South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Okech Francis
A member of Parliament from the South Sudan Opposition Alliance has resigned from Parliament, citing failure by the leadership in providing services to the people.
Mabior Riiny Lual tendered in his resignation in a letter written to Vice President Hussein Abdelbaggi Akol on August 25.
“We have a country where about 70 percent of the population is illiterate and there is chronic lack of quality schools and hospitals and people are dying from hunger and preventable diseases. In my opinion, our daily thinking should be preoccupied with how we can save our people from poverty,” Lual said in his resignation, adding, “but, since we are doing nothing to help our people, I see it fit to resign.”
“I am resigning because serving in this government has become a mockery and a scam,” he said.
Vice President Hussein Abdelbagi Akol heads the Service Delivery Cluster tasked with overseeing education and health in South Sudan.
While Lual in his resignation noted Dr. Costello Garang Riiny, as the party chairperson in SSOA, he however directed his message to VP Abdelbaggi as the representative of the alliance as well as a high-ranking official in the country.
“Please accept this notice as my formal resignation as a Member of Parliament and as a Commissioner in Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC),” he said.
“My resignation should not come to you as a surprise. Remember in the middle of last year, I asked you whether you still remember what we fought for and why we signed the agreement with government. You never gave me a reply. You will think that I must be mad to resign. You believe this government is a mana from heaven and it is an opportunity to get rich. I see it otherwise,” he said.
“My resignation should also tell others that, I am an independent thinker and I can quit when I believe what I am doing is against my belief and conscience.
We cannot continue to call ourselves leaders when the very people we serve are dying and leaders are illegitimately getting rich at their expense.”
He lashed at the leadership for ignoring the plight of the people of South Sudan.
” I came to realize that we are misleaders and South Sudanese are unlucky to be led by political conmen. I had sincerely believed that opposition was going to change the political trajectory of our country by opposing failed SPLM led government and be the voice of the people. This has turned out not to be the case. It would be a waste of time and energy staying in that Parliament,” Lual said.
“People are dying from preventable diseases when men and women entrusted with service delivery fly out to get treatment for malaria and other diseases that can be treated in Juba taking with them millions of US dollars as allowances,” he said.
“I have other things that deserve my attention than being a phony member of parliament with no voice. I can serve South Sudan in other capacities as a private citizen.
