“He kept the South out of violence amidst aerial bombardment of the border areas by Khartoum forces, the support to militia leaders and personnel who are hungry for money and power in order to destabilise the southern government despite the pardon decreed by the president kiir early this year.”
— Speaker Ambrose Emmanuel Ocholimoi
Eastern Equatoria recognition follows Kiir’s recognition last month among top 100 Africans, reports ANTHONY k. BOSCO?
Some state assemblies are rushing a last minute decision to pass resolutions conferring peace prizes to President Salva Kiir as the nation is born.
Last week, Eastern Equatoria became the latest state to try and scrape through a peace prize for the President after the Council of Ministers proposed to award the state’s 2011 Peace Prize to President Salva Kiir Mayardit the soon to be first President of the Republic of South Sudan.
Parliamentary affairs minister Clement Chichim Laku tabled the Cabinet’s resolution to the state legislative Assembly.
The state minister argued that Kiir played a great role in taking southern Sudan through the challenges posed by the north.
“President Kiir deserves a peace award for enduring Khartoum’s provocations to drag the South into war with few countable days to the long awaited declaration of our independence,” Speaker Ambrose Emmanuel Ocholimoi told New Times.
“He kept the South out of violence amidst aerial bombardment of the border areas by Khartoum forces, the support to militia leaders and personnel who are hungry for money and power in order to destabilise the southern government despite the pardon decreed by the president kiir early this year.”
The New African, a London-based magazine, last month named Kiir on Africa’s top 100 influential persons list.
Finance, trade and industries minister Josephine Akulang Abalang, who chairs the Peace Prize committee, tabled the motion to the council of ministers.
“The unwavering and consistent stances of President Kiir in maintaining peace in the Sudan are reasons for awarding him the state’s peace prize,” Abalang said, recalling kiir’s statement last year that his vehicle has no reverse gear.
“Indeed, Kiir’s word will soon to be true in matters of days now,” said Abalang.
The first state to move to award Kiir a peace prize was Western Bahr-El Ghazal.
The two Eastern Equatoria said they hoped the rest of the states would also follow suit, because Kiir has become a role model for ‘thousands of generations’ that will lead the Republic of South Sudan for years following his reign.
