Why Federal System Is Wrong For South Sudan. "...the more we have huge numbers of politicians (ministers and MPs among others) at the state, the higher the cost of maintaining them and the less the services to our people."28 February 2011 By Isaiah Abraham
(Gurtong Edited and Posted):-Our current Interim Constitution for the people of Southern Sudan has served its purpose, and it is now time to look critically into blunt defects/issues therein so to avoid laying down a wrong foundation for our nation. I have a problem with the federal system of governance, and would suggest to our team at the constitution review to look once again given experiences of this system for the past 13 years or so when it was introduced by the National Congress Party (NCP). This author would love to see the state system of government check, and perhaps reintroduction of Provincial Administration like that of other East African countries. This is so because of the following three reasons: One is economic and the other is social while the third is developmental. Get me right, am not talking here against decentralization per se, but the real meaning of that term; may be it has been misplaced and misused. In provincial system, you can still devolve powers and resources to lower levels. Take the economic reason for example, how many mouths shall the central government continue to feed each passing year in our system? Even if we get oil money in trillion dollars, it will not go far for development under our current system of government. Quantitatively, for the sake of argument, we have no less than 45 senior positions in each state with an annual budget for salary alone of 96 million (8000 SDG by 45 by 12 months). If you add up allowances and the so-called MPS/minister’s services plus corruption as well as their cars and attached services, you end up spending three times over and above the figure aforementioned in each year. So, what are we saying here? This is what I think is the point: the more we have huge numbers of politicians (ministers and MPs among others) at the state, the higher the cost of maintaining them and the less the services to our people. After all, am not seeing anything concrete these men have done so far in their respective offices, except expensive cars, chairs and tables. Most of them are old and corrupt. Imagine an office stuffed with a fridges, a green TV screen and a safe; what time do you think this gentleman will find to plan for official duties? Socially we are ebbing away; we feel comfortable with our regionalism practice. Tribalism breeds there because we no longer see ourselves as Southern Sudanese but states. What unites us is nowhere. Nigeria, from where Sudan borrowed federalism system, is socially becoming a battered nation, and nothing in the future will bring that great nation together as before. You might think the government has gone closer to the people, but the system puts dangerous wedges among communities and social groups. In the United States, the state system was introduced after social barriers weren’t anywhere. The law became the tribe and community in each urban setting. Time to get there will surely come, and not in our generation, unless we finish each other up because am from this tribe and the other is from tribe y. Federal system pays little attention to serve delivery to people. Politicians are served first on the expense of roads, bridges, hospitals and schools. In each of our state we have private sector doing wonders when the government is yet to pick up. For the past six years, we never had any problem with cash, but due to huge staffing, especially political classes, our ministry of Finance exhausted budget on the way before anything gets to the development of the people. Let’s weigh draw backs of keeping federation system against national benefits. May be it is all about strong system and not necessarily people, and the reverse could also be true. Your take? Isaiah Abraham lives in Juba; he’s on [email protected] of Sudan, and welcome members from Sudan’s two independent nations. Posted in: Opinions -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD info" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/jfdinfo?hl=en.
