The recent destruction and looting of the Custom Nyakuron market in Juba highlight the deteriorating situation in South Sudan. When people turn against their own resources, their own means of obtaining sustenance, it reveals a sense of panic and desperation, as well as a mood of anger and despair. How can it be otherwise in a nation without effective positive leadership? How can it be otherwise in a country without vision and planfulness? How can we hope for more in a land that is filled with guns and hungry people?
South Sudan has gone from a new nation celebrating its unity to a distressed and disunified place filled with displaced and homeless persons. The economic development that could have been built on oil revenues has not materialized. Instead, like jackals, our would-be leaders fight over the scraps of our people.
We need to start over. We must have a new constitutional convention, one that fairly represents all the tribes and all the regions of our motherland. We must eradicate corruption and regain the world’s respect so that others may not only assist us but also partner with us. It is not enough for our people to merely survive; we must prosper!
It is not enough to visit destroyed markets and make empty pledges. We need leaders who can find a way forward, a way that will fill those market stalls and put money into the pockets of the common people.
Does South Sudan have the potential to thrive? I say yes. I say we must assess our greatest resources and use them wisely. For some time, I have been trying to tell the would-be bosses in Juba that the way forward is to use the water that God has given us more wisely, to use it as a way to grow food for consumption and export and a way to coordinate with other nations. Had the oil money been used to create infrastructure for that aquacultural economy, South Sudan would today be happy and successful. Sadly, that money was wasted on showing off in Juba, on buying endless weapons, and on lining unsavory pockets.
It is time for change. That change must start not with more of the same, not with the machinations of politicians fighting over the last scraps but with a rebirth, a renewal. Where are the leaders we need? Who will step forward and offer their efforts not for personal gain but for our nation, for the wellbeing of every South Sudanese no matter what tribe or region?
South Sudan: Unity and Growth! Unity and Growth!
~Deng Mayik Atem
Publisher of Ramciel magazine
and currently studying leadership and Ethics at Harvard Kennedy School of Government
