Sarah Cleto, Emmanuel Adil ‘loved’ for keeping in touch with their constituencies

JUBA – Residents of the country’s Western Bahr el Ghazal and Central Equatoria states have expressed happiness with their governors and some are ready to vote for them if elections are conducted today, according to interviews conducted by Sudans Post last week.

Sarah Cleto Hassan Rial is the governor of Western Bahr el Ghazal state, while Emmanuel Adil Anthony is the governor of Central Equatoria state, where South Sudan’s capital is located.

Most residents of Wau town, the capital of Western Bahr el Ghazal state, said they are happy with Governor Cleto, saying the governor was keeping in touch with them, despite challenges imposed by the ongoing economic downtrend resulting in price hikes.

“For me, I am not from the SPLM-IO, I am just an ordinary citizen and if elections were to be conducted today, I would vote for the current governor and what I like about her is that he is in touch with the her people. Yes, we have the economic crisis which is not only in Wau, but in the whole of the country and this is the result of the war and cannot be blamed on one person,” said Emmanuel Festo, a resident of Wau.

“We are happy because the governor in the midst of all these problems, economic problems, is still in touch with us and she spent most of her time in the state, not in Juba like the others I see and I can say that Western Bahr el Ghazal state is the only state in South Sudan where there is no extreme insecurity,” say another resident of Wau who requested not to be named.

“People in the government and in the security are cooperating between each other and this is making it easier for us to do our daily activities,” the resident added.

Teacher Deng, a resident of Wau said he is happy with the current governor because he doesn’t use political rhetoric against other people from other political parties and that authorities are not allowed to impose huge taxes at will against the citizens.

“I am happy with the governor and what makes me happier is that she doesn’t use hate speech like I see somewhere. We like our governor even our traders are happy with her because she does not impose unnecessary taxes and policemen are not imposing taxes against our people because this can increase badly the prices,” Deng said.

Other citizens also expressed a favorable position for the governor, still others like Ayom Dut, a lawyer, maintain that they “are still undecided because we have been busy of late about our own lives since the government doesn’t seem to care about the lives of the citizens, and I am talking about the government up from Juba to the smallest level of government in Western Bahr el Ghazal.”

‘BABA EMMY’

Citizens in Central Equatoria state’s capital Juba which also serves as the capital of the world’s youngest country admired Governor Emmanuel Adil Anthony for engaging the citizens with some referring to him as ‘Baba Emmy’.

“For us, we are happy with our governor, though we have reservations in his government but we understand that this is because Juba is the seat of the national government and its administration does not entirely lie in Baba Emmy’s hand,” said Charles Obote, an accountant with a local forex bureau.

“But we just like him because he engages us, though most of the things we agree to with him doesn’t happen, it is because of the bureaucracy imposed by the virtue of our state capital being the seat of the national government and this is a simple mathematic that if we host whole of the country plus Juba is congested, it becomes a center of crimes and illegal acts,” Charles Obote said.

Another businesswoman said she “would definitely vote [for him] why not? The man has tried his best. It is only this tax issue that is now threatening to ruin his legacy and this has nothing to do with him because you know the many generals in Juba who are surviving on those illegal activities either by looting public money, imposing tax at will or even stealing people’s properties including lands.”