Prof. Taban Lo-Liyong and the Debacle of the University of Juba, South Sudan
Pal Chol Nyan, South sudanese Political Analyst and Commentator
By Pal Chol Nyan, Juba, South Sudan
Wednesday, February 12, 2020 (PW) — Prof Taban Lo Lyong is a renowned academic and a prolific writer. He teaches Literatures and English Language in the University of Juba. He wrote an opinion piece where he spoke his mind on behalf of 99% of the suffering citizens of South Sudan according to what I read in his article.
There is nowhere in his article where he mentioned anything to do with the University of Juba that can bring a disrepute. He expressed his dissatisfaction with the two tribes, the Dinka and the Nuer where he didn’t mince his words on land grabbing and monopoly of Institutions by Jienge, a layman language for the Nilotics.
He criticized those who continue to subject the people to an everlasting agony of hunger, displacement and all forms of what he considered to be injustices. He bluntly asked for a reversion to the former ten States. This was what electrified the University Administration to suspend him without pay.
The Administration said his charges are incitement of ethnic hatred and bringing the name of the University of Juba into disrepute. How did he bring a disrepute to the University when he spoke as a citizen? Who doesn’t know ethnic hatred has been there even before he could write?
It is worth mentioning that Prof Taban is not the first University don to be suspended. Prof Augustin Ting Mayai of the School of Public Service was suspended for having written an opinion in his Facebook page last year. This put together, an ordinary man will know there is a bad blood between the University Administration and the teaching Staff.
What happened to Prof Taban is exactly what Idi Amin said that “there is a freedom of speech but I cannot guarantee freedom after the speech. Hence, Prof Taban is an innocent victim of his intellectual opinion.
A high profile politician once said that those who work with the government do not know their fates despite how loyal, committed or respectful they may be”. I must be wrong to think that, the Professor could have been summoned to explain himself before the suspension.
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