Santo Laku Pio - Courtesy

The Auxiliary Bishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Juba has blamed the current leaders for deviating from the vision of the late Dr. John Garang of taking towns to the people.

Late Dr. John Garang de Mabior had told the world in Nairobi, Kenya on January 9, 2005, that the SPLM would use the wealth in diversity as a source of national cohesion and strength.

He stressed that the SPLM would implement social, political, and economic development strategies and programs that include oil money to strengthen agriculture as the engine of growth.

The ruling party also pledged to take towns to the people in the countryside through rural small-town planning and rural electrification.

However, two years after the independence, South Sudan descended into a civil war.

This was a result of disagreement among members of the SPLM.

Auxiliary Bishop Santo Laku Pio said the leaders have failed to take towns to the people, but people are coming from villages to the towns.

This, he argues, is because some of the leaders do not love South Sudan, but only their pockets.

He was speaking on Tuesday, September 12, on the visit of the Auxiliary Bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of US‘s Washington at the Institute of Justice and Peace at the Catholic University of South Sudan.

“Some of our leaders, they don’t love this country, they don’t love these young people, there are millions of them out there. They [leaders] only love their positions and they love their pockets, and this is exactly where the workforce provided cannot brink out tangible developmental programs in our society,” Bishop Santo Laku said.

“Our great leader Dr. John said, take the town to the people, what these people [leaders] are doing, they are bringing the people from the village to the town,” he said.

“That wisdom if it is not brought forth so that these young people become workforce, industrialized workforce that will go out and create jobs, create opportunities and industries in those villages, this program here will take long term, nevertheless we have hope.”

Since 2011, South Sudan has been ranked at the bottom of the Global Peace indexes, quality of life and Human Development indexes, and Press Freedom index, among others.

In July 2020, South Sudanese told Eye Radio that the political leaders were to blame for dragging the country into a circle of violence and continued political instability.

They argued that, for the last 9 years, South Sudanese leaders were yet to move the country towards sustained peace and development.

Experts also agree that some of the liberators have continued to mismanage the affairs of the country, with a population now dependent on humanitarian assistance and development aid.