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Yassir ArmanBy. Dr. Peter Adwok Otto.

As I correctly predicted in my yesterday’s column that Yasir Saeed Arman would make a desolate president of Sudan, we seem to concur with the SPLM leadership with drawing Yasir from the contest for presidency for dubious or/and tactical reasons. Yasir’s campaign appeared to be the most expensive the way his posters were printed depicted over expenditure in class one printing press not reflective of marginalized revolutionaries, but tycoons with unlimited resources.

Why Yasir was withdrawn by his party is strictly their concern, but also concern of their supporters. A young lady rang me up very un happy with the action taken by the SPLM leadership in pulling back their presidential candidate. She mixed up my cell phone with some of a similar name on SPLM side. “Dr. Peter did Arman stopped running for presidency?” Affirmative I confirmed. “ Arman had dashed our hopes” She said with pain in her voice. Of course each and every one has supporters less or more all the same. However, the lady’s sentiments had been betrayed by leadership as usual.

April elections could have told us how popular SPLM is pitted against Omar El Bashir the incumbent president of NCP. If the Juba opposition parties are conspiring to gang up against one candidate of the NCP like Elsafa elections of 1986 against El Turabi is repeating itself, will remain to be known in days. But what is apparent is the obvious SPLM’s party presidential candidate waning popularity among the people in the north and south especially that might eventuate into a disgraceful plunging in the results. The choice of the candidate after all was faulty as the high racy of the party had been compromise for the sake of Salva to run in the south. Each and every party put its chairman to run for the highest contestable position except the SPLM. Yasir had been exposed to this political jolt for reasons of try and error banking on chance that he might lure the northern opposition behind him, or because in the simmering internal disputes that is would be a sacrifice lamb. SPLM like a student who did not study hard during the academic year would naturally be scared of examinations and resorts to many tricks to pass the exams without real effort including cheating by looking into the exercise book of the nearest candidates.

The advertisement elect Kiir to office on the last page of citizen newspaper these days began to carry what looks like a pre-thought program. This was not there at the beginning nor can we say it is the manifesto of SPLM. The program of 1st April was about governance and reads as ”My government shall be committed to principal of accountability and transparency in all government business as these are the core values of good governance”. No one will believe this as the GOSS had been making contracts, fully paying the contractors who disappear leaving behind the uncompleted skeletons the examples are many in Juba as the head quarters of the SPLM it self. No transparency as non of these contractors or their partners in GOSS had been brought to book. “ The fight against corruption is cardinal component of good governance; there for my government will continue to pursue with more vigor our policy of zero tolerance to corruption. Any one that shall contravenes this cardinal principal shall face the full force of law”. Very nice literature. But it is a public secret that not a single person had been integrated for corruption let alone being jailed. Such a program is no plan, and how can you talk about continuing some that had not started any way? Coming back to Yasir, he had risen to the bottom from the presidential candidate to an ordinary party member or still worse may think of forming a faction, if he doesn’t then it will be out of shame and at the same time throwing dust in the eyes of politically aware community not to be thought of as a break-away or a party obedient comrade while burning inside, but only no where to take a political refuge, simply because he believes to be one of the party theoreticians and a super Hawke .