Message on Martyrs Day

Dear Fellow Country Men and Women,

I greet you in the name of our martyrs who sacrificed their lives to make us free from oppression. Though we are not free because we failed to put our house in order, we have an independent country, South Sudan, which we call home.

Beloved country mates, though we dedicated this day to all our fallen heroes and heroines, this day is when we lose the freedom fighter and liberator Dr John Garang De Mabior. Garang and all the martyrs did not die in vain; their blood had cemented the foundation of our country.

It is our mistake why we are still suffering this time; the martyrs had done their part to make South Sudan independence. We must revisit our past, forgive each other, refine our strategies, and eliminate failure-prone approaches to problem-solving and nation development.

Beloved country mates, our problem is the lack of accountable leadership in the country. No one has bewitched us, nor have we been cursed by any god, but because we slipped away from the leadership path and embarked on the crook and zig-zig leadership styles, that is why we are suffering. We failed at our different capacities; directors are complaining, generals are complaining, undersecretaries are complaining, ministers are complaining, Vice Presidents are complaining, and the President is complaining and blaming the unknown person.

Complaints and blame will not solve our problems, but they will keep fueling the flame of misunderstanding and violence among us and keep peace away from us. We must take responsibility for our failure without delay if we want to restore our country to the path of accountable and sustainable leadership.

We are leaders, but our selfishness keeps widening the gap between us and those we claim to be responsible for. If we eat three times a day and they go for months without receiving their salaries, then how do we call ourselves their leaders? If our children attend school and their children do not, how do we call ourselves their leaders? If we go abroad for medication and their families cannot afford to buy malaria tablets, how do we call ourselves their leaders?

We must be honest to ourselves and God and adopt a leadership style that will place citizens’ welfare above our self-interests. A leader is like a mother; a mother cannot eat before her children, but we eat, go for medication, and send our children to school while we don’t care where our soldiers who protect us eat, go for treatment, and send their children to schools.

We must be leaders with humanity, leaders like mothers, and leaders with godly spirit if we want South Sudan to prosper and not be a failed country.