Referendum frees the Southerners from Arab’s yoke but again they enslave themselves with their own making captivities

Since the independence of the old Sudan from Anglo- Egyptian rulers, the southerners has never tested freedom in their own country that forced them to wage intensive war against oppressive regimes in Khartoum, in order to free themselves. Luckily freedom was attained by referendum votes, but unfortunately that freedom excitement never lasted very long. For on the way marginalized people found themselves in great captivity practiced by their own brothers, who preached slogan of liberation. Today it has becomes too hard for ordinary southerners to comprehend what is happening in the new nation, for they were sidelined and reduced into passive stage and non-participation. Concretely their expectations were buried and their freedom joy was hijacked by self-center individuals, who began to oppress them in all corners, for they never cared about the cause of people.

Indeed, frustration, gloomy life and uncertain future lead some people to commit deadly crimes like robbery, raiding and banditry. For sure those crimes were committed partly to sustain the life of their destitute families or partly to awaken drowsing government which has failed to address the chronic problems that challenge the survival of their lovely families which paid the price of liberation war.

You might agree with me that every southerner had a great hope for better future after achieving independence, but now there is problem of inertia in the government of South Sudan that lead people to become suspicious and skeptical about creditability of GOSS. Pure example is the tribal clashes scandal in Jonglei State which has damaged the government of South Sudan credibility. South has becomes a one party property, whereby no one is allowed to question misconduct within the system, when a citizen aired out his disapproval about management in governmental sectors in constructive manner, such person finds himself in jail without charges, and gets accused of being a mercenary working for Khartoum government to topple their government.

I felt compiled to argue that there is something wrong with the government of South Sudan, because the issues for which they struggled to liberate themselves from, are the ones they are frustrating their own brothers with such as lack of freedom of expression, human rights abuses, domination and oppression of citizens. Indeed, without laws and orders in place, the South will remain impoverished, all bad things happened around in the South are an indicators that the government of the South is impersonal toward it subjects. Therefore, the unity among the tribes is currently languishing at the bottom of the league.  

I want to qualify my argument with biblical history in which Abraham pleads with God on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah, despite the fact that there was well known sins committed in those two cities, Abraham never shy away in fear, but he approached God with bold concern and compassionate love by questioning Him, ‘’Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked’’ (Gen.18:23b). The lovely heavenly Father responded that He will spare the life of city if He found righteous people. God was not offended by consistent bold pleas made by Abraham. In our days most of Third World leaders are offended by pleas offered by social, political and human rights activists, and usually they marked such groups as opponents, enemy or traitors that are working to topple their system. If God was keen enough to hearken to just flesh like us without interference and never undermined Abraham concern, how come we can’t develop the same spirit of listening to each others to resolve our dispute peaceful?

Real compression pressure on individual life in the South Sudan had led to nervous breakdown that made some people to commit crimes which become daily phenomenal business of idle people to earn their living wrongly. Those crimes post a threat to the people life and made them unable to carry out their business normally out of fear, and even it made business people not to initiate projects that may raise the living standard of ordinary people. Indeed, if the government failed to ensure the security in the South, nobody will dream to invest his funds in such a place where the security is not stable, or in places that could be termed as no-go-areas.

The captivities most southerners entrenched themselves could be named as follows: corruption which is a chronic problem that paralyzed leaders not to be able to serve the subjects. Corruption sentiment in famous leaders could make them become notorious criminals. Corruption blinds the leaders and makes them ineffective in their contribution to the welfare of the nation. Corruption cause leaders to become self-centre and abusive, honestly no development will be attained if the government failed to cure this chronic disease in the lives of leaders, then the consequence will be obvious. In case the top leaders were involved in this deadly practice who will question the least ones like public servants. Nowadays, we are experiencing the war of words between high and prominent leaders within ruling party in regard to corruption, and this fight will reveal the fact that may confirm the well known proverb in Sudan which said ‘’ when two thieves disagree on stolen things, the whole matter is disclosed to the public’’ .If you move around in Juba town, you will find out that the most currency sellers are from one ethnic group, and you wonder how do they manage to get money from Central Bank, and the worse of matter majority of them are illiterate. This means that these funds are being kept without being invest because they have no skills for investment. The question that poses itself is how they obtain that money!!?, maybe a big relative boss provided them with it?

Some years back in Khartoum one robber robed the house and took precious gold, in order to rescue the life of his dying family from starvation. On his way home he was intercepted by police, and stolen gold were confiscated by police under gun threat, and he was forced to leave without opening a case against him. The wise thief thought thoroughly that he had stolen the precious gold to benefit his family but now they were taken by another thieves, he couldn’t leave them to get away with it. Indeed with grievance and full determination he went back to the owner of the house to disclose the matter. He knocked at the door, and the owner of the house inquired who he was. He said he is a robber who had robed his house and he exclaimed that before you open the door please check your house to check that your house was truly robed. Out of fear the owner of the house questioned the robber about what he wants exactly? The man responded don’t be afraid I want to disclose to you what happened after I had stolen your treasure. The robber narrated his story, and how police confiscated his stolen things without opening charges against him. For this reason, he doesn’t want those polices to benefit from his risky work, for he and owner of the house were losers. The owner of stolen gold inquires again if the thief can identify those policemen if a case was opened! The thief answer was yes. Both of them then went to the police station to open a case.

When those policemen on duty came back to the station in the morning, their bosses inquired if they had encountered robbing during the night, but they denied. The robber then pleaded with the officer in station that those are the policemen who confiscated the stolen gold from him. Then, the officer before interrogating his fellow policemen told the thief and the owner of the house that if nothing is found, both of you will face the consequence of your accusation. Luckily enough all stolen gold were found in the pockets of the policemen. Those thieving policemen were trailed and dismissed from their work. The owner of stolen gold asked the robber if he had some skills. The robber replied that he was a driver. The owner then asked the thief to bring his family into his own house and gave him a car to work to help feed his family.

The thief was a real hard working man, within few years he was able to pay back the price of the car and he bought his own car and become a rich man. We can conclude that some people could be reduced into robbers due to family pressure and lack of means for income but I don’t think that what is happening in the case of south Sudan could be justified to march with this conclusion.     

Tribal conflict is another destructive disease speeding up in the lives of many communities in South Sudan as result of bad governance. It could be observed that some wrong self-appointed politicians in each community in South Sudan instigate the members of their communities to wage war with their neighbour’s communities as a way to keep them in undeserved high position. For sure the treacherous and mass killings among our precious tribes had widened the gap between communities that lived in peace before independence. Now, this tragedy had questioned the authenticity of leadership in our new nation and the foundation of the liberation war. This tribal conflict had enslaved tribes to the extent that they cannot think positively about the welfare of the new nation, but they only seek to revenge and the cycle of revenge will continue claiming lives and disintegration will be eminent in the South. To ensure stability and to minimize tribal conflict, the government of the South must take bold decision to address tribal conflict by capitulate the war, and it is important to bring those involved in this madness killing into book. It is really unpleasant and unfortunate to see that we are just killing ourselves unnecessarily, forgetting that the war with the oppressor is not over yet.

Favoritism is ugly decisive taboo many southerners practice without exception. I think some people practice it to reduce family pressure on them by giving their relatives, clan or tribe members the job which they are not qualified for. Can you imagine that technical jobs could be given to unqualified persons? One bothering example had occurred in Malakal town, whereby a health centre was given to a first-aid worker to run it despite the fact that there were other qualified medical assistants or even nurses available? His appointment was political one and is a kind of accommodation from his fellow relative, who is a member of the ruling party. Sadly enough, our leaders never think about the welfare of their subjects but welfare of their tribal men in the expense of others. People from the surrounding community deserted that health centre because they discovered that fellow is not qualified for the job. Look how many people who received wrong treatments. If anyone wants to confirm this claim, please go to any other different sectors and observe it by yourself, you will be surprised to find out that qualified people are being side-lined and unqualified people champion the affairs of most departments, for they are relatives of the minister or directors general. Where are we leading with this kind of backwardness attitude in the new nation? Personally I don’t have problems with the appointment of qualified relatives, who have skills for the job but I cannot pardon the appointment of unqualified person to lead other more qualified people. For sure this mentality will frustrate qualified persons and destroy their willingness to serve this nation effectively. If southerners failed to put in place the slogan which said the right man in right place, then the dream for development and progress in the South Sudan will not be obtained, believe me or not.

Poverty and illiteracy are other major side backs in the South that enslave people to commit crimes, why there are street children today, is because most families are dependent on assistant of NGOS and they are unable to provide the needs for their families. As result of financial constraints they force their kids to go to market places to do unlawful jobs. Sometime those kids end up in prison and when they come out from there they will become notorious criminals who have lost their dignity and human respect in sight of the community. In my opinion illiteracy precipitates poverty. For this matter government must have a good plan to reduce the poverty by providing free education to destitute families, if we wish to be stable nation, apart from that it will be very difficult if not impossible to prosper.

Poverty became more grave because a few individuals control the national resources and poor remain poor. In addition to that insecurity created by tribal clashes prevents people of becoming productive, up to this moment there are some communities in the South that are still displaced in big towns by their own brothers from other communities. They are dependent on assistant of good will wishers instead of being independent. Yes, the government of the south speaks about eradication or minimization of poverty which is good news, but for sure this problem will not be resolved unless attributed factors are removed. It is too hard to expect dependent communities to become self-reliance or self-supportive unless the contributed factors that reduced those into that stage of poverty are being challenged.

Alcoholism is major threat to the new state of the South Sudan. It was said, it was government own making which compile it subjects to leave in that stage. For all are aware that the first achievement of the South Sudan government was initiation of beer factory in Juba. This may explain that the alcohol is most valuable and needed commodity in the south. Don’t be surprised to hear that almost all trucks loaded from Juba to different destinations in the South usually carry beer. This is the fact which means we have based our foundation on wrong start. The rate of crimes is rapidly increasing in Juba as a result of alcoholic intoxication. According to scientific studies, it was discovered that excessive alcohol intake reduces people into irritated, irresponsible behaviour, in which a person could take wrong decision under influence of alcohol.

Shockley, it has been said that the quantity of alcohol consumed in the South Sudan in one month is consumed in Uganda in six months. Are we not really an unfortunate nation if this statement is true? What is the difference between us with fish swimming in the water? Could we dream about development under toxicities of alcohol? It is regrettable because most leaders challenge anyone who never takes alcohol in the South and considered him as Jallaba, backward or unsocial person. To me this may imply that southerners, who died in liberation war, were dead in order to achieve the independence of alcoholism nation.

For the love of my nation South Sudan, let me cite here some biblical teaching in relation to wine. God said, listen, my son be wise and keep you heart on the right path ‘’ Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and glutton become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags’’ (prov.23:19-21). This passage is a clear indication that if the leaders of south Sudan Nation continue to engage in excessive drinking, they will ruin this nation into stage of poverty because all resources meant for development will end up in bars. The Bible teaches that kings should not drink wine, and also stresses that rulers should not crave beer, because when they drink they will forget what the law decrees, and deprive all the oppressed of their rights (see Prov.31:4-5). If we are serious to develop our nation, we must hearken to this biblical teaching, and if not, we have to forget about what is called development.

Finally, let me conclude this article with derogatory and concrete challenge which God posted to His people: ‘’Give beers to those who are perishing, wine to those are anguish; let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more’’ (see Prov. 31:6-7). Alcohol excessive intake is wide spreads in the South, may be it is an indication that southerners are in stage of perish and misery. I thought we have come out from perishing yoke of Arabs oppressive regimes. If so, then how come we enslave ourselves with another captivity which is our own making? South Sudan nation will prosper and progress like other nations on this planet if its leaders speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute, judge fairly, and defend the rights of the poor and needy.