By Philip Buda Ladu
The Government of South Sudan has been urged to restore a functional governing structure at the local government level especially in Kajo-Keji County which has been disabled by the conflict in the country as citizens hope to voluntarily return home from the displacement camps.
Ambassador Steven Wondu, an elder and intellectual who hails from Kajo-Keji County and the Auditor General of the National Audit Chamber called on the State authorities to put in place functional local government architecture in his county to persuade citizens to return home.
He made his appeal on Saturday at a thanks giving ceremony to celebrate the appointment of the First Undersecretary at the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Mr. Simon Kiman Lado in Juba.
Ambassador Wondu said he would like to organize for a symbolic caravan hopefully by March or April starting from Juba to Kajo-Keji to show that the Kajo-Keji people are returning back home arguing that what people are staying at in Juba shouldn’t be called their home but house.
He reiterated that when people normally stay away from their ancestral homes for so long they will find their homes occupied by other people and they have to fight to get it back.
“If you abandon your territory for a very long time other people will occupy it and by the time you come there you will have to fight and the outcome might be against you. Therefore, whatever your position you must have your home where your ancestry is,” Wondu asserted.
“We must have a symbolic caravan beginning from Juba so that those ones in the refugees’ camps can see it that we are at home. But I would like to tell the government of South Sudan that for these people to be able to go home there must be government architecture” he stressed.
Ambassador Wondu underlined that apart from Col. John Kamilo the SSDPF Commander in Kajo-Keji there is no any other functioning local government entity in the County even the Commissioner is most often in Juba saying he’s currently in Juba.
“There is no prison, there is no functioning police station, Barnaba Marial, I would like you to whisper to the President’s ear that there is no government architecture in the whole County and yet the Ministry of Finance is releasing money every month for the County government,” Wondu underscored.
“We need to put the local government architecture in place whether we are talking about Kajo-Keji, whether we are talking about Morobo or Yirol so that it is possible for people to go home then they feel protected by the State” he emphasized.
He stressed that the State must be present in the village for people to feel secure saying he’s afraid even the Church is doing better than the State because they have the Bishops, the Archdeacons and the Deacons in place.
Wondu said he is going to engage the local government of Central Equatoria State to ensure that the governing architecture is available at the local government level to make people encouraged to return home.