By Bida Elly David
The auxiliary bishop of the Metropolitan Catholic Archdiocese of Juba has slammed the Country’s politicians for being beneficiaries of the agreement leaving citizens in dilemma and called them to stop egoism and focus on developing the nation.
The Bishop manifested this statement during his homily at St. Thereza’s Cathedral Kator on Sunday following continuous suffering of the citizens in all the sectors.
Santo Laku Pio, the Auxiliary Bishop of the Metropolitan archdiocese of Juba told the congregation that politicians across the Country have taken the peace agreement as a pillar to benefit themselves forgetting the people they serve.
He criticized the authority for being egoistic and self-centered as well as failing to restore the lost peace that would have transformed the Country into a sustainable place for living.
“The politicians lie to you, peace only benefits them,” he said.
“The revitalized peace agreement is only benefiting the office-bearers and not the citizens. There is no peace that can be lived by an individual, it doesn’t work, if all the corners of South Sudan are not in peace, there is no peace,”
“What they tell you always on television is a total lie, we have people in the PoCs, we have people in the refugee camps, and we have people displaced from their villages,”
He said the leaders have abandoned the citizens leaving them in a dire condition of destitution as majority die every time and others have fled the Country out of the tendency of fear and lack of help.
Santo called on leaders and politicians for total transformation from self-interest and egocentrism into positive governance to bring about genuine peace for every South Sudanese in the Country.
“You cannot say that there is peace in this country, there is nothing, peace must be peace for everybody, great and small, young and old. They are telling lies to the citizens of South Sudan that there is peace, there is no peace,”
“Peace is only for individuals [politicians], for particular groups, people are suffering from hunger,” he stressed.
Bishop Lako said that South Sudan was a country blessed with abundant resources that required proper utilization to serve the interest of all the public and develop the nation speedily.
He challenged the Unity government to make peace attractive to every citizen of South Sudan.
“We have all the resources, why are we suffering, why are our people rebelling, too much rebellion; everybody is carrying up guns for what? Because the resources are just the same way it was done during the time of the Arabs,” he underlined.
“Why are people leaving the other nine states and the three administrative areas? And why are they coming here [Juba] why? Because it is not safe, there is no food there, there is insecurity there, the services that you have in Juba are not there,” he lamented.