OpEd, Politics

You can be relieved from your job, but you can never be relieved from your work

Public office is just being sniffed like cocaine in South Sudan. The quest for looking for a solution would spare no one, including the one looking for the solution himself.

South Sudan has reached a critical moment where an official is appointed today and relieved tomorrow without even being sworn in. As the search for a solution continues, the hope of getting it grows slimmer and slimmer because it is exaggerating the pre-existing condition of South Sudan.

What makes it even worse is the recycling of the sacked officials. Why would a sacked official be reappointed? The same way he failed to provide the solution in the first appointment is definitely the same way he will fail to provide the solution in the second appointment. If the motive is looking for a solution and not something else, it should be different people each time an appointment is made. This would help a little bit as a new broom sweeps clean.

But all in all, “I’m looking for a solution” slogan is promoting corruption, tribalism, nepotism, bad governance and subversive politics. Once an official is appointed today, he starts fearing that he will be relieved tomorrow before even being sworn in. If he is lucky to take an oath of office and assume his role in the office, he will first work on how smart he would squander a lump sum of money so that when he is relieved, there would be something to maintain him and his extended family for years. What happens here? The solution for which he was appointed to provide would not be provided, and there he is sacked and another official appointed and the same thing applies. The way the solution is being looked for, I have an impression that it will take long to get.

Now that all that is best done is relieve and appointment, what can one do to resist it? To be on the safe side during this “I’m looking for a solution” era, one should be a specialist in a certain field of study. A specialist has work in his field of specialization, but when he is appointed to serve in a public office, he gets a job. So, when he is relieved, he will return to his work. So, he has lost his job, but he has not lost his work.

If a medical doctor having a clinic and serving as a Director General in a public hospital is relieved, he is relieved from the position of the Director General, but he is not and will never be relieved from being a medical doctor. So, will lose his job as a DG, but he will not lose his work as a medical doctor.

A professor of law serving, for instance, as a Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, upon relieve, will return to the university to continue giving lectures in the School of Law. So, he has lost his job as a Justice Minister, but he has not lost his work as a Professor of Law. An Economist serving as a Minister of Finance and Planning, upon relieve, will return to his economic firm to work on expending money, time and labour judiciously without any waste. So, he has lost his job as a Finance Minister, but he has not lost his work as an Economist.

A Petroleum Engineer serving as a Managing Director of the Nilepet, upon relieve in the quest for looking for a solution, will return to the oil field to work on the oil. So, he has lost his job as an MD of the Nilepet, but he has not lost his work as a Petroleum Engineer. The same thing applies to all other professions.

The time ticking is for expertise, not for amateurishness. It is not a crime to look for a job, but because South Sudan’s womb is unfavourable to carry appointees for 9 months, there is a history of recurrent political abortion. For an appointee having work, his work will sustain him if miscarried or born prematurely. You can be relieved from your job, but you cannot be relieved from your work.

Thanks for reading “Sowing The Seed Of Truth”.

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