Taken from Winston Churchill’s philosophy to remind the forgetful South Sudanese of their rich African history.
The history becomes the campus direction that guides the nation in all directions she follows, but the history of South Sudan finds no use in the hands of the very people who created it.
How I wish South Sudan had a bad past just to make a good present and future like Rwanda, Uganda and other countries which had had bad pasts, but are now having good present and, probably, their future is predictable. Leaders of South Sudan decide as if they just appeared yesterday, too green to recall the burning bush from which South Sudan was brought out. I wonder if liberators who fought war A to war Z just sit down, divide and sell South Sudan at a negotiated price not knowing they might be asked by the perished founding fathers, what can pseudo freedom fighters do?
If Dr. John Garang were alive, 2021-2023 would be the right years he would die because his prophecy of “cutting a large piece of land with Panga and selling it for just a bottle of beer” has come true as oil aka the future of the country has been pre-sold and nobody knows, as the behaviours of the neighbours at all the borders could tell, that areas close to borders might have been sold as well. By 2030, the map of South Sudan shall no longer look like it looks now as illegal encroachment and settlement occur at all the borders. The cartographers will sit down once again to re-demarcate borders and redraw the map in line with areas inhabited by South Sudanese.
Some areas can’t be on the map of South Sudan when they aren’t inhabited by South Sudanese but by neighbours. Then the neighbouring countries will be told to include in their maps areas they have illegally encroached on. Do we have a government that cares about what happens at the borders as a threat, if it cares, then it only cares about taxing who or what enters and leaves the country? No! The way the government governs the country poses a revocation to sovereignty.
The citizens are tired of raising up their left arms and nothing comes in turn to compensate for their energy. Shockingly, the expected service delivery is the disgusting news that oil and other non-renewable resources are sold in the future. SPLM must not be OYEE-ed this time for nothing; she must open her third eye to avail services such as roads, bridges, hospitals, and schools. On top, the citizens need good governance because it’s good governance that gives birth to service delivery.
In description of this sorrowful moment, one has to say “unfortunate” double times just to mean one, but still it’s not enough. Had leaders looked farther back, they would have looked farther forward to prepare the future the exact way future owners want it to be prepared. The future is in custody! And it is the sole responsibility of the future owners to claim the freedom of their future.
Youth are the leaders of tomorrow, therefore tomorrow is not far! It needs youth to prepare themselves today so that when their tomorrow comes, it then lands in a safer hand. If the fact that tomorrow has its own tomorrow and tomorrow’s tomorrow also has its own tomorrow and the list of tomorrows continues, is the reason why youth are reluctant, then there is no better tomorrow like the day following today!
In conclusion, if not now, then when?
The author is a medical student, University of Juba.