Kiir and his mood of jingoism!

Kiir and his mood of jingoism

3 April 2021

By Gwado Ador

In this piece, I will explore how the ailing President Salva Kiir Mayardit conducts himself today as our president until he became one of the most divisive and controversial leaders in our history.

Kiir, however, is under immense pressure today to give up power because his leadership has been riddled with extreme poverty, abuse of power, corruption and lack of political will to say the least.

Surprisingly enough, the call for Kiir to quit the political scene was not coming from his arch-enemies. But this time around, it has come from his close circles, mainly some members of Jieng Council of Elders. They claimed Kiir is no longer fit to lead and manage the diversity and contradictions in the country!

All along, and since the independence in July 2011, People were not at ease. The country witnessed inter-communal fighting, systematic deprivation, fragmentation and segregation based on nepotism and ethnic favouritism.

Since then, Kiir went viral to accuse his political adversaries, the comrades of yesterday that they conspired against his leadership and the ills befalling South Sudan today are now of their own making.

Kiir accused his comrades of seeking to topple him, and they are feverishly working to undo the achievement of the liberation movement and the dividends of the struggle!

Hell broke loose when the civil war started in December 2013, killing so many lives and displacing millions of others. A conflict described by the international media as ethnically motivated that engulfed the whole country.

The stakes were so high, people lost their lives in tribal disputes and in senseless conflicts over natural resources. Ancestral lands belonging to others were confiscated by competing tribal interests using government draconian measures to control across the country.

The dodgy character of President Kiir and his inclination to outweigh the balance in favour of his ethnic Dinka majority in the disputed zones was so bizarre. Thus, leaving most of the communities to seek justice for the restoration of their rights. The case in point is the issue of Collo Land dispute in the Upper Nile.

Kiir, however, lacks the political will to adjudicate between the competing tribal interests nor he’s willing to bring peace to his suffering people. His attitudes towards others have been always marked by bias. He’s working on a subtle sinister plan for total Jieng domination in South Sudan.

Things went down the hill, and now most of the people are dissatisfied, including his own supporters. People are unhappy with the state of affairs in the country which was bereft politically and economically, leaving most of the people insecure and worse off.

Some of Kiir’s senior advisors including Koul Manyang Juk and Awet Akot stepped forward recently urging him to stand down because according to them, ‘Kiir has lost control and is now unfit, he’s mentally incapacitated.

But, Kiir caved in saying he is going nowhere because he had no chance to deliver so that he brings the desired peace and unity to the country! His problem is squarely his distractors and political enemies.

However, Kiir is not ready yet to forgive his political rivals or give them the benefit of the doubts; because he views and believes that Dr Riek Machar and his colleagues are still his arch- enemies in disguise, he trusts nobody.

Kiir thinks that they are still lurking in the dark, waiting for the right moment to strike and oust him from power.

In my view, this is a total delusional attitude conceived out of bitterness, hate and spite.

It is not the first time Kiir would refer in the mood of bellicose and jingoism to the past events with outright grudges and unreconciliatory terms.

I hope no one was caught by surprise, including Riek Machar himself! If some do, then they’re fools!