May 10, 2014(Nyamilepedia) — We the Nuer Students’ Union in Kenya welcome the agreement signed by Gen Salva Kiir and Dr Riek Machar yesterday in Addis Ababa. The agreement came at a time when South Sudanese citizens are in need of humanitarian assistance from the UN agencies; these international rights have been violated due to the crisis currently taking place in South Sudan. We believe that this agreement will be the road map for South Sudanese to achieved everlasting peace compounded with love and the spirit of Nationalisms.
We urged the IGAD, EAC, UN, EU, USA, and other international bodies to monitor the cessation of hostilities as the 24hr periods have elapsed. It is unfortunate that the government troops attacked Rubkona yesterday while their leader was in Addis Ababa to sign the peace deal, we are concerned with the way Gen Salva Kiir spoke and intimidating the general public that he is the president and must remain the president of the republic of South Sudan. That was an indication that he was not committed to the agreement.
We also welcome the released of the 4 political detainees who had joined their colleagues in Addis Ababa and their subsequent inclusion in the peace talks process. It is now clear that Kiir Mayardit fabricated his own coup and he should be responsible for all the lives lost in South Sudan. IGAD must remember that Adwok Nyaba is still under house arrest in Juba and his rights as enshrined in the interim constitution of South Sudan are violated. We demand for his immediate release as he is an important person in the peace talk process.
It is our believes that South Sudan needs a federal government that not only devolved resources from the national government to county government but also reduce the level of corruption and helps infrastructural development in our country. Federalism is defined as a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term “federalism” is also used to describe a system of government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and constituent political units such as states or provinces. Federalism is a system based upon democratic rules and institutions in which the power to govern is shared between national and provincial/state governments, creating what is often called a. Federalism is a system that favours a common federal government, with distributed power at regional, national and supranational levels. This is a system that was adopted by Canada, Brazil, Australia and India just to mentioned a few, South Sudan needs to adopt a federal system of government like the one in INDIA The Government of India (referred to as the Union Government) was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of a federal union of 29 states and 7 union territories.
The government of India is based on a tiered system, in which the Constitution of India delineates the subjects on which each tier of government has executive powers. The Constitution originally provided for a two-tier system of government, the Union Government (also known as the Central Government), representing the Union of India, and the State governments. Later, a third tier was added in the form of Municipalities. In the current arrangement, The Seventh Schedule of the Indian Constitution delimits the subjects of each level of governmental jurisdiction, dividing them into three lists:
- National government includes subjects of national importance such as defence of the country, foreign affairs, banking, communications and currency. The Union Government alone can make laws relating to the subjects mentioned in the Union List.
- State government contains subjects of State and local importance such as police, trade, commerce, agriculture and irrigation. The State Governments alone can make laws relating to the subjects mentioned in the State List.
- County government includes subjects of common interest to both the Union Government as well as the State Governments, such as education, forest, trade unions, marriage, adoption and succession. Both the National as well as the State Governments can make laws on the subjects mentioned in this list. If their laws conflict with each other, the law made by the National Government will prevail.
India has a multi-party system, with political allegiances frequently based on linguistic, regional and caste identities,necessitating coalition politics, especially at the National level.
We believe with the above tier of government South Sudan will not only fairly distributed resources to the citizens but also bring towns to citizens as quoted by our late Hero Dr John Garang deMabior. South Sudanese are tired of a centralized system that creates a vacuum for corruption and lack of good governance.
The interim government and transitional arrangements should consider the following;
– Inclusive government
– fair representation from all walks of life in the government
– Youth and women empowerment
– Constitutional dispensation
– formation of an independent committee of inquiry to investigate atrocities committed during the crisis
– Formation of peace and reconciliation committee which will have youth and women representation to advocate for peaceful co-existence
We also urged the parties in the negotiation to include all stakeholders to the conflict in the negotiation process as suggested by the document signed on Friday the 9th May, 2014. These stakeholders include youth, women, civil society groups, elders and church leaders. We condemned the sanction imposed up on General Gatdet Yaka by the US government, this sanction does not only imply lack of seriousness in South Sudan crisis but it also indicate that justice will never prevail to the massacred, such inactiveness promote impunity and contradict the task of US government as a superpower. We need the architects of this crisis to be sanctioned and their looted assets frozen.
Every South Sudanese need peaceful country because peace is good in itself, but it is never the highest unless it comes as the handmaid of righteousness. Peace becomes very evil philosophy if it serves merely as a mask for cowardice and sloth, or as an instrument to further the ends of nepotism and anarchy.
We are all for a better nation, a nation that our diversity is seen as a blessing, where freedom of speech is not a privilege but a right to every citizen, where jobs are given base on capabilities but not on nepotism.
May God bless Federal Republic South Sudan
Bona Kueth Machar
Nuer Students’ Union in Kenya Chairman
email: nuerstudentsinkenya@gmail.com
