The TGONU should address the menace of the unknown gunmen and economic crisis
4 min readThe transitional government of national unity (TGONU) should address the menace of the unknown gunmen and the crippling economic crisis in the country
By Paul Duwar Bak, Kampala, Uganda
July 5, 2016 (SSB) — I refer to the violence of the last three weeks in Wau and Raja where about 39 and 50 people respectively lost their lives to the shooting involving the unknown group according to the BBC reports.
As a concern citizen of South Sudan, the transitional government of national unity (TGONU) has a duty of ensuring innocent civilians going about their daily businesses d0 not get caught in a crossfire with the army men which are termed by the government to be the unknown gunmen.
However, the urgent question is that how are guns moving out in the protective hands of the national army to the murderous hands of the unknown gunmen?
It was not a coincidence that there was a deadly shooting in Raja, Lol state, earlier before the rampage killing in Wau. In Juba, the reign of terror from the unknown gunmen has been the daily bread of the citizens under the watchful eyes of President Kiir, Dr. Riek Machar and VP Wani Igga.
At first before the formation of the interim government, the shootings made the civilians to suspect that this issue of the unknown gunmen must have been planned by some of the opposition politicians to tarnish the image of the government and to derail the implementation of the IGAD peace agreement.
Given the gravity of the unknown gunmen, the transitional government have to address this issue, once and for all and give respite to the terrorized citizens of our country. Not only that, the government should also address some other legitimate issues of rising food and fuel prices such that the enemies of state can’t latching onto and exploit them for their own political gains.
This is how revolutions, political violence, and terrorism start to take hold within populace if nothing is done about social ills facing ordinary citizens.
Indeed, we should remember that a terrorized and starved citizen is a ticking time bomb. This is what happened in places like Libya, Egypt and Tunisia.
It seems that there is embarrassing lack of fiscal planning when it comes to stocking fuel reserves to address fuel shortages; there is also glaring lack of strategy to store food stuffs, which can be used in times of scarcity
Therefore, the government has to ask itself why they cannot provide the population with affordable standards of living, ten years after the advent of the CPA and the bonanza of petrodollar economy.
The government should quickly come up with steps to address recurring civilians concerns. Alas, at their own risk, South Sudanese leaders are yet to develop the political maturity to accept dissenting views from the suffering majority.
The interim government of South Sudan need to work toward political maturity like in other successful countries such that even in the event of irreconcilable disagreement on national matters, peace should continue to be enjoyed by all the civilians.
Mark you, all that the civilians want is to afford a decent meal and have peaceful sleep at the end of a hectic day. The economic hardship might be worldwide but the government is supposed to make life easier for its people at all times.
That is the essence of the social contract from which the government derives their legitimacy.
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