South Sudan: A Milieu of Self-Squandering

A final piece of my 'short bursts' series on South Sudan and its quagmire.

The author of confusion and conflict in South Sudan is no other but SPLM/A, the ruling party and its army. The world’s newest country is on the brink of collapse.

South Sudan’s immunity from the consequences of misrule and misadventure spanning nearly nine years (2005-2013) had until 15^th December 2013 been up to either sheer luck or the bad marksmanship of our enemy. We had been a sitting duck all along.

Today, South Sudan is a nation without direction, will or potency. The world has shuddered at seeing its 193^rd replica of statehood for what it is: fragile, fragmented and fatal. It is barely three years since the United Nations and African Union wrapped their arms around us on 9^th July 2011. Alas, South Sudan has already fallen by the wayside!

Having smelled fresh for three years, our nation has at the bare bones been unable to weather its first storm on the choppy waters of nation-building. While we can’t tell now who pulled the trigger first for a surprise on 15^th December 2013, we know too well that everybody is trying to hide behind ethnicity and power politics. The political leadership has set a pace that does not match the quality of its character. This is the enigma of South Sudan’s politics in a nutshell. This is such a thing.

We cannot keep that pretense forever. Because dropping dead on SPLM/A’s doorstop is our nation, not the ruling party that is full of anarchy and only god-knows-what. The party in power currently retails for ethnicity and impunity. Moreover, under its watch, South Sudan will only run you a small price in the high stakes game of senselessness. Somebody has made textbook mistakes. SPLM/A is not going to learn from this tragedy in all likelihood.  But South Sudan has an obligation to learn its lesson so as to stay out of this viper pit.

This milieu of self-squandering places South Sudan one stop away from being counted down. Perhaps, all that might be left will be the sentence that says it. It is time to look reality squarely in face. There is only one small bolt that is loose, SPLM/A. It is South Sudan that defines our greatness, not a party. Putting the ‘cart’ before the ‘horse’ has been our tragedy, in essence. We should rally behind the nation, not the ruling party.

South Sudan should rise up to change the tired narrative of liberation which is now a piece of history, nothing more. Our people must be tired of paying taxes to the ‘Liberation Camp’! Our obsession with ‘South Sudan’s liberation’ is like wasting plays by crossing the ball into a box that half the time is either empty or murky. No one wins the contest of nation-building by wasting their plays!

The nation must instead usher in an era of transformation. Otherwise, our progress will always be fragile and chances are South Sudan will more often slip back into crisis. The fact that our resolve has faltered to see South Sudan through this vital transition explains in part why we are a long way from viability as a budding nation-state. We now know it really hurts coming out on the other end. We have not been able to head off the crisis because the cherished transition has not even got underway to qualify us for resilience in nations’ fragility index.

South Sudan has to survive into the distant future. That takes resilience and resilience is only possible in two ways: if you are not too busy with your class load of ethnic politics; and if you don’t let anyone step past misrule. This is a matter of laundry that we have failed at so badly.

Instead of sinking teeth into each other’s neck, we should do better to cut the misery of our people in half. Instead of looking like a newly arrived virus of failed statehood in the Great Lakes Region, South Sudan should throw spitballs at the urge of some of its people to dominate and should not be hesitant to land a punch to the godfathers of poor governance with our friends in the sidelines.

The current crisis is the reality of South Sudan’s fragility. Key challenges include sustainable internal political settlements, transformation of the security sector, reform of justice institutions, creation of diversified economic foundations and strengthened capacity for accountable and equitable service delivery.

 Meeting these challenges means addressing our fragility as a nation. This calls for a renewed focus on moving from crisis to rebuilding and reforming; and ultimately to transition and transformation. As such, peace and state building are more necessary than ever.

It is no longer convenient to ignore that fact. The SPLM/A bush league are keener on spending their sunset years than on building a nation. They expect everybody else to just nod along. This should not stay the same anymore. Our nation has one more chance to take on the headaches of wiping clean the windshield because we are hitting the road, again. Our destination should this time round be a defined patch of national unity and identity. So, as a nation, we don’t want to make this as another good excuse to drive around aimlessly like SPLM/A has done in just about nine years.

The centre of gravity is moving away from violence which overwhelms us as a nation like the eruption of a desolating volcano. The ordeal lies in the lack of our leadership’s serenity which exposes South Sudan at any moment to conflict. This places us on the borderline between survival and destruction.

The centre of gravity is moving to a fluid exchange of insights on change and progress, read off the political notation of a viable, equitable, responsible and accountable statehood. Our best days as a nation are ahead. This agonizing wait for meaning will only end when our leaders are not asleep at the wheel. We are moving toward preferring conversation to confrontation.

The centre of gravity is moving away from ‘burying mistakes’ with amnesty or otherwise. It is moving to forcing the bearing of responsibility for failing the nation. Things are sliding away from leaders who change their minds on a whim. Our folks are good on their own without these leaders. Things are going the way of peeling back the layers of impunity and misrule.

The centre of gravity is moving away from politicians keeping the line of our people’s poverty and destitution going longer. It is closing this down altogether. The nation is going to push back against sadists and opportunists masquerading as politicians.

The centre of gravity is moving away from pounding the war drums about ethnicity and holding the nation up for ransom. The centre of gravity is moving to ending the vicious cycle of bloodshed.

The centre of gravity is moving away from this milieu of self-squandering that contains fiction and other ramblings. It is moving to a nation that its entire people can look up to.

The centre of gravity is moving away from ingrained corruption at its own excusable doing now. We are moving away from authorities who have trouble with the math and spend their office hours scratching their heads on the next biggest corruption schemes conceivable. The nation is moving to stop beating around the bush and make corruption shake in its boots. The nation is going past the seat of militarism, the harbinger of corruption in South Sudan.

The centre of gravity is moving away from intimidation and harassment spreading like hot lava and prying into ordinary people’s affairs. It is moving to burst some of the bubbles we have built around ourselves as leaders and citizens of this country. There is no one above the law; so, no leader should float about like he is the most high. That is where the centre of gravity is pointing.

The centre of gravity is South Sudan. That is our nation, coming to the neighborhood soon. Our political leadership has had a smoke-screen aimed at its milieu of self-squandering almost spanning a decade. So, when the huge flame of December 2013 leapt up in the sky, the ‘First Republic’ burnt itself out in an instant without an orange Restore Button. The whole South Sudan sat around trying to come up with a headline. Handing power through blood? Or igniting armchair patriots? Or better still, the greedy are sitting on it? The First Republic has fallen behind the times and failed South Sudan just as its proponent the SPLM/A.

Today, South Sudan is just one red button away from deletion. That is how our people play with fire!

It is now time to pick out a name for the ‘Second Republic’. This has not come up before. The Second Republic gives us a green Restart Button. It will grace us with direction, will and potency as a nation. South Sudan now has a fresh chance to start strong and end up indomitable. There is no need to ever get that close to self-squandering again. Beyond this, least said, soonest mended.