By Gen. Salva Mathok Gengdit, Hon
The cancellation of the sovereign guarantee for Amou General Trading signed by the Executive Director in the office of the President on the directive of H.E the President is not a bad idea as termed by the public, because the second God in every country is the President. However, those who advised the President on that matter have killed the speech of the President when he addressed the lawmakers of the Revitalised Transitional National Legislative Assembly (R-TNLA) on August 30, 2021 at the Freedom hall.
HE the President did talk about implementation of R-ARCSS services to the people, of which the President mentioned many programs of infrastructure such like roads, bridges among others for the implementation of R-ARCSS. You can start with security arrangements, disarmament of the civil population, transformation of security sectors and law enforcement agencies, return of IDPs to their residences, reconciliation process, census and preparations for election, etc.
President also talked of rendering services to the people, these includes health, education, food security, clean drinking water and electricity among others.
By advising President Salva Kiir Mayardit to cancel the loan, where will he get the money or resources to implement all those projects he mentioned in his speech to the lawmakers on August 30, 2021? Maybe our people may be concerned of managing of the loan amount. I am not economist to determine the reasons why HE the President decided to call off the proceeding of loan. Is it IMF and World Bank that have interfered with threats while they have failed in all these years to grant loans to us except China?
South Sudan has so many minerals that untapped apart from oil, what if we explore such like gold, diamond and more, we can pay back any loan within a short time. The issue of mismanagement or corruption in the country should not be a condition set to deny the government from getting loan anywhere. We have laws in this country and an institution established the anti-corruption Commission.
In the conclusion, my appeal to the President for the interest of this country: we need that loan to let the government deliver services to our people. I urge President to reverse the order of cancelled loan document. We cannot assume for mismanagement of loans, if the foreign banks I mentioned above are behind the cancellation of loan then, we are finished. If it is not possible to reverse the order for the cancellation of loans then, HE the President Kiir should call off his speech on infrastructures and other services he promised during his speech to the lawmakers at Freedom hall.
The writer is a member of Parliament of the R-TNLA, Former Caretaker Governor of Warrap State, former Deputy Chief of General staffs for administration, former Presidential advisor on SPLA affairs currently SSPDF and a former deputy National Minister of Interior. He is reachable via +211925571888
