Hon. Nhial Deng Nhial: An Unquestionable Nationalist and a True Patriot of South Sudan
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President Kagame received Gen. Nhial Deng Nhial, Minister of SPLA and Veterans Affairs of Southern Sudan, 4 May 2011
By Taban de Bol, Juba, South Sudan
Friday, January 14, 2022 (PW) — Nhial Deng Nhial was born in January 1957. His father William Deng Nhial was one of the Southern Sudanese leaders who fought for the freedom of the marginalized people in the country. Nhial’s father was assassinated in 1968 four years prior to the signing of the 1972 Addis Ababa Agreement. Regardless of being orphaned and as the firstborn in the family who could take care of his siblings, Nhial was not scared but compromised his family responsibilities and sacrificed for the liberation struggle immediately after his studies.
Hon Nhial Deng Nhial went to Comboni College in Khartoum. He studied laws at the University of Khartoum and did his masters in the UK. Fathered by a staunch nationalist, Nhial Deng grew with the love for his country and the people and hence joined the SPLM/SPLA movement after its inception in 1983.
Throughout the liberation struggle, Hon Cde Nhial Deng contributed to the fight for freedom in Sudan. Not only his father’s legacy but perhaps his reasoning capacity and competitive leadership principles were admired by Dr John Garang and other senior comrades in the Movement and this drew him closer to the centre of the SPLM leadership. Despite how one travels back in detail in the history of the liberation struggle and throughout all the assignments held by Hon Nhial Deng, never had his assigned duties been in fiasco. He did all he could for the success of the movement.
An example is when he was appointed as the governor of the Bahr EL Ghazal region, he succeeded the objective needed by the leadership of the movement, that’s mobilizing the resources (human and food) for liberation. The region joined the movement in huge numbers and contributed food for the army. Up to date, the contribution of the very region is being cherished by the South Sudanese as a whole, and he remains one of those who solicit that support for the success of the movement. It’s worth mentioning that Cde Nhial Deng carried out his duties without any destruction to the hosting communities of the Bahr El Ghazal region.
After years of struggle for Freedom in Sudan, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement and Army (SPLM/A) and the Khartoum regime agreed to dialogue in order to bring lasting peace to the people of Sudan. The IGAD’s peace initiative, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), was negotiated between the guerrilla movement and the government of Sudan with Hon Nhial Deng Nhial as the chief negotiator of the former. With the guidance of the chief negotiator, the negotiating team successfully brought CPA that ended one of the longest wars in Africa and later offered plebiscite to the people of Southern Sudan and consequently the 2011 independence of South Sudan.
In 2005, the CPA was signed and Dr John Garang de Mabior was appointed the first vice president of Sudan and the president of the government of Southern Sudan. Following his demise in the plane crash 21 days later, Garang’s deputy H: E Gen. Salva Kiir Mayardit replaced him (Dr Garang). When the government was formed the same year Hon. Nhial Deng was appointed minister of regional affairs in the Southern Sudanese cabinet from which he shortly resigned and left the country to attend perhaps to his personal matters.
On December 22, 2008, Hon Cde Nhial Deng Nhial was appointed the minister of SPLA and Veterans Affairs till July 9, 2011. In his tenure in the ministry, he worked hard to establish and manage to restructure the soldiers’ salaries. On July 10, 2011, he continued as a caretaker Minister of Defense and was later appointed as the minister of Foreign Affairs until 2013. It was from the ministry that he came back with the rank of Lieutenant General in the SPLA. While in the ministry of Foreign Affairs Hon Nhial Deng Nhial enhanced South Sudan’s regional and international relations.
In 2020 Hon Cde Nhial Deng Nhial was appointed by H: E Gen. Salva Kiir Mayardit the president of the Republic of South Sudan as the minister of Presidential Affairs in the revitalized government of national unity. In his swearing-in ceremony one of the senior members of the ruling party SPLM, Hon. Cde Kuol Manyang Juuk said, “we are concerned as senior members of SPLM when the first office was being occupied by some individuals who are not in the SPLM leadership structure.” From this commanding statement of an SPLM senior, no doubt that the SPLM senior members have contended with Hon Cde Nhial Deng’s occupation of the first office in the country.
With these compliments from the party and his outstanding records throughout his political career, Cde Nhial Deng Nhial is unquestionably a nationalist and one of the only patriots in the country. It’s crystal clear to every member of the SPLM and common men in this country that Cde Nhial Deng Nhial works for the people of South Sudan and the SPLM as a party, never his own self. He is known for his venerated competencies and hence crowned and honoured with names like the dictionary, engine, heavyweight among others.
The writer is a professional geologist from the University of Juba and can be reached at aburdebol@gmail.com or Tel: +211923940394/+211915251588
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