It is time for President Kiir and his entourage of troopers to vacate the seats of power
5 min readWorking for Peace Shouldn’t be An Excuse to Hold on to Power
By Apioth Mayom Apioth, North Dakota, USA
Friday, July 13, 2018 (PW) — When Salva Kiir signed the Khartoum Declaration of Principles late last month, it meant he left his chances of reelection at the mercy of the South Sudanese voters comes the end of the Transitional Period. From that day onward, he signed into a letter and word for word that he is going to compete on a fair playing field for votes with the likes of Riek Machar, Pagan Amum, Majak da Agoot and Joseph Bakosoro comes the election time in three years’ time.
By amending the constitution to extend his stay in power for another three years meant his thirst for power is more obvious than ever. Agreeing to work with the opposition parties doesn’t give the head of state an absolute power to tamper with the constitution; South Sudan is a democracy, and that means any slight alteration to the constitution is the responsibility of the elected members of the parliament.
We don’t live in a traditional African chieftaincy or monarchy anymore, where the king had an absolute hold on power. Politics is meant for people who wish to serve the unmet aspirations of the citizens of any given nation-state. The presidency is a service-delivery occupation, and that means the more you serve your voters sincerely and with an honest integrity, the more votes you will garner comes the scrutinization (election) day.
As everyone has been quite aware by now, South Sudan is a broken nation, and that means, we have to start preaching the culture of an open mindset and tolerance. For us to stitch together all the broken pieces, our politicians have the power to become the brand new trailblazers of uncharted territories altogether whereby we can live in an absolute tranquility of peace, justice, and prosperity for all. “Eradication of poverty is not an act of charity, it is an act of justice” (Nelson Mandela).
It is time for Salva Kiir and his childish entourage of troopers to vacate the seats of power to those who truly wish to serve the unmet aspirations of scarred and maimed South Sudanese populace. There is no absolute justification to continue to let our people suffer in squalid conditions wherever they may reside in any part of the world. These clowns of politicians have become a total menace to the people they were meaning to serve.
Those of Salva Kiir and Michael Makuei Lueth are former liberators turned politicians and these same tough-go-getters and jokers believe that South Sudan owes them for having toiled so hard to bring freedom to South Sudan. We have thousands of street children in South Sudan and there is no compensation package put in place to help these orphaned wanderers.
And the very children of these tough-talking politicians live in gated mansions in the capital cities of East African countries. There is no any living South Sudanese who haven’t lost a relative in the last liberation war against Khartoum. In addition, we have lost tens of thousands of our very own in this new unnecessary confrontational war because our politicians are a bunch of blind jokers who don’t want to do anything to their constituents.
So very much we don’t owe them anything in that regard. According to a reliable source, South Sudan received about $12 billion in oil revenue from 2005 to 2013, and no single institution is accountable to that amount of money. When I went for a visit to South Sudan last April, the people who are rushing to South Sudan in flocks are South Indians who wish to go and erect up some commercial enterprises in major towns of South Sudan, while the national citizens of the very same country are running for their dear lives to Uganda, Kenya, and Ethiopia.
These are the very same Indian people of an Indian Sub-continent who refuse to serve black Africans at their restaurants because they consider us as inferior and lower caste classes. All across South Sudan, there is no visible substantial development going on; the only remarkable and meaningful engineering feat that came into play is the Juba – Nimule Highway, which was built by the funds given to us by the USAIDS.
In Juba, you can see three or four commercial skyscrapers, but none of our ordinary citizens can afford to stay in those high-priced business entities; so how are these foreign companies helping us in any way, tell us, Mr. President?! The only percentage that receives tap water in Juba is 2% and Salva Kiir has been in power since the year 2005.
Isn’t it time already to allow someone else to take over Mr. President! Your sycophantic and stooge bootlickers have been in power for 12 years. You have also stolen dollars worth in billions. Every and every one of us has a lot a relative in the last civil war against Khartoum.
There is no single South Sudanese that owes anything to Salva Kiir and his rats’ good-for-nothing politicians!
Apioth Mayom Apioth has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Sciences from the Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA USA. He is an Admission Counselor from the University of North Dakota. He can be reached at: agutkeu@gmail.com
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