Secession: A legitimate divorce with abusive partners
By Francis Dida Kasimbe*
Mar 10, 2006 — I beg to differ with Watts Roba Gibia Nyiringwa ( Sudan Tribune: March 09 2006) who calls for time to decide unity or secession for Southern Sudan.
We only have five years, not decades, to determine our destiny and must not squander our only tangible opportunity to do so. Never again should our children and future generations of Southerners have to return to the bush to fight for a missed opportunity. There may be no bush to return to! The wounds inflicted will not heal while our enemies play for time with the power to inflict more wounds in the future.
There is a saying of the wise that ?a smiling snake is just in good mood; never kiss it!’
It was Nimeeri who signed the Addis Ababa Agreement in 1972 in the name of unity in Sudan and abrogated it ten years later to establish an Islamic State. Since 1955, whenever Southerners exerted political pressure to achieve equitable citizenship, the politicians handed over power to the military who repressed us. When the military failed to crush the ensuing armed struggles, they handed over power to the politicians who played for time. This has and will be the cycle of events in the Sudan until the South secedes, that is why we cannot afford to be fooled and suffer any more.
We were told we could not have a viable independent state in Southern Sudan: we were backward, landlocked and underdeveloped with no resources and have all other odds against us, only to be proved otherwise. I belong to the generation that never saw peace, liberty and prosperity in Southern Sudan and have only few years, not decades, to live. I believe we should campaign for secession right now to forestall any delusions of unity that is impossible to achieve!
* Francis Dida Kasimbe is a Sudanese residing in UK, he can be reached at [email protected]