We Don’t Need Good Salaries, We Need Vulnerable Citizens
A Good Government Salary? No! For what? We Just Need More Gullible and Vulnerable Citizens.
By Taban Kwaje:
On Friday, November 4th, 2022, the Country yet again witnessed the graduation of 10,000 personnel of the country’s unified forces in accordance with the 2018 peace accord, which demands the training and graduation of 83,000 unified force personnel to take charge of the Country’s security during its transitional period.
This graduation is one in a series of many – after the grand one held in Juba on 30th August 2022, attended by several heads of state and distinguished foreign dignitaries.
It was viewed as a breakthrough in the implementation of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS), especially Chapter Two on security arrangements that had significantly remained behind schedule.
The graduation of the unified forces is hoped to professionalize the army, make it reflective of the national diversity, and more importantly, silence the guns and return the country to relative peace and stability.
During the first graduation event in Juba, the representative of the civil society organizations, Mr. Edmund Yakani urged the good government to “put a good salary” to the pockets of the security forces to end what he described as “unknown gunmen”. Whereas his call was received with applause and ululations by the crowd present, however, he sounded less updated about current trends in events in the country. He should have realized that the criminality of robberies by the so-called unknown gunmen isn’t quite rampant nowadays because some members of the said group have devised smarter ways of survival that appear acceptable in the eyes of the public.
It’s only fools who do the same thing over and over again and expect not to be caught. Our new survival strategies are working very well, and we are not complaining. So, we no longer need a good government salary. In case he is not informed, here is how we survive in absence of a government salary.
If you drove around Juba, especially at night, you would have seen our men in uniform manning and searching vehicles and bikes for alleged illegal weapons. This is a camouflage to extort money from motorists. If you are keen enough, you would have noticed that we are not interested in whether someone has a gun or not. We only care about “haga moyo” (something – usually money – for water).
Those who are clever, simply dip their hands into their pocket and give us what we want without wasting time being searched. Those stingy motorists – by the time we are through with them – would have parted with 5,000 SSP or more after pleading for our forgiveness.
We are all over the roads in Juba at night strategically positioned as early as 7:00 pm to receive our daily bread. If you thought the operations were only to collect illegal guns or impound stolen cars, have you ever seen or heard the news of anyone apprehended for possessing an illegal weapon or vehicle?
Even those motorists without valid logbooks, we settle the matter amicably on the road so long as they cooperate and give what belongs to Caesar to Caesar.
Our motive is not only illegal weapons because we know – anyway – who has a gun and where it is. This exercise is so far so rewarding, and we thank the public, especially the motorists for their cooperation.
For your information, this is not only in Juba, but our comrades elsewhere are also surviving through multiple roadblocks erected on highways particularly targeting truck drivers carrying merchandise.
The authorities in Juba know well that what we’re doing is illegal, but they can’t stop us because that’s the only coping mechanism we’ve since the political leaders can’t cater to our welfare.
They can’t take serious action against it. Even if they do, it’s just a Public Relations (PR) show to deceive the public. The truth is that they (the leaders) fear us and can’t dare us.
Our colleagues in the police, the traffic police in particular need no explanation. They are very comfortable on the roads during the day. They are well-equipped with the tactics to extort money from the public.
When they leave their duty stations in the evening, they go back home smiling with pockets loaded because there’s nothing more lucrative than wearing the white uniform, a White Beret, and a pistol on the waist while holding a whistle.
The big ones in offices survive adequately through issuing unlawful orders, introducing new vehicle licenses that are duplicates of what is prescribed by the law, and forcing motorists to comply with their orders!
Apart from selling those duplicate documents like driving assessment certificates and driving licenses, they also receive part of the daily collections from their boys and girls deployed on the roads.
You can’t even come to us to accuse our officers on the road of corruption because you will even exacerbate matters for yourself because we’re solely behind them.
Sometimes to look good, we may arrest the accused officers and detain them but set them free after your back and the case is closed.
Those in the immigration department have also their survival strategies which I don’t need to labor to explain more here. Our nation’s I.D and passport are now tradable commodities that anyone can access without needing to have any legal basis as prescribed in the law!
Have you asked yourself why bush meat and game products are sold in abundance across the country, yet we have a wildlife service? Please tell Mr. Yakani that we don’t need a good government salary. All we need now are more gullible and vulnerable citizens.
Taban Kwaje is a social anthropologist. He can be reached on taban.kwaje@gmail.com
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