President Salva Kiir - June 22, 2022. Photo credit: PPU

Some members of the public are expecting President Salva Kiir to clarify the confusion surrounding the staggering peace agreement including the planned elections.

This Saturday, South Sudanese will mark the country’s 11^th Independence Anniversary.

And it is the 7^th year the nation is not going to have official celebrations of the day.

Over the years, the government has often attributed the cancellations to financial constraints it has been facing, citing the impact of the civil war and the drop in oil prices in the international market.

However, on Monday, members of the public expressed disappointment over the latest move and criticized the government for lacking priorities.

To appease them, the unity government should graduate the forces who have stayed for more than three years in training camps.

President Salva Kiir is expected to address the nation on the eve of 9^TH July.

Asked about their expectations, some members of the public say they want to hear the President talking about the status of the peace agreement including the graduation of the unified forces and the upcoming elections.

While some expect Salva Kiir to regard the opening to the three lifeline bridges -Freedom Bridge, Luri and Haboba as an achievement, others do not regard it a major achievement.

“I expect our president, ministers and the people of South Sudan to change from a bad situation to a better situation, because the people of South Sudan have suffered so much,” James from the Juba Na Bari area told Eye Radio.

“The speech of our late President John Garang was strong, but he died. If he was present, we would have asked him our questions,

“We who live now have to work for the people and not for ourselves. We must try to correct our mistakes and go back, as South Sudanese want to develop their country, not to destroy it.”

… “I do not expect the president to have a new speech except for the graduation of the forces and the elections. But if he makes a decision regarding dredging of the Nile, this will be a very strong speech for South Sudanese,” Willsion Simon from Gumbo said.

“In my opinion, I expect that he will talk about the graduation of the forces in his speech but without mentioning a specific date for the graduation,” Panjang said.

“He will talk about people’s preparations for the elections and send an invitation to the parties to prepare for the elections in the year 2023,

“At the same time, he will mention the suffering of the people and will say that they feel the suffering of the people,

“The fourth thing will be mentioned that they accomplished a lot, for example, the small bridges, which cannot be called bridges within the government’s achievements in 2022,

“In general, his speech will not be without his regular speeches and boredom every time, but I hope he mentions new things.”

“My expectations are that the President of the Republic will talk about the successes that happened during the implementation of the peace agreement. He will tell us what has been implemented, what obstacles they face, and who is behind them,” stated Ustaz Majok from POCs Checkpoint.

“Secondly, I see that there are only two achievements, which are the Freedom Bridge in Lologo and the Habouba and Luri Bridges. But the great achievement was supposed to be the graduation of the forces,

“I expect that the president’s speech includes the graduation of the forces and the deployment of forces in the specified areas to be three achievements, but without the graduation of the forces, his speech will be meaningless.”