This year, this particular year, I’m not merely a citizen, but also a potential voter. It is hard to get informed voters, but when you get one, hold him/her very well. So, hold me very well. I have informed you already. I should be fed well. I should be protected well because if something happens to me, your opponent will defeat you by one vote. Of course, my vote.
I should be housed. My house should be provided with 24/7 electricity and clean drinking water. I should be given a job or strongly promised to be given a job. All the roads I pass through should be tarmacked. All the rivers and lakes should be bridged to ease my accessibility. Because I will have so many businesses this year, all the airstrips and airports in bad condition should be renovated and new ones built in the 10 states and 3 Administrative Areas.
The road to my constituency should be paved right from the capital Juba to deep down behind it. This foreign currency, I mean the United States Dollar should be regulated so that I buy commodities at an affordable price. I should not be taxed. When I say I should not be taxed, I mean no legal taxation and no illegal taxation too. Talk to Juba City Council very well. It taxes legally and illegally. I may refuse to vote if it taxes me so this year. I swear.
One good thing about the law of voting is that it is my right as a citizen to vote for or be voted for and it is too my right as a citizen to refuse to vote. So, the choice is yours, papa! I should be educated for free. I need primary, secondary, and tertiary education to be declared free. I should be given freedom of speech. If you cover my mouth with your left hand and hold a pistol on my head with your right hand, how would I even get the freedom to vote for you if, indeed, you are the one I’m voting for?
I need not to be told what to do. I know who you are. I know who your opponent is. I know how to vote. I once voted for you. Though the time I voted for you was 14 years ago, I have not forgotten about how to tick against the name of a candidate of my choice, fold it, and cast it into a ballot box. In general, I should be handled like a girl you have proposed to marry. If anything goes wrong, I may change my mind, and the resources you have spent go wasted.
I should be fed on the products labeled “Made in South Sudan”. The Ugandan products, particularly maize flour, the one labeled “For Export Only” have been contributing to my unhealthiness. Most of my fellow South Sudanese and I are suffering from hepatocellular carcinoma incurred by excessive aflatoxin in the flour. I need agriculture to be prioritized so that I eat un-artificialized food items.
I need to see my fellow South Sudanese out of PoCs. I need to see an abbreviation “IDPs” less mentioned or else deleted. I need total peace. Thank God my President Salva Kiir Mayardit has already called the holdout groups to join him in cementing peace. If it means creating 5 more Vice Presidency, so be it as long as peace prevails. If they think the Vice Presidency is monotonous, then people would go for 5 Prime Ministers. Yes, let us accommodate them. The elections will fix everything.
Back to the business. I should be entitled to all the rights. Let us not be a member of the United Nations for granted. The fact that we are the 193th member of the United Nations should not make us think that we are very far and that, we should violate Human rights. I have right to education, life, freedom of speech, health, and safety. I should be treated and I should be treated here. When I say here, I mean here in South Sudan. Why should I be taken abroad for treatment? What if the treatment takes a long to keep me away from elections? I want the healthcare system strengthened.
I’m a youth. If you finish the oil now, I will fall into trouble in the future. So, refine oil with reservations. Compensate the host communities. They are battling with oil hazards. I see babies being born with one eye, arm, or leg. The disabled we have been enough, why would we want to boost the population of people with disabilities?
I should be defended by a happy army. Where does the salary of the soldiers go to? I want the soldiers to receive their salary monthly. As one of the civil servants, I need my salary monthly too. I think my friend in the Equatoria region needs the same things I need. I think my other dear friend in the Upper Nile region needs these same things. My one and only friend from the Bahr El Ghazal region is not exceptional either. If we are given all this, what do you think can prevent us from voting for you?