To qualify as a Mayor of Bortown, one must be a longtime resident of the town
4 min readCan a reversed mechanism work for the case of Bor Municipality?
By Ayuen Kelei, Juba, South Sudan
June 13, 2016 (SSB) — Despite the overtly right issues raised by the Former Minister of Local Government of the former Jonglei State in a meeting held in a hotel in Bor with regards to the status of Bor Town as a Municipality, it’s very late to table these concerns pertaining the status of The Historical Town of Bor as a Municipality. Mr. Diing Akol the Current State Advisor to H.E Phillip Aguer Panyang on Economic Affairs had a vivid criteria then to have challenged the Decree of the Governor that was creating the Municipality of Bor that he now tries to criticize the status. It’s dearly unchallengeable as it was responded to by Hon. Philip Thon Nyok in same meeting.
Leaving a hook of legacy of personality does not necessarily mean attaining the same on a Reversed means. Mr. Akol has been in the state government of Jonglei for all this while with such brilliant ideas but just remained silent. This arises to a number of questions such as what were his intentions then? What if the 28 states weren’t decreed? Amongst more others yet he knew this concrete Law that regulates the condition clauses, the population size of a town that qualifies to be a Municipality, Economic ability of the town to raise significant portions of its budgets and so forth.
Perhaps did he intentionally keep silent for the reasons best known to himself? Is he having a massive number of followers supporting his arguments? The questions to ask are ceaseless. Nevertheless, it’s very clear that strength of his potential view on the current appointment of Mr. Akim Ajieth as the incoming Mayor of Bor Municipality by H.E Phillip Aguer Panyang is so indecisive to an extent that one immediately backs up his course of argument.
Mr. Akim Ajieth Bouny is an Australian citizen who recent flew back to South Sudan from Australia yet it’s very logical to entrust a person who is familiar with the city and its environs. “To qualify for the appointment as a Mayor or Mayoress of a given municipality, one must be a resident originally living in the town. Mayoralty isn’t a matter of using a car bearing the flags,” said Mr. Akol in his authoritative voice.
Yes nobody knows the Law wholly but then matters of logical facts must always prevail in accordance to the existing Law. This scenario as well leads to puzzling questions such as: Are there no qualified individuals for position of the Mayor originally living in Bor? This is position was previously held by Mr. Nhial Majak Nhial who was as well from Australia. These two circumstances have greatly confirmed the wise saying “History must always repeat itself”.
Affirmatively, the status of qualifications of Bor Town as a Municipality cannot be challenged now but should have been in the past. It can be classified a mutual mistake as a matter of law. Does ignorance amount to defense against Law? Absolutely no. The appointment of the Mayor is revocable if it weren’t lawful to have taken such a decision in an attempt of the progressive completion of restructuring of the new state government after a number of states were curved out of Jonglei as other independent ones by a republican decree that increased the states from ten to twenty eight in total in The Republic of South Sudan. As a young crawling NATION, we must always comply and adhere to all aspects of Law.
You can reach the author, Ayuen Kelei, via his email address: <cleialith@gmail.com>
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