When Dr. John Garang died mysteriously only three weeks in the office as the vice president of the government of national unity, and as the president of the South Sudan autonomous government, there were lot of nervous people in South Sudan about what the future holds. Some Southerners who have known Garang thought nobody will match the Bashiir cunningness. They feared that Garang demise would put the country fragile peace in limbo. The only people who cheered Garang death were the Northerners and the Khartoum regime who banked that Garang absent in the political discourse would give them an edge.
Well, both Khartoum and South Sudan doubted Thomas were all wrong. General Kiir Mayardit has presented himself to be a wild card at all fronts. First and foremost, he has surprised Khartoum regime which thought and hoped that Garang death was going to be a blessing to them. They were dead wrong, while we dearly missed Dr. Garang, we praised him every single day for his wisdom to have chosen capable leaders like General Kiir Mayardit who happened to have filled Garang’s big shoe at such a critical time in our history. Kiir being a disciplined and shrew general who knows how to juggle with turbulent times has kept the boat from being rocked over by the enemies of South Sudan. He has learned from his predecessor with whom he has fought side by side since the first Sudan war after its independent.
I guessed it is safe to say, these two men know how to lay down mines, how to dodge bullets and how to lead guerilla soldiers. So it should not be a surprise to South Sudanese about Kiir unwavering determination to stand his ground in face of many challenges that are facing the CPA. On many fronts, he maneuvered the difficult political terrains including making tough decisions of which many have left Khartoum speechless e.g. with drawing MPs from the government of national unity in protest of non compliance with CPA and many other difficult decisions like offering amnesty to all different rebels leaders who have made bad choices. Such decision to offer political amnesty to people like General Dau and General Athor was unpopular but necessary to maintain the unity of southerners.
Although many people saw General Kiir as an opportunist whom Garang death has brought him into power, Kiir is a giant of his own, he understands his generals and his generals understand him and together, they have out witted the cunningness of the Khartoum regime. When he decided not to run for president of the national government last year but instead announced his candidacy for the presidency of the South Sudan, southerners including me were convinced that South Sudan will reach it destiny. There was no doubt with him being the captain of the boat, there was a feeling that we were going to approach the Promised Land. That’s Southerners gave him their seal of approval by voting almost 96 percent for his candidacy. With such blessing, General Kiir has kept his promise that he made almost fifty years ago to free his people from the bondage of the Arabs and their Islamized and oppressive governments.
Since Kiir became a president, he has managed to hold together Southerners with exception of few power greedy generals who have lost the cause of the Southern Sudanese people. Let us all image, without Kiir as a captain of this boat, finding other unifying figure to lead Southerners in this tumultuous time would have been like asking Chol Mong to throw away his fish.
I don’t agree with some of his decisions leadership ability particularly how he is handling the issue of corruption. However, I gave General Kiir a thumb up for bringing us this close to our long awaited destiny. Just exactly 78 days left till South Sudan becomes the Republic of South Sudan. I still have the faith in Kiir to finish the race and to finally usher in a new era in our Republic.
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