{UAH} Onyango-Obbo says Kiir is too alcoholic, incompetent to lead

Folks;

 

Though I didn't know about President Salva Kiir's love affair with whiskey, I doubt if devotion to booze alone is his undoing here.

 

Methinks South Sudan is barely out of its mourning period; they still feel at loss since their "Father of the Nation" John Garang died. So, the two stepdads, Kiir and Machar, went straight for the "woman" and ignored the children entirely.

 

This is the time to call "Village Council" to sort out this family feud.

 

Pojim

 

 

 

Just two months ago, South Sudan looked weeks away from being admitted in the East African Community soon.

With the Monday coup attempt, and the country's quick descent in madness thereafter, it can kiss goodbye to the possibility for years to come.

As Africa's newest nation, South Sudan is just two years old. They have been two difficult years. It continues to fight and squabble on-off with north Sudan over everything from oil to territory.

It quickly became one of Africa's most corrupt states. The Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) has been mired in internal feuds. Indeed, many observers see the "coup" as an internal party dispute. President Salva Kiir himself blames his more charismatic former deputy Riek Machar, whom he sacked unceremoniously recently, for plotting the coup.

There are many sympathetic voices who say South Sudan's problems are simply "Africa's typical teething problems."

True, some of the more stable and democratic countries in Africa today like Ghana went through decades of brutal coups. However, South Sudan became independent in a very different global age. It is a more open world, and the resources needed to overcome national difficulties are often only a Google search away.

Also, nearly all African countries had a post-independence euphoria that lasted on average five years. These years saw rapid investment in social services, infrastructure, and belief in a great future before they were rudely interrupted by power-grabbing generals and one-party dictators.

South Sudan's euphoria wave lasted less than a year, and the evils of corruption, ham-fisted rule, and sectarianism took just months to blanket the nation.

More significantly, in all the African countries where ruling parties came to power after a successful liberation war — Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola, Uganda, Rwanda — the big chiefs have, for better or worse, been able to dominate and bring order.

In other words, whatever the "initial conditions" or unique history an African country has, where the party in power comes to power through a liberation war, there are special demands made of a leader that those in normal countries like Botswana don't have to deal with.

In South Sudan, its first leader John Garang was a man cut out for the job. Though he was clientilist, he still towered because he was sharp, charismatic, bold, and able to impose his authority on the SPLM.

Kiir took over after Garang died in a helicopter crash in 2005. Though he was initially seen as more democratic than Garang, Kiir has been unable to dominate South Sudan politics with ideas in part, critics allege, because he makes more trips to his whisky cabin in search of a tipple than to the bookshelf to seek ideas.

At the second anniversary celebrations in Juba, foreign visitors were shocked when during a reception, unruly South Sudanese totally ignored Kiir as he was speaking, and were milling about and shouting over his speech asking for nyama choma and beer.

Perhaps for that reason, there is hope. South Sudan cannot escape its painful history, and overcome the Stone Age conditions in which some of its people live tomorrow. That will take years. But Kiir and his corrupt and incompetent inner circle can still reform overnight, and even if they don't, they cannot rule forever.

Charles Onyango-Obbo is Nation Media Group's executive editor for Africa & Digital Media. E-mail: cobbo@ke.nationmedia.com. Twitter: @cobbo3