Applaud E. Equatoria Assembly impeachment of cabinet
By Ohiyok D. Oduho *
September 30, 2006 — The problems of insecurity, poor administration and unnecessary abduction of innocent people in Torit, the temporary capital of Eastern Equatoria State (EES), have been taken up by the EES Interim Legislative Assembly (EESILA). A group of MPs from Torit are in Juba headed by their Speaker, Hon. Adelino Opi, and they have delivered their parliamentary details for impeachment of their Governor and his entire cabinet to the concerned authorities in South Sudan.
On September 29th, 2006, Juba television and Radio announced the decision of the EESILA to impeach the Governor and his cabinet. According to the report, Juba television said copies of the impeachment decision were sent to the office of the President of South Sudan (GoSS) and the South Sudan Interim Legislative Assembly (SSILA).
ESSILA members should really be commended for a job very well done. The action they have taken is what is expected of a parliament that represents its people. The Governor or any senior State government official has no power to take the law into his/her own hands.
The people of EES have suffered the previous war, they are certainly witnessing a large scale of cattle rustling and, God knows, whether or not they will ever benefit from the current talks between the Lord’s Resistance Army/Movement (LRA/M) and the Uganda government. The LRA/M has been one of the very many sources of insecurity in EES.
The current Governor or any one to come in future must not be above the law. Presidents, let alone Governors, are not above the law. They are guided by the Constitution and they try by all means not to violate the very constitution that guides them. Those who think they are above the law are deceiving themselves and as such would always fall victims of their own making.
Thus, GoSS should consider this kind of an exercise, impeachment procedure performed by the legislators in EES against their Governor and cabinet, as an important democratic exercise. It takes guts for appointed legislative assemblies to impeach their leaders – especially now that the State governments are at their infancies and their legislative assemblies are operating without constitutions. Operating without constitutions should not be a reason for abuse of power anywhere in South Sudan. Absence of a constitution does not mean that there is no constitution and as such Governors or otherwise must take the law into their own hands. In the event that a new constitution is lacking, the old constitution should always be used until such a time that the new constitution is introduced.
However, there is always a beginning for everything and GoSS should take note of this beginning and, if possible, approve it and use the exercise as a practical democratic example that could be encouraged by the GoSS and emulated by the other State governments in South Sudan.
If encouraged, exercises such as that of impeachment in EESILA could help reduce the supervisory role of the President of GoSS over the Southern Sudan government and executive institutions.
* The author is a columnist in the Sudan Vision Daily Newspaper. He can reached on [email protected]