A request to the new W. Equatoria governor
By Manasseh Zindo
March 10, 2008 — MY request for the appointment of a new governor for Western Equatoria State (WES), finally came on Friday March 7, 2008 after the President of the Government of South Sudan (GOSS), Salva Kiir made the verdict appointing Hon. Jemma Nunu Kumba as the third postwar Governor of Western Equatoria State.
As a journalist I was on Friday busy paying much attention to the visit by GOSS President Salva Kiir to Kampala Uganda. But as the President’s plane touched down at Entebbe International Airport in Uganda, I got a text message known as SMS from a friend in Yambio alerting me that a new governor had been appointed. I wrote back to ask who has been appointed, but my SMS was not answered but thanks to wide network, a colleague working with Sudan Radio Service called from Nairobi to inform me that Radio Juba has announced the appointment of Hon. Jemma Kumba, which I immediately followed with contacts in Khartoum and Juba who confirmed to me the appointment.
I now want to send my message of congratulation to Her Excellency, Jemma whom I have known for a very longtime and I am sure if she gets the support that she needs, she can make a difference. Nunu as we know her, is one of the leading faces to have emerged from the Azande women in our time and her rise from a mere member of the SPLM in 1990s to the governorship of Western Equatoria State, testify of the journey she that has walked in nearly two decades.
However, there are complications trailing the appointment of Hon. Jemma, and a lot is expected of her to reach to her critics and allies alike. Despite the fact the Jemma is an Azande, the largest dominant ethnicity in Western Equatoria State, the way she was nominated is raising eyebrows amongst people in Azandeland. This has been evident in the last days leading to her appointment late Friday, and has continued.
The nomination of Jemma Kumba came from Khartoum instead of Yambio, the heart of Azandeland. This is not a discriminatorily reference against other tribes in Western Equatoria State but its in reference to the struggle that took place amongst the Azande in the race to this appointment. Khartoum is still considered by people in the former liberated areas as a hostile place and the Azande community in Khartoum who nominated Hon. Jemma are regarded as being influenced by pro-National Congress Party (NCP) figures. Mrs. Jemma Kumba, Col. Joseph Bakosoro and Joseph Seluiman Kanido were nominated in Khartoum. The latter is not familiar to people in Yambio who consider themselves as the diehards of the SPLM and feel that they should have been the ones to have a final say over the nomination.
I will now reveal some of the points that I hinted-at in my last article. The nomination list that came from Yambio did not carry the name of Hon. Jemma but those of Col. Patrick Zamoi (WES Governor 2005-2006), Col. Samuel Bati and Col. Joseph Bakosoro. The Azande people in Juba nominated Col. Samuel Bati and Col. Joseph Bakosoro.
I will talk shortly of games that explain some tricks that insiders say took place in Juba as the different nomination lists from the Azande people tried to make its way to the office of the GOSS president in Juba, but before that, the appointment of Hon. Jemma has dealt a big blow to a large tendency among the Azande-men who perceive themselves as leaders and have dominated leadership in Azandeland since time-memorial.
Although Hon. Mary Biba was the first ever Azande Woman Commissioner and now two others in Ibba County and Anzara County respectively, the power they exert was or is not considered that powerful. It now remains to be seen how these cultural men will adjust to the fact of a woman governor.
Back to the issue of nomination lists. Its emerging that the nominated list approved by all Azande chiefs, religious leaders, WES ministers and which had the blessing from Yambio did not make it to the office of the GOSS President. The list is alleged to have been distorted at the last minute and another list attached to the document that accompanied the list from Yambio, which the president might have considered in his final judgment.
The fixing of the nomination list is alleged to have been conducted by an Azande intellectual in Juba who was assigned by a rival group to ensure that a faked document perpetuated to be from the ground is delivered to the GOSS president. These kind of allegations has become mode of accepting defeat in Africa, but as the notion seem to have recently been hammed in Kenya’s post-election impasse where a result that didn’t meet the expectation of the masses forced the government to a tight corner, it remains to be seen what the people will make of Mrs. Kumba’s appointment.
Reports coming from both Juba and Yambio indicate that the Azande people are not opposed to the appointment of Hon. Jemma but the process of her nomination and how her name made it into the GOSS President while she was not nominated by the powerful voice from Yambio is a point of contention. But like I said in my previous article, I am told that the leadership of our country knows who is who. It has also been brought to my notice that a parliamentary delegation from Western Equatoria State is heading to Juba with a petition against the appointment.
Whether the critics of Hon. Jemma like it or not she has been announced the Governor and they will have to respect her time in office and cooperate with her for the development of Western Equatoria State because that is what moderate members of the state like myself want to see in our beloved state, that there is cooperation at all levels of the government for the enhancement of development and poverty eradication.
Hon. Nunu who is a renowned figure in the world-wide circle of women and has rubbed shoulders with the likes of Prof. Wangari Maathai, Graca Machel and President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, having such world icons to emulate, is what Hon. Jemma’s leadership as the second woman governor from the greater Equatoria region, if am not wrong a milestone.
The new governor has another shadow dangling over her head which she will have to wrestle and its what her critics term, an attempt to establish “Kumbas dynasty”, an idea I don’t buy because this allegation is based on the fact that her husband is a Minister in GOSS. I don’t condone this cheap politics because there are several government officials in Sudan who together with their couples occupy ministerial positions in both GOSS and GOS. I don’t have problem when people are given jobs on merit.
The new governor also faces another censure from the community, who accuse her of abandoning a key position which she held of SPLM politburo. The Azande fear that the post might be taken by another tribe like the case of the late governor of Western Equatoria State who left his position as senior adviser to GOSS President which was take a different tribe. This they say reduces their representation at all levels of the government and Nunu will have to explain to her people that her move means well for them and the state at large.
The author is a Sudanese journalist based in Kampala. He can reached at [email protected]