VP, Benjamin Bol Mel , SPLM Party First Deputy|By Courtesy

The First Deputy Chairperson of SPLM has urged trust in the party to deliver peace, development, and transformation in the country.

Dr. Benjamin Bol Mel, who is also the Vice President in charge of the Economic Cluster, has described the SPLM as the heart of the country.

“SPLM is the heart of our country, and today we make the path clear again as we restore the faith of our people in their party,” he made remarks during the official assumption of office, alongside the SPLM’s second and third deputy chairpersons, Mary Apai and Simon Kun, respectively in Juba yesterday.

He directed the party’s secretariat to double its effort to restore people’s faith in the SPLM.

Bol called for faith in the party, citing its tremendous role in leading to the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and the independence of South Sudan.

“We sacrificed everything to lead you to the CPA; SPLM, we led you to the CPA, and finally to independence. This is SPLM, work was done, we delivered, it is not half, we delivered, we did it fully for you.

“Therefore, the path for SPLM is where the light is. Trust us to deliver peace, and we shall deliver. Trust us to deliver development and wait for our nation to be transformed.”

The SPLM has ruled South Sudan for nearly 20 years now.

In 2005, the SPLM, through its former leader, pledged to rebuild the war-devastated South Sudan using existing wealth.

The SPLM had just negotiated with the Sudanese government six protocols that formed the basis of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, or CPA.

These protocols, among others, promised to change the system of governance and provide services across Sudan, with the SPLM focusing mainly on improving lives in the southern region.

It gave the government in the south the power to control oil revenue produced in its territories and seek further external funding for development.

In his remarks to the world in Nairobi, Kenya, on January 9, 2005, the late Dr. John Garang pledged that the SPLM would use 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 using oil money to strengthen agriculture as the engine of growth.

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

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

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

Addressing Sudanese communities in Washington, DC, after signing the comprehensive peace agreement in 2005, the late Dr. John Ganga De Mabior said the SPLM would initiate development programs using the existing resources the country has to develop.

Dr. Garang added that the SPLM will not use the experience of other countries to “build a consumer society”.

Development in South Sudan has been bogged down by renewed conflicts since 2013.

These conflicts have been attributed to power wrangles among the elites.

With five years of the negotiated peace and settlement, the government is yet to produce lasting stability in the country.

This is because activists noted that even during peace talks, the leaders do not negotiate on behalf of their constituents, but rather strike transactional deals to preserve their power.