Its bad moon rising in South Sudan which has left the meaning of independence shallow and near meaningless for all who share the joy of self-rule.
If at any time there should be a period of great rejoicing and celebrations for South Sudan, it should have been now, but five years after, it is still gripped by insecurity without a grasp to indicate what direction the country is heading.
What has emerged is that South Sudan is still drippling in blood, sweat and tears with no end of its ordeal in sight and its leaders, mainly President Salva Kiir and Vice President Rick Marchar doing the frog dance.
If in the past five years both sides have not shackled off from tribalism and hatred, whats there to talk about a united country or of independence?
What has surfaced is that the various peace agreements signed by both sides and witnessed by regional leaders and major international brokers have turned out to be an exercise in futility, more of cigar smoking and champagne toasting events with signatories housed in five star hotels than anything else.
Some analysts see it as cash flushed down the drain.
The healing process has been the reverse as both sides are not ready to toss away the past and start afresh to end the sufferings of the South Sudanese people.
So actually, whats there to celebrate with corpses around.
It is now obvious that both sides can’t get along now or in the immediate future and have shunned peace as an alternative.
Lessons from the past five years had shown that the peace agreement brokered by the United Nations Security Council and regional leaders was only worth the paper it was written on and cannot stand the test of time.
Now the international community is faced with finding a deal that will stick with penalties on any defaulting party to show that it means business and the hanky panky must stop and the lives of civilian South Sudanese are not up for trade or auction.
If both leaders cannot stop the unchecked blood spillings, then the international body should search for other leaders that are peace-oriented to work out real independence that will be of benefit to the poverty striken people.
The warring parties – the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and the SPLA in opposition (SPLA-O) are no strange bedfellows and by now their guns should have been silent to give the country the direction that it needs.
The breaches and violations are beyond count.
Security continues to dodge solution and mistrust runs deep stretching from the leaders at the top, through commanders down to the foot soldiers so that each time they cross path, there would be violent and bloody clashes.
The agreement itself has some loopholes. For instance, the compromise proposal grants the rebels 53 percent representations while the government grudgingly accepted 40 percent. President Kiir worsened the situation by amending unilaterally the existing 10 states to 28 which the opposition resented.
As things are now, would the international community be able to get both sides back to the conference table to dialogue this time with all seriousness?
In major international issues, it is not uncommon for contending parties to have proxy backers and the South Sudan issue is no exception.
President Kiir relies on the strong backing of Uganda while Vice President Machar is supported by Ethiopia.
The advancing days, weeks and months would be crucial as to which direction the country would spiral – whether to more doom and gloom or for both leaders to have learnt their lesson to reassess the dangerous trail and decide to give peace a chance if even for a first try.
If they decide on the latter, it will bring a sigh of relief for the people of South Sudan and Africa as well.
By Rod Mac-Johnson
Tuesday July 12, 2016
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