Aweil East State: Is it marginalization or service delivery?
What was the formula used to create the 8 counties of Aweil East State?
By Kuol K. Alberto Makuach, Juba, South Sudan
February 26, 2016 (SSB) —- Aweil East State is one of the 28 states that was created as a result of the presidential decree on the establishment order in October 2nd in the year 2015. It was initially a county with 8 payams under the then Northern Bhar el Ghazal state. It happened to be curved out as a state on its own regardless of being one county when the rest of the other counties were combined to make a state each. The logic behind this was the huge population and the vastness of land that it has and for other obvious reasons, it is the home county to our current Chief of general staff. It is not so surprising also, because it is bigger than Twic and Gok counties which are now states.
This establishment order was received with joy amongst the local inhabitants of Abiem which is the other name local people as well as the surrounding states call Aweil East state. Their joy was justified as many parts of Aweil East state lack roads, have no social amenities like hospitals, schools, water et cetera. With this order, there is high hope towns will be closer to people and all that is good in town will be found just at the gate.
Of the 8 Payams that exist in the then Aweil East County, Madhol Payam is the biggest with a huge population followed by Yargot, Wunlang and Baac. Seven of these Payams were constituted during the Civilian Military Administration era (1994). Ideally, each payam was shared by two chieftaincy. This helped to bring the two communities together as they continue to live side by side and share the government limited resources. Tensions ceased to exist as the two chieftaincies are sharing the same resources, government and alternate leadership of the Payam. The last one was added during the CPA time because of the distance to the headquarters. This is none other than Mayom Wel Payam.
To our dismay, the first topic of debate which started to circulate was the need to relocate the state headquarters to another location which of course is none other than the home town of Malong where his father was buried and he has got nearly 50 wives living there. It became a reality and indeed without facing any resistance, the headquarters was moved there.
A meeting was convened to determine the number of counties that should constitute Aweil East state. That meeting ended without clear consensus on the number though each previous Payam suggested a number of counties. Of course, the organizers did not control the proceeding and they did it so purposely to confuse the public so that they could come up with their intended position on the number and locations which they did afterwards.
However, what was clear and quiet reasonable was the need to maintain the 8 payams as counties and each payam would thereafter sit once approved to decide the headquarters if we can’t reach a compromise. Mayom Wel Payam which I alluded to earlier to have been established during CPA period opted to join Aweil State due to its proximity to Aweil town and because of the madness of obfuscating the public in Aweil East State by one man. That left Aweil East state with the former seven Payams. If the counties have to be created based on this, then, they should be the ones.
Indeed the seven Payams were approved and announced, yet to everybody’s dismay, another county called Warguet happened to be announced with the rest bringing the number to 8 counties. Its headquarters is the famous Warawar where the same man (Malong) was born. This Warawar is not far from the state headquarters. It is a distance of about two hours walking.
Obviously, Malong intends to take whatever is good to his chieftaincy- Wunanei, yet it is not Wunanei in general that benefits from his acts. Take for example, the state headquarters (Malualkon) is where he has an army of wives and thus, it would directly benefit his family. Secondly, Warawar the new county headquarters is where he was born and his brothers, uncles and distance relatives live and reside. How is this fair to people of Wunanei, yet they celebrate and mesmerize while they don’t see the logic behind the choice of these areas by this man.
If truly the guy wanted to deliver the needed opportunities to his immediate Wuotanaai, he would have taken the headquarters of Warguet County to highland somewhere between Angoot and Manyang. These places have been neglected, far from the state headquarters and they need a gamut of services.
With that said, I leave that complain for Wuotanaai to sort it out with him after all I am not a beneficiary of that county or the state headquarters. Now, what we should fight as Abiim is why Madhol Payam was not given the privilege to have two counties instead of Baac where Warguet and Rumaker were created. Like I alluded to earlier, Madhol is the biggest and if there is a need to have the eighth county, indeed it should go to Madhol. This issue cannot be taken with finger crossed. We should raise it to whoever created those counties.
The other madness is taking the headquarters of Mangartong County to Tiitchok Mareng which is in the lowland. Again, my dear readers, this Tiitcok Mareng is where Malong’s mother comes from. This is just to add weight to my above statement that he wants whatever is good for himself and his immediate family members. However, the issue here is who will that county serve? It is neither in the centre of the two chieftaincies (Ajuongthi and Pingdong) which were sharing Mangartong Payam or having a huge population. It would have been suitable if Mangartong and Mayom wel were combined as a county. But then, Mayom Wel is gone to Aweil State, so whom are we taking this county to?
People in lowland know how to swim, yet three quarters of those living in highland are green about swimming so how are they going to manage to cross the two rivers to reach Tiitchok Mareng when there is no road and no bridges? I in person, totally reject this inanity in reckless selection of the county headquarters.
There are two options to get a solution to this foolhardiness by one man. First, the headquarters should be Mangartong village which used to be the Payam’s headquarters or any other agreed location in the highland. Secondly, Pingdong section should be meshed with Wunlang County after all it is part of greater Apuoth. The decree did not limit the number of counties though and so we should not be tied down with few when the former Jonglei State used to have 11 counties.
What is the driving force in doing all this? My dear readers, Malong’s intention is to completely annihilate and get out of history the historical town of Wanyjok which served as the county headquarters for Aweil East County in the then NBeGS. Inasmuch as it was the county headquarters and as all could have expected him to have even a house there just like the way it is in many other places, big people have houses in their county headquarters, this is not the case with Malong. He has been fighting to reduce this place into nothing for reasons best known to him.
Of course the obvious reasons, he feels inferior and would want his superiority to be felt by the people in Wanyjok who regard him as nobody. His history is mucky and is known in Wanyjok. They people here also tell him in the face and that paints him. So, having gotten into the ears of Salva Kiir, he is avenging and trying to prove his manhood.
Well, it is true, he is a tough man, rich and influential at the moment BUT just like the famous saying, EVERY DOG HAS ITS OWN DAY. We wish him well in his quest to colonize Abiim and Wanyjok people in particular. But one thing should be clear, one day, he would be out of this planet and things will be UNDONE, FOR WHATEVER HE TIED ON EARTH WILL BE UNTIED.
I can be reached at: ariabbeek@yahoo.co.uk
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