By Luk Riek Nyak
BENTIU, 12 November 2009 (Gurtong) - Later this month, the Bul community of Mayom County has called for a general meeting on the way forward for dividing the county into two as per the GoSS President’s directives through the State Governments.
In 2007, former Commissioner of Mayom County Colonel Martin Mashod Deng was requsted by the Bul Community to raise their complaint on plans to separate the county with the State Government, failure of which was to result into sending a chiefs’ delegation to the GoSS headquarters in Juba.
He advised the community that dividing a county without any authorisation from GOSS is not acceptable and asked them to be patient as the matter was being looked into.
In September this year, the GOSS Minister for Cabinet Affairs Dr Luka Tombekana Manoja sent a letter to all Governors of South Sudan States informing them that the office of the President have received several requests in regard to the creation of new counties and called for an urgent need to put the request into action.
The community has also blamed the county’s citizens in the military who are deeply involved in municipal work and in politics instead of developing their county.
“We have requested every citizen of this county all over the world to come and attend the meeting at the end of this month since its main focus is on the creation of the new county. Those who have been informed but fail to come for the meeting should not blame us”, stated the gathering in unison.
Mayom County was recently divided into two counties; Western and Eastern Mayom but some area residents, most of whom are in the Diaspora, are opposed to the move.
The community also accused the Nuer Supreme Council based in Canada and the group of Bentiu community in Juba who are calling for the removal of Brigadier Taban Deng Gai from Governorship.
“These groups have nothing to do to the community. Their contribution is only by posting malicious comments on websites instead of taking a lead in developing their county as some of them claim to have enough qualification on leadership”, added the community.
Mayom County citizens in Juba, Khartoum and abroad including soldiers who did not attend the meeting on the creation of the new county were apparently unhappy but their concerns have been strongly rejected by the local community.
The local community has also urged the international community, the Government of Sudan and the Government of Southern Sudan to put their eyes on those groups whose aim is to divide the communities through non-peaceful means.
The demand for more counties has become so overwhelming that there is a need for a unified approach in order to ensure that any creation of new counties is not merely for political convenience, but must be a reflection of the collective effort to strengthen the decentralised system of governance for effective service delivery to the people.