By William Madouk
Democratic Change Party (DC) marked its 15th anniversary of its establishment, yesterday.
The party was founded on June 6, 2009, and has overcome hurdles to reach this milestone and continue its mission of advancing democratic principles in the country.
Speaking during a low-key celebration event, the party leader, Onyoti Adigo, reflected on the party’s journey, noting that a lack of adequate funding and a difficult economic climate had posed major hurdles over the years.
However, the party remained committed to its core values.
“Therefore, let me seize this opportunity to extend my congratulations to all our members of the Democratic Change Party in South Sudan as well as the diaspora,” he said.
“We are supposed to celebrate this day because it is a great day for us, but because of the economic challenges that is why we could not celebrate this- but it is a celebration actually what we are doing now,” he added.
DC boss cited that lack of funding coupled with economic hardship has hampered the outfit to carry out its activities as expected.
He related that the party was founded to realizes unity, a peaceful, prosperous and powerful South Sudan built on ‘the democratic principles of peaceful transfer of power where there is transparency and accountability with respect to the rule of law.’
Adigo hinted that DC is the party for South Sudanese who are enthusiastic about change such as women, youth, farmers, teachers, professionals and academia just to mention but a few.
“We change the nation and bring happiness to the people of South Sudan,” he continued.
He called on all the party members to ‘prophets’ and ‘mentors’ of change in the country.
“Our people have suffered a lot, we need them to reconcile with one another to accept the reality that they are all South Sudanese,” he noted.
Mr. Adigo, who is also Minister of Livestock and Fisheries, urged the party members to bear people’s aspirations in mind and be responsive as well as empower the youth and women.
Besides, he also boosted the achievements the DC party achieved since its establishment, for instance in bringing peace to the people through revitalized peace deal.
“As one of the political parties in South Sudan, we were evolving in the peace negotiation in Addis Ababa and Khartoum, I think the best achievement is bringing peace to the people of South Sudan
“Another achievement, I can say I that we managed to open the offices as I just narrated in almost all the states in South Sudan as well as in the diaspora, they are there so it is one of the achievements of the DC party.”