Mr. Majur Achol Athou: Successes and Weaknesses of the outgoing BCYA Leader

By Manyang David Mayar, Juba, South Sudan

Wednesday, November 18, 2020 (PW) — Majur Achol Athou will go down in history as one of the great young leaders BCYA has ever had. He led Bor County Youths Associations (BCYA) between March 2016 to November 2020 as BCYA Chairman. Some elders have congratulated him for laying the ground for “an organized democratic BCYA”. Joh Mayom, Bishop of Malek Diocese referred Majur as a person who has “raised the bar” for the association leadership and warned upcoming leaders to “try to fill in his big shoes”.

But behind the benevolent hardworking Majur lies another ‘wen Achol Athou’ that put his personal interest above what the Bor community really wants. In everything he does, the calculation of his personal benefits is already established. Here is a summary of his successes and weaknesses in my own thinking. 

Successes

As one of the youths who have watched Majur serves Bor County for more then four years, I was able to witness some of the following undeniable achievements.

Restoration of the deteriorating Greater Bor Unity is one of the major achievements. Majur is one of the people who pressed in a soft manner the successful resignation of Jima Arok Maketh as Greater Bor Youth Association chairman after serving for nearly 13 years. Majur also pushed for the successful and peaceful transfer of power in one of the respected and most celebrated democratic elections community associations have ever witnessed. This is one of the achievements that Majur Achol is very proud of. I think many other citizens of Bor and especially those who follow Bor Youths politics understand this was a real challenge that Majur rightfully deserves a pad on his shoulder. Congratulations. 

Some of his other achievements include peace and security for Bor, scholarships to the disadvantaged students, promotion of youth’s talents particularly inter-clan football competitions and artists association, promotion of cultural activities including unified wrestling competitions between Greater Bor and other communities, reduction of violence in marriage issues among others. 

Majur has equally laid a strong bond between elders and youths, a move which allows outstanding community leaders like Michael Makuei and Kuol Manyang to be accessible and give attention to youth’s concerns. There is no doubt that BCYA under Majur has repaired the dignity of the youths in the eyes of our elders. The list of the good things Majur has done may be long but the above are the most notable ones in my opinion. 

However, such successes come with some failures as well. 

Failures

They say birds of the same feathers flock together. Like some other politicians from Bor that we have known for years as people who put their personal interest above the community’s interest, Majur is not an exception. In whatever he does, ‘cuai ke atur de’ must be there. Here is a short summary of his failures. 

My first encounter with Majur was at the Petrol Station queue in 2016 when he was still fresh in the office as BCYA chairman. In those days, fuel was scarce. Motorists had to queue to get some liters of fuel in their cars. That evening one of our brothers from Bor and I had queued our cars behind the last car. We had decided to let our cars be here for the night so that we could get fuel early the next morning. 

While we were away, Majur came and squeezed his car (old second-hand car which he has now replaced) ahead of us. This move sparked a heated argument with that brother. I remembered the guy who did not know Majur at that time, referred to Majur as ‘one of the greedy people spoiling the nation’. Aware of his BCYA position, Majur became furious and so much disturbed by this statement. But the scenario in fact best described Majur as a person.  

Majur entered BCYA office an innocent lamb that was ready to be sacrificed for the interest of Bor but he stepped down from BCYA’s office a dangerous wolf that people are scared of. He allows his arrest in October 2017 by the national security to change his direction from Bor issues to something else. Instead of using the chance to establish the interest of Bor, he took it as an opportunity to grow a rotten politician in the current rotten political environment of betrayal. This decision sunk Majur deeper into the pit of leadership failures. 

The other failure is that of Sherikat Incident of June 3. Because of his baptism at the Blue House, Majur took a political mediatory approach to the carnage of innocent civilians in the hands of a brutal unethical army officer at that time. He abandoned his role as a community leader, who was supposed to laugh when Buor are laughing or die when Buor are dying. But because he didn’t want to annoy his masters on the other side of the river, he chose to bury his head in shame and great trepidation.  

There are currently about 14 young people who are still being held in Juba prison following Sherikat protest but because of his personal political ambition, Majur has failed to advocate for their release. When he was under detention in the blue house, activists from Bor stood their ground by calling for his release day and night.  

The contentious BCYA constitution is another failure. It is to be recalled that Majur assumed BCYA leadership in March 2016. BCYA had no constitution when Majur took over. But Majur could not make a constitution in the two years period of his first term. He waited until after the elections in 2018.   

The 2018 elections were a big mess. There was no system that was followed. Neither voter registration nor membership registration. The lack of a proper system to regulate voting fraud allowed Majur to fetched women and girls working in different restaurants in Juba to the voting center and they voted for him, a move which helped him to secure a second term. He wanted the second term not to serve Bor but to continue to cement some of his unfinished deals. 

Majur used coronavirus season to extend his term in a clear violation of the constitution. World elections have not been canceled because of the coronavirus. Majur has been attending community occasions including funerals during the same period but failed to conduct a BCYA general assembly and other BCYA activities that would have seen him step down at the end of his term. He wanted more time to run BCYA in order to implement some of his personal interests.

Other failures include the lack of civic education on the BCYA constitution and other association’s resources. Since the day the constitution was written and perhaps passed, no sensitization exercises were carried out. The constitution has been rusting somewhere in the dust for years only to appear a month ago when Majur decided to use the legal document as a tool to bring the successor of his choice into power. If he continues to serve his interest, BCYA 2020 elections will only be a nightmare and a big blow for his sugar-coated bitter four years of leadership. 

There may be other failures or successes of Majur Achol while serving as the chairman of Bor County Youths associations. But the above are some of the catchy ones that I am personally aware of. 

You can reach the author vis his email Contacts: manyang.davidmayar@gmail.com

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