When your community member is appointed to hold a constitutional position, he is no longer your own. He is a nationalist serving the nation as a whole. We are always wrong to own constitutional post holders.
As we own them, they work in favour of us. As they work in favour of us, they do not serve the nation, but they serve their tribesmen. As they serve their tribesmen, tribalism gets promoted to a higher level. As tribalism gets promoted, the nation becomes divided and fails, just like South Sudan has failed.
When President Salva Kiir Mayardit relieves our community member whom we have manipulated, we become angry and throw insults at the appointee, thus creating an unnecessary rivalry. We even go as far as working for the downfall of the incumbent in order to create a chance for the reappointment of our relieved community members.
When a community member is appointed, his community members advise him to buy as many plots of land as possible. They too advise him to buy as many cows as possible, including prestigious bulls. Then they look for him a beautiful girl to marry. All this is not hidden from the public. The same community members advising their son to buy cows and plots of land are the same community members posting such cows and plots of land on Facebook. As the public becomes aware, charges of corruption begin to count and their son is relieved. We are our own problem.
When our community member is appointed. Community members organise a Thanksgiving ceremony. During the ceremony, invited guests do not speak in relation to the ceremony. Some guests throw insults on the relieved official and sometimes, their community, thus creating tension not only between the appointee and the relieved one, but also between their respective communities. Whereas other guests, in the name of playing politics, throw insults on other politicians, including Salva Kiir Mayardit himself. Thereafter, the community association makes a long list of those that they want the appointee to employ, thus giving room for tribalism. Why should a community of an appointee organise a thanksgiving ceremony as if the appointee is going to serve the community? We are our own problem!
When our son is relieved by Salva Kiir Mayardit as a normal exercise in the government, the relieved official runs as fast as his legs can take him to the headquarters of his community and misinforms his community members that our position has been taken and that, let’s fight for it. Without thinking twice, they mobilise, arm themselves and rebel against the government, demanding their position back. In the bush, they fight a war of nerves, killing innocent children, women and elderly people. They forget that they are killing vulnerable people who know nothing about power wrangling. People get killed and properties destroyed. When an agreement is reached, resources get wasted on its signing and implementation, thus depriving the citizens of services. We are our own problem!
As the civil servants and soldiers go unpaid for a number of months, J One takes the role of looking for a solution. Today, a Minister of Finance and Planning is sacked and replaced. Tomorrow, a Managing Director of Nilepet is sacked and replaced. Next tomorrow, a Minister of Trade and Industry is sacked and replaced and the sacking and replacement continue. It takes resources to sack and replace. Not only that, the continuous sacking and replacement has instilled a culture of stealing money.
Once a Minister is appointed, he worries that he would be sacked tomorrow and so, he abandons all the strategies he comes with and ventures into stealing public money so that when he is sacked, he would relieve the headache of sacking with money as paracetamol. What happens here? Appointees do not go to work, but they go to steal, and the government says it has no money to pay the civil servants and soldiers. We are our own problem!
In summary, war, tribalism and corruption have destroyed South Sudan to the core. We love to fight even when nothing needs fighting. We love to employ relatives, friends, concubines and girlfriends. We love to steal as much money as our bags could hold. The way we steal, even stealing itself does not like it at all. The country fails and leaders pretend to be innocent. We are our own problem.
Thanks for reading “Sowing The Seed Of Truth”.