents to be in their barracks and allow us to fuel without being pushed away using guns.
© Philip Thon Aleu, 2015
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