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Wednesday, 23rd May 2012

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AN ARMY OF MINISTERS.

Details: Created on Monday, 28 June 2010 14:07; Written by Dr. Peter Adwok Otto

Never before had one been bewildered about the lack of seriousness in Salva Kiir as the president of GOSS about the appointments of the states’ governments’ ministers.

Unless you are determined to drag every working southern Sudanese into the political street, there is no wisdom in appointing many young civil or military servants as junior as a major or junior lawyers into ministerial positions. Late Luigi Adwok was quoted to have blamed Nimery for mass political appointments by saying “ Nimery had awakened every sleeping person and made them ministers, he will have hard time making them go back.” Unquote. Each and every minister has to have his/her CV debated in the parliament and approved for a position, not withstanding of course the balance be it ethnic, partisan, regional, but paramount is the qualification. 1

5 ministers in each of the ten southern states will make 150 ministers plus 32 in GOSS, plus advisors that will total about 150 or more constitutional post holders!!!!! Jesus Christ! From where is Salva Kiir is going to pay all this army of ministers? For the tax payer to know what a minister earns and his prerogatives, each minister will have at least two cars at his disposal, a house, two guards or more office manager, private secretary, the running cost of a ministry. How much is the South getting from oil money per month? was this army of ministers budgeted for in this fiscal year? Is this intended to strike a balance of appeasing some ethnic groups? But is the balance kept? Already the Latukas of eastern Equatoria are complaining about having been left out in the cold or being marginalized by having not been represented. In Upper Nile many portfolios have gone to Nuer of only one area.

It is true that a corrupt practice can not correct corruption. GOSS as a failed and corrupt government, can not correct the situation in the states by these corrupt measures. And where there is no rule of law , the jungle rule will not provide peace. How can a government being given the oil money( no other sources of revenue) at the end of the month be so brave to use all the acquired funds to pay ministers? What about education, health, water, and the poor army which had resorted to looting the citizen for survival? One recently appointed minister in GOSS just declared that 50% of southerners are living below the poverty line.

This is a strange response by president of GOSS as an austerity measure to curb expenditure. Simple arithmetic indicates that the 10 states’ ministers and 32 GOSS ministers will receive 150 x 8,500 = 1,275,000 SDG/month. 32 x10,500 = 336,000/month, running cost of ministries 185 x 5000 = 915,000 SDG/month, excluding the salaries of president, vice president of GOSS, the ten governors , advisors, commissions and the SSLA and the ten states’ parliaments . President of GOSS on his inauguration speech posed like Obama and said that he was the president for those who voted and those who did not vote for him. This is not reflected on the ground as he seems to harbor hatred for some tribes. There is no reason why Salva Kiir should not interfere to release the MPs of SPLM-DC languishing in their torture ghost houses, if he beliefs to be the president of all.