Prof. P.L.O Lumumba speaks in an interview with Eye Radio in Nairobi. December 8, 2024. (Photo: Lou Nelson/Eye Radio).

Pan African activist Patrick Loch Otieno (P.L.O.) Lumumba has stated that South Sudan may not realize stability and prosperity if political elites continue their quest for power and think the nation owes them.

Prof. Lumumba, a prominent Kenyan lawyer, made the remarks during a virtual address to South Sudan’s interfaith meeting in Juba on Monday.

Lumumba stated that South Sudan’s recurrent instability is engineered by the perception of political and military officials that their participation in liberation struggle gives them the absolute right to power.

He said the country’s liberators should not use this as a reference for them to pursue power but rather to put the country first.

Prof. Lumumba underscored that for South Sudan to realize political stability, leaders serving the country have to soften their hearts to allow peace prevail to the citizens.

“South Sudan may never realize the change that they deserve as long as people still recall freedom fighting movement and ask others; ‘where were you when we were in the bush?’. When you sacrifice for motherland, that must never be a constant point of reference,” he said.

Fighting in Upper Nile State and subsequent detention of political and military officials in Juba – have sparked concerns that South Sudan is close to civil war – although President Kiir repeatedly vowed to make sure the country remains at peace.

Peace monitor R-JMEC recently told an AU meeting that the peace agreement which ended South Sudan’s civil war, is facing its most serious challenge since its signing in 2018, and urged leaders to desist from escalatory actions.

“I believe that change will only come when those who have the honor and privilege of serving South Sudan soften their hearts. They have to migrate from freedom fighting mode into nation building,” Lumumba added.

“Instead of thinking that they owe the nation, they think that the nation owes them. That is the problem in South Sudan.”

“You have freedom fighters who still think that because they were in the bush, the country owes them. If they do not change that attitude, South Sudan will never realize their potential.”