The jubilant gathering of thousands of people at Dr. John Garang’s Mausoleum is a lasting testimony of joy during this occasion. This degree of happiness is directly proportional to the degree of suffering we have endured for half a century. Many of us controlled our tears as we tried to overcome the dream of freedom that we are now experiencing as Independent South Sudan. We were humiliated when we lost our loved ones during the struggle but today, we give a sigh of relief as they have not died in vain.
BY MARK OTWARI ODUFA
President H. Excellency Salva Kiir Mayardit navigated his folk to the Promised Land through political turbulence created by Khartoum to derail the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and sworn-in as the first president of the Republic of South Sudan for a four year term. In the same vein, the government of Southern Sudan, the South Sudanese and the international community and the people of good where ever they are contributed tremendously to making the independence of South Sudan a reality.
The time for throwing stones has passed and now is the time for gathering the stones. In your maiden national speech loaded with prudence, you once again offered amnesty to our brothers who under the influence of our former enemies try to abuse our freedom through arm struggle. You also spelt out clearly that anybody working for him/herself first and second for South Sudan will not be entertained in your government. These and other good policies pronounced during the Independence Celebrations are the cornerstones of our new nation to develop politically, economically and socially in order to attain unity, liberty and prosperity. The remaining grey areas between us and the North need to be achieved through peaceful means i.e. the Abyei issue need to be resolved as per the CPA, where only the Dinka Ngok are supposed to vote in the referendum whether to rejoin the South Sudan or remain in the North Sudan, the boundary demarcation as per the January 1956 border, the share of the wealth accumulated in the north including the oil refineries and the pipe line, and the full implementation of Popular Consultations for both South Kordofan and Southern Blue Nile as per the CPA. If all these are completely implemented by Khartoum, then US can delete the government of North Sudan from its list of terrorist countries.
The new broom of the new Republic should begin to sweep now based on the rule of law. It is the fair share of power and wealth, the zero tolerance on corruption and the application of the rule of law without discrimination can strengthen the unity among the South Sudanese. The North Sudan will continue to be our watch dog though for negative reasons so that it can justify its assumption that we cannot govern ourselves. To ward off this unnecessary criticism, we must always portray ourselves in a positive way by being the best in whatever we do. We can even try to reach the moon to prove them wrong; yes we can.
