#YouLeadSummit2020: South Sudan delegates call for free participation in nation building
YouLeadSummuit20: South Sudan delegates call for free participation in nation building
Some youth delegates participating in the East African YouLead youth Summit, 2020 are calling on the government to allow youths participate freely in building the South Sudan they envision.
The YouLead Summit is East Africa’s indigenous flagship Youth Leadership Development Program dedicated to amplifying youth voice and participation in regional governance.
The Summit, which is being held across the East African member states, both physically and online, under the theme Development is People, focused on the role of youth in Peacebuilding and conflict prevention.
South Sudan delegates discussed how youth are affected and what they can do to prevent violent extremism under the topic; “The South Sudan We Want”.
Speaking on Day Two of the Summit Tuesday in Juba the deputy president of the South Sudan Youth Union said she envisions a South Sudan where there is press freedom and freedom of expression.
Fernander Paul Machue, the deputy president of the South Sudan Youth Union says she envisions a South Sudan where there is press freedom and freedom of expression.
“We want a South Sudan that recognizes the importance of the freedom of expression among the journalists.” She said.
Machue added; “as it is in the constitution the rights of all journalists are put down but why are they not being put in practice? Why are journalists still suffering? Why are they being censored? I think we need a better South Sudan than that.” Machue says she wants to see a South Sudan that gives powers to the states and allows them to exercise these powers freely as it should in a federal governance system.
Grace Aguil Garang, an Alumni of the YouLead Summit says she wants to see a South Sudan that has a sustainable peace that will provide security to its citizens and enables all categories of people to go to school.
“The South Sudan I want is a literate South Sudan, a country in which its citizens; the young people, the old are literate.” Garang said.
She says about 90 percent of the country’s estimated 13 million people are illiterate and 99 percent have not joined higher institutions of learning. “That’s like one percent of the youth. So, the South Sudan I want is a country in which education is a value that is respected and is available to all the citizens.” Garang added.
The youths urged the South Sudan National Union president Gola Boyoi Gola to lead youth in protests demanding for some of the youth’s rights that are being violated.
Maliamungu Zacheus, one of the panelists says the South Sudan government wasn’t prepared for independence from day one. Addressing the Summit Zacheus says the South Sudan’ Political elite were not prepared to lead an independent nation after the Referendum in 2011.
That’s why today the government officers give contracts to foreign nationals instead of South Sudanese youths who even attend better schools abroad, he says.
“These experts they contract are people that you and I or any of us here studied with in Nairobi or Kampala or in Kigali, in the same universities. You find most of us even performed and got better degrees than these experts but it’s very shameful to find these experts being contracted to come and work in our countries yet we performed better than them in the universities.” Zacheus rants.
He says the government needs to trust the youth because they have been prepared from the beginning to transform the country into a peaceful, independent nation in the region and globally.
Speaking to South Sudan In- Focus, Soro William Sebit, another panelist, says youths are being denied a lot of rights in the country.
“We want to see that people are treated equally when it comes to the law; despite their age, gender, ethnicity and their political beliefs.” Sebit adds.
He says the government needs to show some commitment and seriousness in the implementation of the peace agreement to boost people’s confidence across the country.
“Until now, some people in the villages are not safe because government is unable to provide security so that people can go to their farms and cultivate,” Sebit told The Insider, adding with improved security, the youth will feel safe to engage in massive agricultural production in their home towns and produce enough food crops and animals to feed the country instead of relying on relief aid.
Wani Stephen tells The Insider that the youth should be given free space to engage in the implementation of the peace agreement and other international and UN treaties in the country.
“We need to enact the Youth Policy for example, in the revitalized peace agreement, there’s the aspect of the Youth Development Fund, (and) Women Development Fund. All these funds need to be consolidated such that we see the private sector giving enough time for the youth to develop in terms of their investment.” Added Stephen, the executive director of Democracy and Resiliency organization.
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