Addressing the MPs in the Legislative hall, the governor of Western Bahr El Ghazal Rizik Zakaria Hassan appreciated the members of parliament for their cooperation that they had shown in the last two years and urged the same spirit to flourish ahead of critical time of which Khartoum regime  on daily basis bombed border areas of South Sudan.

The governor extended appreciation to all caretakers’ ministers, commissioners and the citizens of state for mobilizing support to the gallant forces in the Raja County of which he accused Khartoum of encroaching on the localities of Timsah, Sir Malaga, Baballa and Kafia Kinji through carrying out of indiscriminate air raids.

He called for unity of all South Sudanese to stand firm with the national army in the course of defending the territorial integrity of South Sudan, pointing that his government has achieved relative development in the State adding that Dr. John Garang bridge extension would soon finish.

The governor explained the directive that came from South Sudan Ministry of Interior that requires all Sudanese across the country to register themselves maintaining that even though Khartoum mistreats South Sudanese in Sudan the citizens of Sudan will not be mistreated in South Sudan.

Hassan reaffirm strong stand of his government to fight corruption and other malpractices that hinder development efforts. He pointed that all institutions will abide by transcendent values such as justice, transparency and inclusiveness.

“Let us unite to embark on what unite us and discard what divide us, especially corruption, tribalism and injustice,” he said. The Governor acclaimed the work of United Nations based organizations and other non-governmental organizations in the State that work for welfare of the citizens.

Meanwhile the Speaker of State Legislative Assembly Andrew Mayar Acho called upon all MPs to work hard to provide services to the people.

“This is the last chance for all of us, unless we deliver services to our people the people whom we beat during elections will teach us unforgettable lesson in the next election,” said the Speaker.

He condemned the air raids carried out by Sudanese armed forces against South Sudan.

Meanwhile Members of Western Bahr El Ghazal State Legislative Assembly acknowledged daunting challenges ahead of them and assured that the only way forward to overcome those challenges is for the citizens and their government to unite.

MP Fatima Mahmoud raised concerns on the on- going war attitude declared by Sudan government against South Sudan, and pointed that they as women have a big role to play in boosting the moral of SPLA to deter the threat that is coming from Sudan.

“Our message to all women across that country is to have “one voice” behind the President Kiir’s decision and the national army by doing what they could to ensure that our national army is boosted materially,” said Mahmoud.

She was among the group of MPs that went to the volatile areas contested between South Sudan and Sudan in Western Bahr El Ghazal State recently in delivering services contributed by the citizens to assist the SPLA in the frontline. She appreciated the role of the gallant forces in defending South Sudan.

“We call upon able South Sudanese youth to unite in the course of defending the nation. Although we don’t want war between the two nations, conditions will force us to defend ourselves and our territory,” she stated.

“We don’t want our children again to return into the bondage of Khartoum regime since National Congress Party works day and night to create insecurity in South Sudan,” she pointed.

Mathew Chan Majok the newly appointed MP said that this was high time for South Sudanese youth to stand firm as one pillar and answer the provocation that is coming from Sudan’s belligerent authority, and urged all South Sudanese to engage in producing their own food.

He thanked the governor of Western Bahr El Ghazal for appointing him as an MP and called for peace and unity to prevail in the country.

Government January this year decided to close down oil production which account for 98 percent of its budget in response to Khartoum thefts and high transit fees impose on Juba.

“We must till our land to get rid of hunger,” advise the president.

He continues to cautioned that this years south Sudanese must try to produce their owned food to survive on not to go on defending any more on imported food.

“If we cultivate to produce enough food there will be good health,” he reiterated to redundant youth.

Kiir recommended the able youth to abandon playing cards, Chees and others to engage on agriculture.

President imply that people should not give up hope for difficulties the country is facing but promise that there is project on the pipeline to constructed alternative pipeline.

“There is something we can defend but it can not be now,” he said without elaboration the sources.

He emphasized hard work among south Sudanese to build a nation on concrete bases and instructed the Citizens not be addicted to free things.

South Sudan, where most people are Christians or follow traditional religions, gained independence after decades of conflict with the Arab-dominated, mainly Muslim north.

Earlier this month there has been report that south Sudan economic is at avert of collapsing something Juba disputed.

The country gained independent from Sudan July last year and goods are being imported from the neighboring countries of Kenya and Uganda.

There is vast land in the country which is fertile but citizens put hands at insecurity and lack of capitals to start farming.

The Director for Repatriation and Early Reintegration of the Returnees from Sudan, Arop Mathiang Amiyock yesterday raised concerns on resettlement programme of the returnees from Sudan since the organization does not have enough funds to meet their resettlement requirements.

Speaking to The Citizen Amiyock appealed to the government and other humanitarian organizations in South Sudan to raise more funds for the resettlement of the South Sudanese returning home from Sudan.

He said that there are so many organizations in South Sudan which are local and claiming to be concerned with humanitarian works and human rights and yet they have not yet contributed nor have they raised any funds for the repatriation of the IDPs in Sudan.

There are about 700,000 to 500,000 IDPs in Khartoum and 12,000 in Kosti of whom the IOM and the UNHCR has started lifting and currently in the two waiting stations in Juba capital of South, these returnees in Juba camps are waiting to be transported to their states of origin and counties where they will start life from the scratch since their luggage and properties have been left behind and life has to start from nowhere.

Amiyock said their partners IOM and UNHCR and others who may have not been mentioned have done their part especially in transporting the returnees from Kosti who were very vulnerable to South Sudan.

In Juba waiting station where the returnees are currently accommodated to be transported to their states/counties there so many difficulties facing them one of them is the capacity of the camp to hold more people since it is made to hold only 1500 persons but now it is overloaded and so many of them spent their Wednesday night in cold and rain.

The reasons given for closing down all these institutions were among others; a university must own an area of 25 Kilometer square of land, lack of sufficient fields for developing physical, mental or social recreations, irregularities in employment contracts for lecturers and inadequate lecture rooms, etc…..

Let us analyze the above requirements one by one:

To begin with land issue; sincerely speaking, none of the institutions operating in South Sudan whether a private or public University has acquired an area of 25 kilometer square of land in Juba. This is a size of old Juba town and given the current situation of land in Juba, I believe there is no university that can get such an area of land, even the few Public universities that were allowed to operate cannot and will not be able to acquire such a land.

I took a tour around Juba University with a colleague of mine yesterday, May 13th, 2012 to see if our first and number one university met this requirement of land. We discovered that Juba University has an area of less than one Kilo meter square. Mr. Minister should convince the public on this point, whether the twenty five kilometer square of land is a requirement for private universities alone.

Godfather of Ghost University: Contrary to all these, St. Mary University, whose existing location is not known here in South Sudan, was told to regularize its registration. Its physical location is nowhere to be seen in town let alone acquiring an area of twenty five km square of land. This might be because St. Mary University came through the honorable Nyaba in which the minister falls in the category of the term ‘’godfather’’ for the investment of this institution. Hon. Nyaba, in my opinion should be let known of the practice of patriotism rather than self conscience in decision making while in public office.

Lack of sufficient fields for developing physical, mental or social recreations; this cannot prompt our Hon. Minister to close down these institutions which are working very hard in developing our human resources on our soil. Republic of South Sudan is a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Hence, its priorities and interests should be public interest first. These facilities can be addressed as time goes.

Irregularities in employment contracts; surely one can assist me on this point; none of the employed lecturers in all these private universities went to the office of Hon. Member, the Minister, to complain about his/her contract with private universities. And in reality, should that be Mr. Nyaba`s concern or the Ministry of Labor concern? I can see an overlap of office TORs here, ladies and gentlemen.

Inadequate lecture room, this problem is faced by all institutions in this Republic including public universities. Take an example of Juba University, does it has adequate lecture rooms? No. The first year students at Juba University were studying under tents, student of the closed down private universities never studied under tents although their lecture rooms are not up to the required standard. The question is, what determines the quality of education, is it the quality of lectures or the buildings? This was just put in place as an obstacle for these private universities.

Our Professor Dr. Nyaba missed a very vital point here; Education is not about a nice brick used to build the house and not about a beautiful iron sheet used to cover the lecture rooms, rather, the quality of the materials used in constructing it, and I believe private universities can fit pretty well here. They may not have nice lecture rooms but they can still deliver quality education. Assessment of whether these private universities offer quality education or not, should have been measured through students of these universities by going through their marked exams scripts, their ordinary and Advanced certificates, diplomas and degrees acquired from other institutions from within and outside Sudan.

I personally believe, many current government‘s workforce studied under the trees or in a grass thatched class rooms up to secondary school levels during the war in either IDP camps or in Refugee camps, may be with the exception of a few who are calling themselves “the literates of the South”.

The question is, aren’t those who studied under trees and grass thatched houses delivering great services now to our Government? Let us say the SPLM or any other government of that time closed down these schools because they have no sufficient fields for developing physical, mental or social recreations, what would have happened after our independence?

We would have contracted competent human resources from other countries in order to work for the government of South Sudan, and our economics were going to be at a stake let alone that our government’s affairs were going to be under the control of foreign elements.

If Adwok is working in the interest of his people, the very people he is serving as a servant, he couldn’t have made such a decision at this critical time when our country is at war with the Republic of Sudan, the economic is in it terrible shape, some of the public universities are padlocked by him, the droughts are on high gear, crimes are taking a toll, etc, etc.

These private universities have been operating in South Sudan for nearly five years since they were established. Meaning they have already graduated many students who are now working in public and private sectors. By closing down their former universities will also lead to them being disqualified from their various positions of work and they will automatically loss jobs and become redundant.

Another group of victims are those students who are now in second year, third year and fourth year of the closed down universities. They have spent their hard earned money on tuition fees, Research, stationeries and other fees related to their studies. Expenses incurred by each student of these universities are so huge that it can be around SSP 20,000 – 25,000 for the entire course.

The right to education: To be honest, where on earth, the government of the people, by the people and for the people can wish its own citizens a bad luck? It is the responsibility of every government to make sure that every citizen has the right to education but not to destroy or take away whatever small knowledge he/she acquired. The motive behind this decision is to stir up chaos in the country. The affected students would go on demonstrations and the enemy of this country shall have the best laugh on us, this is not a developmental plan but you will agree with me it is a planned destruction.

The Minister could have worked toward developing these private universities from the current state to the better stage by encouraging competition among all the higher institutions of learning. Closing down these private universities would translate to education suicide stage. We can rebuild our education system but that should not be at the expense of ordinary citizens who are struggling to make ends meet.

Rescue education from Nyaba: Yes we can restructure our education system but we don’t need to build heaven on earth in a single day. Since we all know this country is starting from scratch, strengthening education system must be a process. We must build on from small space of learning to the proposed 25 Kilo meter square of land for every university. I would request our council of ministers to rescue education system from the Hon. Minister.

Finally, I am appealing to all the affected students from the closed down universities and the public at large to remain calm and wait for the best solution from our trusted council of ministers. Our government is tirelessly looking into the matter and will soon come out with the right decision.

The author lives in Juba and can be reached on: jacobatem@gmail.com

logical decision of shutting down the substandard private universities in the country. The

Cabinet is putting the Minister to task by expressing reservations about his decision. From the

Newspaper reports, it is apparent that the Cabinet is going to review and may reverse the

Minister’s decision!

After the 2005 Comprehensive Pease Agreement (CPA), South Sudan became a green

pasture and all sorts of people rushed to the country. Private universities mushroomed in an

alarming stage. All sorts of institutions were opened in places like the Konyo-Konyo Market. It

has become something normal to see a rakuba (casual shelter) with a sign-board of University

of so and so.

There was much talk about this phenomenon. This public concern came to the notice of

the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. The Minister, Dr Peter Adwok Nyaba,

couldn’t ignore this popular outcry for commercializing and uncontrolled opening of private

universities. He could have acted arbitrarily but, as a researcher, he first had to establish the

facts. So he formed a committee under the chairmanship of the Deputy Minister, Ustaz/Gabriel

Kuch Abyei, another straight-forward man and an educationist by training. As we the

concerned closely followed its work, the Committee visited all the states of the Republic to see

the real situation. The Minister acted on the findings and recommendations of the Committee.

Considering the recently passed Higher Education Act and any other regulations thereby, I think

the Minister’s decision was intra vires but when the Cabinet reviews that decision, it is creating

the impression that the Minister’s action was ultra vires.

Our Government should choose between quality and quantity. As the Minister has been

saying, we cannot carryover the mess created in higher education by the Khartoum Ingaz

regime, where anyone who can memorize some Qur’anic verses is issued a bachelor degree! It

is a shame that we seem to be maintaining all the bad things we inherited from the Old Sudan.

Where is the independence if we can’t rectify things we used to complain about?

Some months ago I came across a prospectus of one of these private universities. The

prospectus was specifically made for advertisement for the new intake. Normally a subject like

philosophy is a subject taken in the faculty of arts (and humanities). But in the said prospectus

there is a “Faculty of Philosophy.” For the “Faculty of Law,” even a layman can be puzzled

because, how can there be a bachelor of law (LL.B) only in International Humanitarian Law

(IHL), International Law (IL) or Human Rights Law (HRL)? This is too much. An LL.B is obtained

after having done a full four-year (where there is “A” Level, three-year period of study)

programme in prescribed subjects; of which there must be core subjects. Now, these

candidates are taught these single and isolated subjects and then they will demand to be

judges, and we end up having judges doing more injustice instead of justice.

By this frequent and uncalled for interference, the creativity and dedication of the

ministers are respectively being discouraged and in fact being assassinated. In many other

countries, ministers are encouraged to be creative and dedicated. Those who achieve these

two, are commended, not ridiculed.

If the decision of the Minister is to be reviewed, there should be a lawful justification for

that step. Secondly, the discussion should be scientific, not emotional or casual. For my part, I

appeal to the honourable members not to set aside the Minister’s decision. Instead, they

should uphold it and commend him for the work well-done.

The Sudan war jet fighters had been throughout these weeks continuously bombing civilian areas and targeting the SPLA positions in Raga County, particularly in of Kafia Kingi and Hofrat Nahas  areas while SAF ground forces had been advancing towards Raga town.

Since the SPLA forces withdrew from Heglig, the Sudan armed forces have turned another flash point to Raga County in Western Bahr El Ghazal State targeting the area which contains mineral resources discovered in the areas and these are cement and iron.

Brigadier Gawer was speaking to thousands of people gathered on Wednesday in Wau main square while celebrating the SPLA/M anniversary day.

“The National Congress Party (NCP) regime in Khartoum needs to plunder resources of South Sudan. Whenever the heard that oil is discovered in Nimule, South Sudanese border town to Uganda, they will today claim the town to be part of the Sudan, but we the SPLA, South Sudan’s gallant forces are ready to prevent such malicious ambition practiced by them,” Gawer said.

“This time needs every South Sudanese national to defend his or her country therefore we are urging youth to join the army to protect their territorial borders”, he said.

“SPLM-DC party would like to congratulate our gallant forces the SPLA and Martyrs on the 29^th anniversary and for liberating the people of South Sudan” read part of the letter signed by the party acting secretary.

SPLM-DC said the ruling party liberated South Sudanese from Khartoum oppression in all kinds which led to the declaration of independence of the republic of South Sudan on the 9^th July.

South Sudanese yesterday turned up in multitude to celebrate SPLM/A 29^th anniversary, of the day when southern army officers and soldiers fired the first bullets of struggle in the Jonglei capital Bor on 16^th May, 1983.

The two battalions in Bor were angered by forceful transfer to the north Sudan.

Commemoration of this date signals the great day from all other days to be celebrated throughout the country.

Deng Dau said, yesterday during the celebration of 29th Anniversary congratulated the nation on behalf of wounded soldiers, martyrs and heroes, widows and even those in the front line.

He said, significant for the orphans, widows would be development of the Country and the regulation for delivering services to them through the office in Jebel west of Juba town..

He said South Sudan should go for negotiation, because they are part of the African Union, UN and other bodies.

He said it is after 29 years that they got the flag of South Sudan and this was for the first time after their getting independence that they celebrated.

“It is the responsibility of international community to bring back Khartoum to table, stop bombardment and order withdrawal of its forces from Abyei,” Pagan Amum Okeich, South Sudan chief negotiator said.

He however charged Sudan negotiation team of jumping off the table in Addis Ababa when the two were to sign an agreement putting to an end pending issues..

Amun said government in Juba is committed to implementing the AU roadmap and UNSC Resolution 2046 and they are ready to resume talks with Khartoum.

Amum reaffirmed his government readiness to resume talks with Khartoum saying it was Khartoum Defense delegation that left the table in Addis and launched attack on territory of South Sudan instead.

“We are always ready for peace talks only Khartoum that is not,” he said.

Amum addicted Sudan president black heart toward the new republic and wanted to drag it into war.

He continued to say that Bashir did not believe from the first day of signing 2005 peace deal that South would become independent and take ownership of its resources.

Chief negotiator described Sudan president as a failed leader who resorts to insults after defeat of its forces.

“We are insects, why did he (Bashir) run out of Panthou?” he said in a dismissal tone. The claim by Sudan president that his forces chased away SPLA forces and liberate it was nonsense, he said.

“If we had not voluntarily withdrawn from Panthou why did Bashir come to dance in Panthou?” he continued.

“No way for Sudan to take our resources. We have liberated this country,” he said thoughtfully. “The confident gallant SPLA are able to defend our territory and integrity from the foreign aggression,” he said.

“We taught them and this is what we will continue to do,” he said amid cheering multitude in response to false allegation of killing more than one thousand South Sudan troops in Panthou (Heglig).

Kiir said instead it was the courageous SPLA forces that inflicted heavy casualties on the Sudan army in weeklong takeover of Panthou (Heglig).

“Bashir (Sudan president) has something to deny,” he reiterated.

He pondered how Bashir counted SPLA corpses to conclude to have killed thousand plus in Panthou (Heglig).

“Does he (Bashir) know how many SAF died in the first day SPLA entered Panthou to dislodge and put them on the run?” asked Kiir the Sudan president.

Sudan claimed that SAF killed 1,200 soldiers SPLA in Panthou day after Juba announced pull out of SPLA forces from area it captured from them.

SPLA ended a 10-day seizure of main oil area of Heglig last month locally known by Juba as Panthou.

Kiir downplayed assertion by Khartoum government that its forces will militarily come to Juba to change its regime.

“This thing will not happen, Bashir is just dreaming,” he said referring to call of regime change by Khartoum.

Kiir further said Khartoum will not deny again it supports South militias from the clear evidence of the recent cross over forces of Maj.Gen John Duith Yiech and Brigadier General James Duoth Lam who gave up their mission of fighting against South Sudan with intention to closing Ethiopia border with new republic.

“Bashir should know that time to kill Southerners with another southerner (or Abid with Abid as they call it) is over,” Kiir said praising patriotic forces that defected to them and encouraged the remaining militias to do the same.

In the same context the President added that his forces will not touch Sudan but should Sudan touch them, he said the brave SPLA will teach them lessons.