Governor Bakasoro: Equatorians should focus on nation building rather than blaming other ethnicities
“Ethnic affiliation and loyalty are not my interest but nationalism. Ethnicity is our nature but should not be a determining factor to advance the interest of our country. South Sudan is greater than our individual interest. Home is home, and all of us need our country and will someday return home. As Equatorians, we are fond of blaming other people without blaming ourselves. Let us address our issues constructively and avoid pointing finger only to other groups…Yes, there are individuals in other ethnic groups who don’t have any vision and love for their citizens and country. But friends, I can testify to you that some individuals or ethnic groups in other regions are terribly suffering under their own leaders more than we the Equatorians. Even among the Dinka, Nuer, etc. there are people who are in the worst situation of suffering more than we the Equatorians…There are people in Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile, and Jonglei who cannot eat a meal a day. Yet their leaders accumulated enough wealth for themselves but not for the needs of their poor. You know very well that there are thousands of people from Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile, and Equatoria who have taken refuge in Sudan, Uganda, and Kenya; think of why they have left their home land? Hence we should narrow our complaints to individual elites who wants to control power and resources for their own benefit and the failure of system of government rather than on a whole ethnicity…Even among us the Equatorians, there are leaders who do not care about the sufferings and pains of their citizens. We need each other to make a better South Sudan. Let us all put the interest of our people and country first before our own interest. Thinking only about the welfare of my tribe should be avoided…Federal system will be the only safeguard for South Sudan to move forward. But we need to identify which type of federal system fit for us. If struggle for federalism is defeated, then let us return to regionalism.”“Ethnic affiliation and loyalty are not my interest but nationalism. Ethnicity is our nature but should not be a determining factor to advance the interest of our country. South Sudan is greater than our individual interest. Home is home, and all of us need our country and will someday return home. As Equatorians, we are fond of blaming other people without blaming ourselves. Let us address our issues constructively and avoid pointing finger only to other groups…Yes, there are individuals in other ethnic groups who don’t have any vision and love for their citizens and country. But friends, I can testify to you that some individuals or ethnic groups in other regions are terribly suffering under their own leaders more than we the Equatorians. Even among the Dinka, Nuer, etc. there are people who are in the worst situation of suffering more than we the Equatorians…There are people in Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile, and Jonglei who cannot eat a meal a day. Yet their leaders accumulated enough wealth for themselves but not for the needs of their poor. You know very well that there are thousands of people from Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile, and Equatoria who have taken refuge in Sudan, Uganda, and Kenya; think of why they have left their home land? Hence we should narrow our complaints to individual elites who wants to control power and resources for their own benefit and the failure of system of government rather than on a whole ethnicity…Even among us the Equatorians, there are leaders who do not care about the sufferings and pains of their citizens. We need each other to make a better South Sudan. Let us all put the interest of our people and country first before our own interest. Thinking only about the welfare of my tribe should be avoided…Federal system will be the only safeguard for South Sudan to move forward. But we need to identify which type of federal system fit for us. If struggle for federalism is defeated, then let us return to regionalism.”
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