South Sudan:The State We Aspire To

South Sudan: The State We Aspire To was conceived and written mid-2009, two years to the conduct of the referendum on self-determination. The comprehensive peace agreement provided the people of Southern Sudan’ this inalienable right after nearly five decades of conflict. Peter Adwok Nyaba incisively discusses the high expectations and hopes the people of southern Sudan had, mixed with anxiety that characterises the fluid and unpredictable nature of the interim period leading to independence of South Sudan in 2011, and hence the title. In this second edition of South Sudan: The State We Aspire To, written after the eruption of violence in December 2013, the events vindicated what the author correctly discussed the situation southern Sudan was in as being ‘on the horns of a great dilemma’ or the attitude of its leaders being ‘between treason and stupidity.’ It was inevitable that the internal crisis in The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM)/Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) leadership and failure to pursue socioeconomic development commensurate with its liberation ideology would plunge the country into hell on earth.

Nyaba’s prime objective in The State We Aspire To, is to provoke a debate, inside and outside the SPLM and South Sudan at large, on the political future of South Sudan. He argues that the SPLM top leadership, cadres and general membership are collectively responsible for what is happening to this young nation having willfully abandoned the ideals for which the South Sudanese people sacrificed in the wars of national liberation. “I have criticized the SPLM leadership for its dismal performance in GOSS over the last six years, and I really mean it. There is no justification whatsoever for this performance except that SLPM suffered from a congenital ailment which afflicted its leaders.” (Peter Adwok Nyaba)

About The Author
The author is South Sudanese. Dr. Nyaba studied Geology in the University of Khartoum, and the Eotvos Loránd Technical University in Budapest, Hungary where he was awarded PhD by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Worked briefly as a field geologist in the Red Sea Hills, Eastern Sudan. Taught in Juba and Asmara Universities. A Trade Unionist and a Combatant in the SPLM/A. Was member of the SPLM National Liberation Council and Secretary for Mining and Industry in its National Executive Council. Represented Upper Nile State in the Council of States in the National Legislature following the consummation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005, becoming the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research in the Government of National Unity until July 2011. When South Sudan became an independent and sovereign state was appoint Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology. He is author of the Noma Award (1998) winning title The Politics of Liberation in South Sudan: An Insider’s View, Fountain Publishers, Kampala (1997).