Letter to President Kiir on NBGS lack of representation in national civil service senior posts 

H. E. Gen. Salva Kiir Mayardit

President of the Republic South Sudan

SPLM Chairman and Commander-in-chief of SSPDF and supreme Commander of other regular armed forces and Chancellor of Universities

By Ater Garang Ariath, Aweil, South Sudan 

Friday, 09 August 2024 (PW) — Your Excellency, Mr. President, this is to bring to your leadership kind attention that Northern-Bahr El Ghazal state as one of highly populated and SPLM votes rich states has now missed out in the equal representation of the states in the Public Service senior positions. 

As Article 21 (2) of Universal Declaration of Human Rights says “everyone has the right to equal access to public service in his/her country. I felt duty bound to write this open letter requesting your able leadership to redress this genuine concern from the people of NBGS. 

Aftermath relieved of comrade Engineer Peter Kuot Jiel, the former Undersecretary of the Ministry of Roads and Bridges last night from his duties, Northern Bahr El Ghazal state left without single Undersecretary, which sounds awkward. 

There is a great need for your leadership to balance representation of all states in public service senior positions appointment instead of giving leverage of other states to accumulated positions of Undersecretaries as if they midwife South Sudan as a country. 

Frankly speaking, I am a proponent of meritocracy and bureaucracy of yesterday, today and tomorrow and forsure, Northern Bahr El Ghazal state got a host of brilliant and upright civil servants that were ignored to be elevated to public services leadership positions due to internal war against them because of their too much loyalty to your leadership. 

Therefore, to move forward in good faith, I call upon your leadership to carry out statistics on this matter, otherwise we will be forced to carry out our own statistics as we seek our rightful representation in civil service. 

In addition, NBGS representation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation is indeed under starved. 

Call for Aweilians unity. 

At this critical juncture, I call upon Aweilians to claim our rightful representation in the civil service senior positions through constructive engagement with the leadership at national level rather than allow ourselves to be like black crabs. 

It is our collective responsibility to be keepers of each other than being use to gossip about our brothers and sisters who got some little opportunities at national levels. 

If we like to be black crabs let’s practice it properly in NBGS government because in Aweil government only Aweilian can replace Aweilian willy nilly but this formula will not be applicable here in Juba. 

I request our able legislators at national government and those who have patriotic heart of Mading Aweil, especially our community leaders to take this concern as their concern not for author and proponents of this concern only. 

It is our moral duty and our fundamental rights to speak out on what pinching us badly as community. 

At this moment in time, I wish to remind ourselves that “people who do not know their rights are more vulnerable to having them abused and often lack language and conceptual framework to effectively advocate them”. 

We should advocate our rightful representation from positions of Undersecretaries, DGs, Directors and so forth as we call for fair and equity representation of all states based on qualifications than being allow ourselves to be underrepresented always. 

From the very beginning, this country, our contributions as Aweilians was well-known by our president and was the promise that all would have an equal chance to share in the fruits of our labour as a nation. 

As long as our representatives at bureaucracies were hunt down , towering and qualified Aweilians without work, and families shut in gate-less ‘poverty, that promise is unkept.

 Lastly our President should be informed that the only and only Aweilian Undersecretary is relieved of his duties and that action has left NBGS without a single Undersecretary compared to our brothers and sisters from other states. 

Not meanly or grudgingly, but in obedience to an old and generous faith, let us make a place for all as a country at the table of Undersecretaries. 

My objective for this piece is to inform our President of our disadvantage as NBGS at this particular area as community. 

We have already begun to move toward this objective and our country leadership should be inform of this outrage action against us. 

The rise of Aweilians national concern

It is now clear that the war against our meritocrats has touched the hearts and the sense of duty of the Aweilian people. 

Community action organizations, planning and organizing the local effort to end this impunity should spring up after relieved of our last son in higher civil service post. 

And the response of the Aweilians is growing.  We cannot afford, in conscience or in the national interest, to disappoint these hopes or to waste the valuable resources of human skill and energy which we are now beginning to tap.

That was our commitment to the people we serve, and it reflected not only our own intentions but the will of our people. We knew, and said then, that this battle would not be easily or swiftly won. But we began. Today we can take together another step along the path to call for fair and equitable representation of our civil servants at national level. 

The author, Ater Garang Ariath, is a Patriotic Aweil son who can be reached at his email address: atergarang452@gmail.com

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