By Joseph Akim Gordon
South Sudan is good on paper, but our ordinary citizens do not see the benefits of the paperwork except if it is transformed into tangible benefits, such as when the citizens can put food on the table when citizens are able to seek medical care in the country when the citizens can have good roads both at the national and state level when the citizens can have clean water, and when they can enjoy the peace dividend. The citizens are now exhausted by the political songs that we are still a young nation. When a child is born, he or she cannot remain young all the time. Once the baby is born, it starts to crawl on its knees and later on starts walking and running, so the child is progressing from one level to another. This young nation called South Sudan is neither a dwarf nor deformed; it must be moving from one level to another, but we South Sudanese should play a leading role to see that we are progressing. If we are not progressing, we should ask ourselves, why are we not making progress? As a result, we start to re-adjust so that we put our country in the right direction. We, the citizens, are not alone in this journey of development; we have leadership in the driver’s seat; we have the executive, the judiciary, and the legislative; the three arms of the government are not there for nothing, but they are there to support the citizens in these noble responsibilities. We, the citizens, put them there to work for the citizens; we gave them the mandate to serve us; they should not expect the citizens to serve them. Many times, citizens refer to the legislator as a rubber stamp; let them prove that they are not a rubber stamp.
So, the citizens should wake up when the three arms of the Government are dragging their feet only supporting themselves, not the people who elected them. We can vote them out of office and vote for people who are sensitive to supporting the citizens. We are aware that during elections, the legislators use a lot of tactics to convince the citizens by spending a lot of money to convince the citizens. This time, you take the money and vote for the preferred candidates. We are good at planning socio-economic development programs beautiful on paper and difficult to implement, for instance, we as an independent country now totally depended on our oil, it was a wise decision to find alternative means to reach the oil market, this was a wise decision so that we can have alternative channels if one channel is problematic because of some political misunderstanding, we can still sell our oil in the international market, but this proposal only remained in a paper, now the real threat is now real, the current war in Sudan, we do not know for how long it will last, there are now two rival war leaders one may likely block the oil flow to the market what will happen to our economy?
The South Sudan Government made a good proposal of constructing an oil refinery in Unity State, in that it will be for local consumption and also for the market of neighboring countries. This is a very good proposal. It said the construction of the oil refinery started, but now it is not operational. We decided to join the East Africa Community, which was a good proposal. Membership in this organization will help us a lot, and there are conditions laid down for budgetary contributions for member countries to enable the representatives of these countries to carry out their responsibilities properly. In a situation where a member country does not contribute, the members are rendered toothless. Your members will not be allowed to take an active role in their deliberations. The members become lightweights politically. The planning for our programs is excellent, but then implementation becomes problematic because we have not committed ourselves to these organizations. Similarly, some UN agencies demanded membership contributions so that the country could access the services provided. Many development partners, like the European Union and others, expected our contribution, but we failed, and as a result, we are restricted to full economic support. It is important that we make sure to implement what it takes to become a full member so that we can enjoy all the benefits that are to be provided and have equal access to all the provisions for member states. It is therefore crucial that we plan what we are able to implement.
The author can be reached through e-mail: akimgordon222@gmail.com