Peter Adwok Nyaba speaking during the Civil Society conference in Juba on Wed, 20th March 2024. Photo Credit: Garang Daniel

Veteran politician Professor Peter Adwok Nyaba has described the 2018 Peace Agreement as a sham for failing to address the root causes of the 2013 Conflict.

Professor Nyaba made the remarks on Tuesday during a panel discussion on the political and technical dimensions of the planned national elections organized by civil society groups.

The SPLA liberation war veteran attributed the collapse of the 2015 peace agreement to power wrangling among leaders.

According to Professor Nyaba, the leaders still came back with the mentality.

“This thing called revitalized agreement is just a sham, it didn’t address the problem of war, why did people fight on the 15th, of December 2013?” he inquired.

“They tried it again and the agreement in 2015 didn’t work and it collapsed just months into its implementation in 2016.”

Since the formation of the unity government in February 2020, the transitional justice mechanisms have not been implemented.

This includes the formation of the Hybrid Court, Commission for Truth, Reconciliation and Healing, and the Compensation and Reparation Authority.

“Now, they came back with the same thing because they insisted on power sharing, there is nowhere in the world where you have power sharing, where does it happen?”

“It happened only in the CPA because it was known that South Sudan was going to secede. When you talk of power sharing which part is going to secede? We know the problem is and we don’t want to say it.”

According to Professor Nyaba, the 2018 peace agreement was not implemented because the leaders didn’t want to give up their power.

“We have parties that signed an agreement and they have not implemented it, why? The reason is simple, those who have the power want to keep the power.”

“The SPLM was not a political party, it’s a military, and in a military organization, there is no democracy. We never had elections during our time in the bush.”

“So, why are we going around the bush?  Let’s know that somebody wants to be in power until his death that is it. If you want to take power from him, he will cause war.”

“The dialogue will be okay, we can leave him there, but, let him develop the country or let him allow the formation of the government that can work and develop the country that is it.”