OPINION: THE LEADERSHIP IS STRONG WHEN THE LEADER IS WEAK: THE LESSON LEARNED FROM HIS EXCELLENCY GENERAL SALVA KIIR MAYARDIT 

By Daniel Deng Mario, Khartoum,

Feb 15, 2020(Nyamilepedia) — Let me take this opportunity to write this article in the form of appreciating his Excellency President Salva Kiir Mayardit. The President surprised me today with the unexpected result of reverted the irresolvable 32 States and reestablished the original States.  On this point the President made political score by showing that the leadership is not all about being strong only but it is combining the element of being weak to support the strength aspects of leadership.

The leadership is all about action and leading from the known to unknown whose results are certain. Hence, Maya Angelou once said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” This leadership quote is applicable to all the leaders as their actions always matter in life of others.

In connection to the above, the role of the leader means leading the people while the people follow. As Rosalynn Carter once observed, a leader takes people where they want to go and a great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be.  In the case of South Sudan, the country has been on stand still since 2015 when H.E. President General Salva Kiir Mayardit reinforced by establishing tribal states which became hard to lead the people and he became hesitant to lead them due to the difficulties created by tribalism on the way of national building and state building.

In the process, President Kiir reached the lowest point in his life after dissolving the people into the deep tribal hell fire called 32 States where tribalism burned with dangerous flames. The creation of 32 States was the turning point of the South Sudanese nationalism where all the citizens concentrated on their local tribes gathered and put into their own gathering in forms of the minute States. 

32 States became the reservoirs of tribalism from which it glowed with the sparks of all the challenges facing both the nation and the people. One of the greatest weaknesses and challenges of 32 States was the entrenchment of tribal conflicts that have their roots in victorious insurgencies stemmed from tribal decentralization of the government that tended to consolidate and expand the tribal political power by building upon their pre-existing communal violence rooted in the structures of command and control by communities. 

No one expected President Kiir to revert 32 States to ten states given the utterances of his government officials. Some of the government officials attached great emotions to the issue of 32 States to the extent of threatening anybody who talked about dissolving them. The citizens who were tribalized by these small tribal states also acted the same way with those government officials. 

However today on February 15, 2020, every South Sudanese was surprised when the declaration of dissolving of 32 States was made. For this reason, we must appreciate President Kiir Mayardit and point out that he has now proved that he is a leader. A leader leads by example and action.

In short, let us appreciate President Kiir for his effort to save South Sudan and South Sudanese from further destruction. South Sudanese will remember his action not what he has been saying. He has now shown that he is serious about peace and we the members of the SPLM-IO are ready for peace as some of our demands are met. 

NB: Any complication that comes after publication of this article, I shall be there to carry the cross

The author can be reached at mariodeng88@gmail.com