The poor look upon leaders to change their fate By Majook Mawien Madut

12:36 PM February, 13 2023

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In the past years, I had the privilege of spending a significant amount of time watching our leaders running the affairs of the country. I was observing, but contemplating the South Sudan ahead of us from now on. In that process, I always think of “why cann't we be like rest of the nations which are successful؟” Because we have everything (wealth that can change our situation) to be in equal footing with others. But then I realized the path to our success as a nation and be like others, was not in wishing which country we wanted to be like, but to be honest to ourselves and determined what is most true, relevant and right thing to do for our nation and its people only then shall we progress.

How do we do that is the question! When vicious cycle of inter-communal conflicts and rampant corruption continuing to be the order of the day. When simple diseases are still taking lives of poor people everyday due to lack of medicine. When area MPs hide from their community members because they are ashamed to face questions on their false promises. And whenever they visit their villages, they sneak into their houses unheard and later disappear the same way only for people to be awakened by the news of their presence days after they had already left. Are we really doing the right thing؟ Are our leaders fair enough to the poor South Sudanese؟

Until we unite this country, protect our people, bring peace to them, eradicate illiteracy, build hospitals, construct roads, provide electricity, eliminate corruption, provide network connectivity, provide water, mitigate poverty and many more, we will always remain a laughing stock to other nations in the oil-rich country. Inspite of the fact that South Sudan is endowed with abundance of natural resources, only powerful individuals have changed their lives while masses continue to remain in acute poverty. No fair distribution of resources because there are no leaders to do so. We are blessed with politicians who seem to be leaders, but self-centered. They care for themselves. This is why there is a difference between a politician and a leader.

As reflected by Bishop Lalachan Abraham "Leaders put the interests of those they serve ahead of their own. Politicians, on the other hand, put their own interests ahead of those they serve." It is sad when the poor expect much for change of their conditions from leaders and later end up losing hope on them. If there are leaders as I believe there are many of them in this country, it is that we have not yet given them chance to prove their worth. Instead, we have only seen leaders I mean politicians who put themselves above their own constituencies. Yet the ones they seem to neglect are the same people that may or may not approve of their stay in those seats. I don't know what will they tell them unless they buy their way back into those seats when next election comes 2024.

Because of them, South Sudanese now accuse one another of who is getting and not getting the development. Others had wild thoughts until they visited some places of these politicians and what they saw proved them wrong. Some were later filled with remorse and accepted their places are much better than what they thought about others. Although there are a few lucky places with which the little development have reached. It is nothing much to be talked about. Citizens need more than one as (they) were promised that towns will be taken closer to them. The truth is that, no one is working for our communities. Wherever you go, you find that South Sudanese have similar challenges. President Salva Kiir appoints leaders thinking they would go and change the conditions of their people, but to no avail. He has always been miserably let down by the politicians. He is not to be blamed though he doesn't hold them accountable for maladministration.

Finally, South Sudan is a country with remarkable history, I mean with a lot of unforgettable tales to tell right from its longest journey in pursuit of equality upto the time it finally got its independence in 2011. With a few survivors today from the generations that brought the hard-won freedom, which I believe some of them, if not all, had no idea of whether or not they would make it to the "Promised Land" alive, congratulations to them! Know very well the cause of why they had to give up their precious lives for this country. It was for these citizens they seem to have now forgotten to have all that Arab regime couldn't give them then. Leadership is about service delivery.

The writer is currently pursuing a bachelor's degree in Public Administration, University of Juba and can be reached via 0922577441/0913135522 or [email protected]




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