By Wani Michael

I still remember July 9, 2011; I spent in Juba; the excitements and celebrations all over the city and the country at large. You could see South Sudanese regardless of their political affiliation or tribes dancing to different traditional music at the main celebration ground. It was a unity of purpose and Dr John Garang Mausoleum was opened and accessible to all South Sudanese including our visitors. Yet, today the mausoleum is closed with one of the biggest gates to the general public. The venue that hosted thousands in 2011 is now accessible to only the political leaders. This is a clear manifestation of the fact that things have drastically changed from a citizen-led and owned independence to a place accessible to only a few elites.

‘‘You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness’’ Thomas Sankara once said.

I do not dare to suggest that I have all the answers and solutions to the problems we currently face as a country. But, I would like to share some brief reflections on some of the issues that led to the current situation we face and provide some alternatives.

Liberators’ sense of ownership and entitlement

The liberators’ sense of ownership and entitlement destroyed this country because they think it is their entitlement to loot with impunity, kill, and arrest and do whatsoever they want with this beautiful country. They took away the power from the people and centralised power within the few elites who now decide for the millions of South Sudanese. They tend to forget that what they fought against the Khartoum regime are the same issues they are seriously implementing. The political elite is now very vigorously and even worse than our previous oppressors. Since 2011, we have the same political leaders rotating and recycled within the same government from one institution to the other and from one transition to another.

 Lack of post-independence agenda

 When the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was signed in 2005, South Sudanese prodigious expectation was to reach the referendum to vote for the separation of the South from the North. Although the CPA provided clear frameworks for political, economic and social reforms of our societies, the implementers of the CPA started in a wrong trajectory by embracing looting with impunity and it was normalised with the impression that we were working for the referendum to succeed by then at any cost without any interference.

In 2010, the people of Southern Sudan experienced their first democratic right to vote for leaders of their choice and that mark the end of the people exercising their power to elect their leaders. We never had any national conversations on how we want to move the country forward and dealing with key priorities that directly address South Sudanese needs. The SPLM ruling party never provided any roadmap or framework on the post-independence era and how the government envisioned dealing with key people’s driven priorities but they ended up enriching themselves with our resources. Although, on July 7, 2011, President Kiir delivered his powerful maiden speech on the occasion of the independence proclamation that would have provided a solid foundation for his post-independence agenda or program. Those promises he made on July 9, 2011, ended right after his speech.

Disrespect to the constitution and rule of law

For the past ten years, we have experienced total disrespect to the Constitution and the rule of law. Unfortunately, leaders took the oath of office promising to uphold the values and the spirit of the Constitution but we continue to be ruled on Presidential decrees and leaders pay their loyalty to the appointing authority and not the Constitution. Leaders became the first violators of the Constitution with impunity and expect the citizens to respect and obey it. No country can be stable without respecting the Constitution and the rule of law. We have witnessed the state of lawlessness for the past ten years.

Nonexistence of security sector reforms programs

 Any country emerging from a long protracted armed conflict with so many militias always embark on a vigorous security sector reforms agenda by making sure that the national army reflects the identity and the aspiration of its citizens. There was an urgent need to transform our soldiers’ mindset from a guerilla mentality to a professional and well trained pro-people national army but instead, the leaders decided to use the looted resources to mobilise and train their tribesmen to become tribally aligned and charged militias groups. In an ideal situation, the government was supposed to embark on critical security sector reforms but instead they decided to regroup themselves in form of militia groups than forming a unified national army.

Mismanagement of our national resources

Over the past 10 years, our national resources have been mismanaged as the authorities behave like the oil money and non-oil revenues belong to individuals. They developed resistance to anybody asking questions on how our resources should be managed. It is important to note that for over 10 years now, the government failed to present any accountability report before the Parliament and the people of South Sudan as required by law. Political leaders continue to spend our money without any accountability and one would conclude that the government owe us a full 10 years’ accountability. This kind of action can be termed as the government has borrowed money from us (the people) and never accounted for such money since 2011.

 Failure to deal with the youth question

For the past 10 years, South Sudan never had any policy framework on the young people and never invested in the young population. They instead decided to mobilise young people to kill themselves to either keep themselves in power or claim power by force. Our leaders failed to deal with issues of youth unemployment and their participation in the decision-making process or any political process. Little did they know that there is already a growing tendency within young people to demand and protect their rights.

Turning off from the liberation vision and mission

 We don’t have strong opposition political parties that can challenge the ruling party and within SPLM who equally lack internal democracy parameters.

-Wani Michael is the Okay African Foundation Organisation Executive Director

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are advanced by the author and the City Review does not hold a similar opinion.