EES Governor Returns From West Africa The Eastern Equatoria State, EES Governor Louis Lobong Lojore has strongly called for unity among South Sudanese ahead of Independence Day after his arrival in the State on Monday; following a 5day governance study tour to Ghana. 01 June 2011 EES Governor Returns From West Africa Governor Louis Lobong Lojore briefing the press in Torit [©Gurtong]
By Peter Lokale Nakimangole TORIT, 31st May, 2011 [Gurtong] – The Eastern Equatoria State, EES Governor Louis Lobong Lojore has strongly called for unity among South Sudanese ahead of Independence Day after his arrival in the State on Monday; following a 5day governance study tour to Ghana. The Governor told Gurtong that the visit which was organised and sponsored by the Government of South Sudan with support from United Nations Development Program, UNDP, was largely on how to learn, compare and adopt Ghana’s decentralization system and democracy in preparation to the new South . Lobong described the study tour as an eye opening experience and he was very impressed on how Ghanaian system runs especially good democracy in terms of decentralization policy. He said, “Although we are very excited to be independent, we should also know how to face challenges. One of the challenges is disunity among the South Sudanese communities and political parties.” He said that Ghana was better than South Sudan in terms of service delivery. “What South Sudan gives to Counties as development funds is very little compared to Ghana,” he said. Ghana offers a huge amount of money purely meant for development to Counties and once a County performs best, at the end of each year, it’s rewarded with a higher percent apart from other grants. The Governor was introduced to different offices under different capacities citing National Parliament where they were led by parliamentary ministers from various States and that of Ghana’s national government. Lobong clarified that in Ghana, the specialized committee of public accounts is always headed by opposition parties to ensure checks and balance and the Auditor General is not responsible to the president but to the head of public accounts in the Assembly which according to him the Ghana wants to ensure transparency and accountability. Lobong who was received by his cabinet led by Nartisio Loluke Manir, the State Deputy Governor, emphasized that South Sudanese must prepare in cohesion to receive and celebrate their new State of South Sudan. He added that maintaining national spirit of unity for the entire people of the south is necessary. He also appealed for continuous calmness in Abyei public as the GOSS under the leadership of president Kiir with other international peace partners seek peaceful solutions for the oil rich region. Posted in: Home, Foreign Relations, Governance, Travel -- 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.
