YES, THE FISH BEGINS TO ROT IN THE HEAD!!!
6 min readNegative and positive criticism are part of the nation building, Mr. President
By Keji-Keji Mayomism, Melbourne, Australia
January 9, 2016 (SSB) — Rafael Benitez is one of the most successful coaches in the world of soccer. In 2005/6 season, he won Uefa Champions League, Uefa Super Cup, FA Community Shield, FA cup and EPL manager of the month five times with Liverpool Football Club.
In 2010, Benitez moved to Internazionale also known as Inter Millan and won Supercoppa Intaliano and Fifa Club World cup. Benitez was called from Napoli to come and coach Real Madrid Football Club and within seven months of his coaching, he was fired and replaced with the former Los Blancos and French ace Zinadine Zindan.
I have watched games where Real Madrid lost three and drew four games under the leadership of Rafael Benitez. Some football analysts I listen to have been able to wrap their heads around a solid reason for the dismal performance by Real Madrid from fair to poor.
But the owners of the team thought it was the coach’s fault. So they fired him.
Let us return back home to the republic of South Sudan. In 2010 a man called Salva Kiir Mayardit put himself up for elections. He and his team campaigned very hard and fought hard to be given the mandate to rule this country. Mr Salva Kiir promised to solve our problems.
Our topmost concern was the fact that we did not have power. President Kiir said that in the first year of his presidency, he would solve the insecurity crisis. We were jovially aroused.
Those who were so passionate about him joined the campaign train. Some were hungry, some were pierced by thorns, and some lost their shoes and slippers. Just to ensure his election. On April 2012, South Sudanese went to the polls. We queued for hours and voting him in as our leader. He became the custodian of our collective interest, the trustee of our nation’s wealth and the keeper of the billions of dollars he has borrowed and continues to borrow in our name. And we look up to him to deliver what he promised us.
Our elders say whatever a man says in the night can be taken for a drunken talk, but what he says in the morning should be taken seriously. Why? No man remains drunk till the following day. So are political talks. Whatever a politician says on a campaign platform can be likened a drunken talk. But whatever he says after the election must be taken seriously. So President Salva Kiir continued with the promises. We believed him. And some of us whose faith is greater than the biblical prophets of old still trust him.
The power crisis are still with us. Corruption has become synonymous with the Kiir administration. Mismanagement has become the order of the day. And nobody is held accountable for the messed are rooted in. When Mahamudu Buhari was elected President of Nigeria, he told Nigerians no to be afraid of him. “As I said in my inaugural speech, I bear no ill will against anyone on past events. Nobody should fear anything from me. We are not after anyone. People should only fear the consequences of their actions,” he told Nigerians in his address of the nation’s 50th independence Anniversary.
Under president Kiir, however, no one is responsible for any action. Don’t fall for the few scapegoats that are often used to fool us. I mean the situation such as the investigations of the $ 1 million “Dura saga”. “Today we are launching a very high profile level committee to investigate the Dura contracts,” said the former minister of Legal Affairs, John Luk Jok. In the same year, 2013, World Bank auditors who were invited by South Sudan to prove the case in February found that 290 companies were paid without even having signed contracts and another 151 were vastly overpaid. What action did you heard President Kiir took? And the massive stolen of $4 Billions by the former and current 75 government officials which vanished into an oblivion.
“An estimated $ 4b are uncounted for or, simply put, stolen by former and current officials, as well as corrupt individuals with close ties to government officials….most of these funds have been taken out of the country and deposited in foreign accounts, some have purchased properties after paid in cash,” said President Kiir in 2013. Therefore, It seems like Kiir had the information of where and how the money were taken to and spent respectively, but why no action taken against these lords of impunity? All those who signed these contracts are free. No one loses sleep over these endless slideshow scandals that keep rocking our poor Republic.
I am not a government expert, but what I know is that if a leader is not successful in tackling corruption, nothing in the government will work. Corruption grinds every moving machine of the state to halt. And that is what corruption has done to South Sudanese.
When we blame the President for the rot under his watch, we are reminded that he cannot be responsible. All South Sudanese should be blamed. His supporters tell us. When we blame the government, we are reminded that all of us are part of the government. The SPLM government! This is rubbish. I am a journalist. I am a South Sudanese, but not a member of the government. When they say “the government and the people of South Sudan”, I belong to the latter.
When we complain about corruption, we are reminded that all South Sudanese are corrupt. I wish to state it clearly that I am not corrupt. I wish to state that I know majority of South Sudanese who are not corrupt. We have only a few thieves who are looting what belongs to all of us. Not all South Sudanese are corrupt.
If you are corrupt, own up! If you are a thief, own up! If you are part of the rot, own up! Don’t seek solace in tagging every South Sudanese as corrupt.
And if you are one of those who think that the leader of the nation should not be blamed for the mess, then let me remind you about three things: Rafael Benitez was not on the pitch. He was not the striker for the team. But he was fired for the failure of his team to perform. Salva Kiir is the coach of Team South Sudan.
Jonglei, Yei, Juba, Kapoeta and Malakal regions are now insecure that unknown gunmen are able to move in SPLM convoy in broad daylight to kill, rape and commit satanic and perverted acts on the innocent civilians.
When America killed Osama Bin Laden, Al `Qaeda became very weak. Security experts say one of the surest ways to defeat ISIS is to eliminate their leaders. What does this teach us? Leadership is key to success or failure of any entity. And South Sudan is no exception.
If you still think that we should not blame the President and his government for our woes, the question I ask is: “Should we blame my uncle in the village who has no power to stop the stealing and order the prosecution of the thieves?
Let’s get serious and begin to reason with the contents of our skulls if this nation will progressed.
The writer is a concerned citizen and he can be reached at keji8keji90@gmail.com
The opinion expressed here is solely the view of the writer. The veracity of any claim made are the responsibility of the author, not PaanLuel Wël: South Sudanese Bloggers (SSB) website. If you want to submit an opinion article or news analysis, please email it to paanluel2011@gmail.com. SSB do reserve the right to edit material before publication. Please include your full name, email address and the country you are writing from.
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