The Fifth Governors Forum, which started last Monday in Juba, yesterday culminated in the closure with a lot of recommendations and resolutions being crafted in line for implementation.
Areas of salience such as security, unified tax collection, and the need to increase resources to the states to promote developmental projects were among the most discussed issues in the forum.
Although it is not clear whether the national government will implement all the resolutions and recommendations, the Minister of Presidential Affairs, Dr Barnaba Marial Benjamin, said next year the governors’ forum is expected to be more competitive.
He said from now onwards, the governors would be assessed through the projects they planned to implement in their various states to encourage development, peace, and security in the country.
“The president would also expect the next governors’ forum to be a competitive one when the governors are making their presentations.”
They will be assessed on security in their states, agricultural production, the issues related to any new construction if they have houses they have built, offices, [newly built roads or any feeder ones] and therefore, there must be number one, number two, and number three,” Dr Barnaba explained.
So, while the national government will be expecting a lot of improvement in the states in terms of development and service delivery to the citizens, this also comes with the goodwill to allocate enough resources to the governors.
There is a great need for the national government to increase the resources it distributes to the states. Without any reasonable amounts of resources, there will be no development in the state. Once the necessary resources are made available, there is no single state that would not like to develop.
It is unfortunate that most of the service delivery activities in the states have been left entirely to the international community. The United States through USAID, Japan through JICA, Turkey through TIKA, and the Kingdoms of the Netherlands have been assisting the states in providing clean drinking water and rehabilitation of feeder roads, particularly among farming communities.
More efforts needed
Therefore, it is important for the national government to start providing adequate resources for state development rather than just giving salaries and operational funds.
People at the grassroots need good road networks to connect them to the market, access to clean drinking water, health services and much more.
Secondly, for these governors to deliver on the planned project and recommendation of the fifth governors’ forum, they also need goodwill. They should be given enough time to serve in the office to deliver on the plans.
The leaders of the parties to the agreement in the national government need to be patient with the governors in the states. It is important to give them humble time till the end of the transitional period if they have to assess their performance in the sixth governors’ forum.