Most of us in South Sudan are not
independent thinkers even when we pretend we are! Some South Sudanese writers
and thinkers in Southern States of the country support Federalism not because
they’ve actually looked into the inherent benefits to the constituents of the
region but because the majority of the citizens embrace it given their flimsy
understanding of the system, or because vocal voices in their areas support it,
or that, they believe, it’ll give them an opportunity to get rid of the
‘occupiers’ on their land.
None of the supporters of Federalism
has ever advanced any convincing reason that’s not either reminiscent of the
infamous 1980s ‘Kokora’ or the regionalized tribalism and regionalist
sycophancy. States have governors,
parliaments, state MPs, State laws. We somehow have a system that’s
structurally resembling other Federal Systems in the world. What is lacking is
to actually give more powers to the states and limiting president’s
interference in state affairs.
And those who oppose Federalism do
so because they support the government and the government opposes it. And the
government has absolutely no credible reason advanced in opposition to the
system and why they think Federalism would be bad. The only reason they have is
that Riek has rekindled the flame of Federalism. This is not the first time
Riek has done something like this. Riek feeds on popular aspirations of the
people and exploits them.
Self-determination wasn’t a darling
of the SPLA/SPLM until Dr. Riek and Dr. Lam made it their focal point in Abuja
I in 1992. It was only one of the alternatives in Dr. John’s famous
multi-layered Vend Diagrams but not the preferred alternative. UNITY of Sudan
was! The two doctors wanted to outsmart Dr. John Garang. However, the way Dr.
John changed astonished not only the doctors, but Garang’s friends in the National
Democratic Alliance (NDA). Garang embraced Self-Determination to the chagrin of
the Nasir duo and even made it central to Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA);
giving birth to Referendum!
Riek and Lam had met an ideological
propagandists, ideological chameleon, and also, an ideological wizard who
couldn’t be outsmarted.
So folks who oppose Federalism are
doing so because people they support don’t like it. They’ve not presented any
convincing reason why they oppose it.
This is our major problem. We ally
based on irrational positions we hide in ideological, tribalized regionalism and
intellectualized tribalism.
We don’t think for ourselves!
That’s why we hear time and again
from South Sudanese officials and government supporters that President Salva
Kiir Mayardit is a “democratically elected president” of South Sudan!
No! President Kiir was a
democratically elected president of the government of ‘Southern Sudan.’ He’s a
CONSTITUTIONAL President of the Republic of South Sudan. There was no election held
after the independence of South Sudan! None!
We hear from many government
officials that President Kiir is the legitimate president of South Sudan
because he’s the democratically
elected president. Yes, he’s the legitimate president of South Sudan because
the Transitional Constitution (2011) says so not because he’s elected.
Chapter II, Article 97 (3) of the
Transitional constitution states: “The incumbent elected President of the
Government of Southern Sudan shall be
the President of the Republic of South Sudan.”
It says elected president of
‘Government of Southern Sudan.’ It doesn’t
say elected ‘President of the
Republic of South Sudan.’
Article 100 states: “The tenure of
the office of the President of the Republic of South Sudan shall be four years,
commencing from July 9, 2011.”
What makes the president Legitimate
in the Republic of South Sudan is because the constitution says so not because he
is elected in an independent South Sudan.
Note that the president tenure is
not being counted from the time the president was elected (2010). It’s starting
from the independence of the Nation, January 9, 2011.
So it’s utterly wrong to say that
President Kiir is a ‘democratically elected president!’ President Kiir’s
current legitimacy started on July 9, 2011. Unless I’ve been sleeping between
2011 and 2013 and that a National Election was held then!
