South Sudan situation is too serious for a "National Prayer Day" without faith
By Makneth Aciek, Kigali, Rwanda
March 8, 2017 (SSB) — As the nation is grappling with poverty, war, tribalism, corruption and her new comer “famine”. Many agree that one of the answers to South Sudan problem lie in prayers. The author equally agree; but only if we try to examine the meaning of prayer a little more deeply.
If the prayer day is organized for a nation to kneel down and ask God for intervention to end famine or war in the country, then the author is not with you. The problems South Sudan faces are of our own making, right here on earth in South Sudan and must be solve by human beings.
If the prayer day is organized for loyal religious groups to gather and ask God for their favorite politicians to be save from their tribulations, then it is as bad as looming genocide.
The Christians and other religious groups in the country must be reminded of the consequences of corruption of faith and manipulation of the spirit of God. The bible teaches that God cannot be mock and man harvests what he sows. For the last four years, our leaders sown the seeds of hatred, tribalism and wars, and before God and man, they have lost the glory of Almighty.
It is the holy bible that teaches us to first reconcile with our brothers before heading to the altars for prayer. Before praying to God there must be manifestation of love and forgiveness among brothers and sisters. How do we expect God to hear our prayers when the national army is killing people in Equatoria?
How do we expect our prayers to be answered when the army constantly denied people in Greater Upper Nile a tranquility and access to humanitarian aids? How would our prayers be meaningful to God when there is too much unrest in part of Bahr el Ghazal region?
It unfortunate that many holy men and women will unknowingly participate in the game of deception and false-hood in the name of national prayer day; Many citizens will turn out in big numbers perhaps out of mistaken patriotism. Many will participate in a spirit of anger, spite, irony or despair.
If south Sudanese really want the glory of God to return to them, the political leadership must first mentally remove themselves from where they are physically located and sincerely admit that things must be different from what they are, accept to dialogue with their brothers in opposition and equally stop state sponsored killings. Otherwise the national prayer day would be another issue whose merits can be hotly disputed.
The peaceful South Sudan owe it existence to men/ women’s capacity for action not prayer. This author is not unmindful that the people of South Sudan are forced to disregard the distinguishing line between truth and false-hood in order to have chances of survival; but we must always stand up for the truth so that we do not offend God.
In South Sudan today, the bond between citizens and the truth is very fragile. This fragility makes deception so very easy to the point, and through the help of country political leadership, it never come into conflict with reason because things could be easily as liars maintain they were!
To use the words of Hanah Arendt, “lies are often more plausible , more appealing to reason than reality since the Liar has great advantage of knowing beforehand what the audience wishes or expects to hear”. The president has prepared this national prayer day for public consumption with a careful approach and involvement of church leaders to make it appear credible.
The regime knows how vulnerable south Sudanese are. They got away with lying on principle in the past, the country is torn to shreds by the organize lying of group that are benefiting from the blood of our people; but they won’t this time, get away with playing with the name of God.
Instead of engaging civil population in hypocritical function, south Sudanese need to jerk some collective brain cells into action. The famine is a moral and intellectual disgrace; it records our failure to solve our political issues and hence it has nothing to do with God. The shortage of food being experienced in all part of the country came as the result of the drought of leadership not rainfall.
It is the time for regime to do some soul searching and part ways with hypocrisy and dishonesty, because they make efforts toward peace and unity more lackadaisical and more unhinged.
As juba is engaging in the project of prayer, the people in countryside are dying of anger, the farmlands are void of harvest, or better still civilian are being murdered. The regime have denied humanitarian aid workers access to the most affected areas.
Not a single prayer will make sense to God until killings are stopped. The holy Quran teaches that “when you safe one man you have safe humanity, but when you killed one man then you have killed humanity”.
It would be a madness to expect sunshine while it is heavily raining; we would continue to pray, but we cannot find favor in the eyes of God until we do what is just and right. To use the words of PLo Lumunba, we cannot expect God’s mercy when we believe that the blood of ethnicity is thicker than the blood of Christ.
For the glory of God to return to our land, the political leaders must blow off the layers of dust that have settled on their consciences. Otherwise the predicaments of South Sudan are far too serious for just a prayer theory.
Makneth Aciek is a south Sudanese and he can be reach via wenmakneth@yahoo.com
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