By Eng. Charles Barnaba Kisanga
JJUBA, JANUARY 5TH 2023 (OPINION, SUDANS POST) – Towards the end of last year, a twist of fate made headlines after a supporter of Rt Hon Speaker from the youth league boasted on social media calling on SPLM supporters to assembly to the Juba International Airport to receive her as the incoming President of South Sudan after she was given chance in Nairobi to Chair the East African Speakers Forum. That pronouncement immediately brought condemnation as some saw it like she was plotting against a sitting head of State of South Sudan.
It was quickly denied of course and even the supporter tried to claim it was a hacker running his FB account but a quick check on his timeline would reveal he did it on purpose because somehow he was carried by euphoria to announce the rumours which had been ongoing within the political and security circles; that Rt Hon Speaker was not hiding her ambition for the top job and she had been deliberately de-campaigning the President to promote herself better than him and all the other VPs. It is amazing that even VP Dr Wani Igga who accepted and supported her so that she can land in the Speaker chair was now being undermined in the line of succession by her ambition.
As the saying goes, there is no smoke without fire and it seems the Youth Leader was just making the Nation know what the Rt Hon Speaker had been making her supporters know. It was no surprise then within weeks the Chairman of SPLM and President of the Country swiftly called an emergency meeting of the SPLM Party which made sure the line of succession in the Party was defined and there was no chance of grapping the top chair unwittingly as the Senior leadership did not include Rt Hon Speaker now except in the diluted PolitBureu of which she even gapped the seat of a popular aspirant. However before Cde Nunu Kumba can even think of the top chair even she is not even fit for the current Speaker position leave alone the one of VP or President?
Her track record as Speaker so far shows that she is still unfit for that position. Since the Revitalized Transitional Legislative Assembly (RTNLA) was reconstituted on bases of the power sharing in the agreement giving SPLM IG 55% and opposition 45% things have not been going well. The Speakership went to SPLM while opposition has 2 deputies from IO and other parties. The SPLM-IG Speaker then went to Cde Jemma Nunu Kumba to the surprise of many because of her past underperformance and now corruption allegations are ripe. Even it was more intriguing to be appointed into that post because by then Cde Jemma Nunu was holding the least cabinet position in Government, that of Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, though she was Acting Secretary General of SPLM and under her leadership SPLM was doing badly.
When one moves steadily from top sovereign ministries then to the least ministerial portfolio it can only happen if you have not been performing well in your duties and in such case you cannot be promoted to Speaker chair again because the chair needs high performing person. So it was just appointment for accommodation not a chair got via competition or Election or because Cde Jemma Nunu could deliver. Since 2010 when she was badly humiliated in Election bid in Western Equatoria Cde Jemma Kumba had used dirty politics, lies, intimidation, threats, appointment of illiterate and underperforming staff in order to continue to survive in Government positions.
It is well known in political circles that she colluded with somebody to have that Speaker position through obstructing what the Chairman wanted to do. At any rate under her a number of committees in the RTNLA went to be headed by opposition MPs such as SPLM-IO and SSOA. It has now emerged that some specialised committees headed by opposition find it hard to perform their tasks as the speaker does not show the spirit of working as a leader who embraces unity and tolerance for the sake of the Peace agreement and building a prosperous country regardless who she can work with.
Specialised committees headed by members of opposition parties in the RTNLA are routinely ignored by the Speaker and side-lined in decision making process so that such many committees are rendered ineffective in Parliament. She even turns down requests for meeting with Chairpersons of specialised committees headed by opposition MPs in order to discuss work plans.
Also it is said the Speaker tries to bully opposition MPs so that they show loyalty to her first not their party so they can be slated for things like members being given chances to travel to attend important conferences abroad which may involve some DSA. I got many examples through interviewing MPs and opposition Chairpersons but I cannot quote them by names in order to protect those who confided the information to me. Members from opposition who wish to be considered for something beneficial has to adhere to “Nunusim”. Nunusim has become an acronym associated with people who sing loyalty to the Speaker or Former Acting Secretary General where she becomes like an idol next to a goddess. You need to sing her name day and night with praises so that you are allowed some access to work or facilities.
It has nothing to do with the spirit of serving a country which has a Flag and an Anthem. Government jobs are supposed to be there so that people deliver services to the citizens and the country regardless of their background; but if jobs means you have only to sing loyalty to a leader without any performance then such organisation will be going down the drainage. It is exactly how she has destroyed SPLM because even if one cannot deliver anything for the Party then sing her name and bow to her then they are the ones promoted over performing individuals. It is same style that led to her failure as Governor and it trailed her in all her former ministerial portfolios.
Now the actions of the current Speaker amounts to undermining and hindering the fully implementing of the peace agreement especially the Parliament which is supposed to be a watch dog over Government affairs. By trying to render positions given to opposition in the RTNLA ineffective, it shows her incompetence. It is a direct threat to smooth implementation of the agreement and such actions can easily take the country back to war. According to TROIKA and UN anybody who is hindering the smooth implementation of the agreement which cost so much to conclude could face UN sanctions and I’m surprised such a person like Rt Hon Jemma Nunu Kumba is being allowed to get away with undermining the smooth implementation of the agreement without punitive sanctions being imposed on her.
If the UN Panel of Experts lacked the information then I have laid it bare for them and they should come to see how this Parliament is a hung parliament because of the incompetent Speaker. Also it seems the East African Assembly are misinformed that is why they can allow a South Sudanese Speaker who undermines many people plus undermining the Revitalized peace agreement to chair the East African Assembly even if it is just for sometimes and on rotational bases.
Undermining opposition in Parliament is what prompted the SPLM-IO to walk out last year and boycott many sittings until the matter was resolved via the Presidency with agreement that people will cooperate. But still the undermining continued done in subtle and hidden ways whereby our Parliament has become a house of gossiping and Parliamentary administration and ABCs are reduced to nothing as Rt Hon runs everything single handily.
Hence for the coming period of the new extension (Road Map) we need somebody who embraces democracy and ready to work with opposition on equal bases without forcing people to worship a human being for the sake of a few travels abroad. The SPLM should take this advice carefully because the Party is now on life support because of the actions of the Former Acting Secretary General and Dr Akol Paul Kordit, the new Deputy Secretary General for Political Affairs, will have a tough task to rebuild a Party which Rt Hon Speaker almost annihilated with her bad politics of running organisation in a style never seen anywhere in the world.
Further it was a great embarrassment when East African Inter-Parliamentary Games were hosted in Juba in December 2022. The event was poorly organised with the Speaker said to be hoarding all the money meant for well organisation of the venue and the games and she is now facing corruption allegations on use of funds allocated for the games. Not even an ambulance was provided during the games and accident victims were carried away via private cars to the hospital. It was a pity seeing injured MPs being taken in private cars without stretchers to the hospital while millions of dollars were earmarked to facilitate the games. The incentives that were said to be paid mostly never reached those who deserved it and a lot of malpractices happened as detailed in the concerned MPs complain which the writer has seen.
Further unfitness comes from the blunders committed while working as Acting Secretary General and holding other ministerial portfolios till 2021. Cde Jemma Nunu made some blunders which could not really allow somebody in Government, if it was democratic country or even the standards of democracy in Kenya, to continue holding public office after that.
One of such blunders committed while she was Acting Secretary General of the SPLM was the act of appointing wrong people as MPs and then trying to dismiss dozens, precisely 35 MPs from the SPLM party who were elected since 2010. These MPs elected since then were under the SPLM party which was before the formation of the current RTNLA. Earlier on the Chairman HE President Kiir made it clear those who were elected since 2010 are the really representative of grass roots and they cannot be removed. Nevertheless that assertion by the President seemed not to go well with the Acting Secretary General. Some of the MPs she intended to dismiss were among those who had tried to raise a voice against her autocratic and bottom up policies which had dismantled the party to the extent people had been saying the SPLM is a dead party which cannot win any democratic elections.
In place of those she tried to dismiss she tried to bring in new amateurs like her loyal secretary who had no political backgrounds just loyalists die hards who thought SPLM Party was Jemma Nunu. However the act of trying to dismiss the MPs backfired when those MPs banded together and raised complains which reached the President and Chairman of the Party HE General Salva Kiir. As a result the list of Comrade Jemma Nunu of SPLM MPs going to the TNLA was again cancelled and Deputy Chairperson, VP Dr Wani Igga was assigned to make a new list reinstating those affected MPS.
In a democratic system anybody in a high office committing such a grave mistake cannot be allowed to retain office again, leave alone going on to be appointed as Speaker of TNLA. How will you even face the MPs you tried to dismiss and they are back to work with you? It is a big shame when one is forced to swallow their own pill because the shame associated with it cannot go away and it will lead to you abusing your power trying to undermine your presumed enemies whom you had no power to remove as you wished. You will always feel guilty conscious and ashamed when you meet face to face with any of the aggrieved MPs. The end game is incompetence.
Now my dear citizens of South Sudan and also. The MPs tell me which mistakes in Government can be enough to have somebody dismissed or impeached? Okay I agree with our President that he can hardly dismiss wrong doers from his cabinet or Government in case they stage a rebellion However we have yet to see a rebellion led by a woman. But the shame of holding office with so many blunders would even be enough to a really conscious person to just resign to save their dignity and reputation if any was left.
Now coming to the constituency, Jemma Nunu was appointed to Parliament in 2011 and never came via Election and hence she does not represent any constituency because she stood for Governor in 2010 and she was badly defeated even though she was Chairperson of SPLM in the state. It hence shows she has no popularity and WES people know her incompetence
very well and that is why she was voted against. So appointing a person without grassroots support as Speaker cannot help heal a divided country. Current RT Hon continue to hold so many grudges against so many people because of her Election defeat in 2010. Working with grudges only produce underperformance and more hatred and divisions and abuse of power. It is not right to appoint someone as Speaker who is underperforming and who failed Election because she cannot represent the interest of even her own constituency if she can have one.
So it is high time for the RTNLA MPs to make a bold move and show exit door to the current RT Hon Speaker via impeachment or compelling her to make a dignified resignation taking into account all the failures enumerated above here. Also for how long do the Party SPLM want to tolerate failure and dwelling on illusion that the citizens can just vote for SPLM because of the name instead of service delivery. The Party restructuring should make sure under performance can no longer be tolerated and it should work with people with popularity who can motivate the citizens and bring about praise to the Party. The Party should tell its Chip Whip that enough is enough let Comrade Jemma Nunu Kumba just go.
The writer is a former minister of information for Western Equatoria State. Follow him HERE on Facebook.
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