Is the Tumaini Initiative Attempting to Create Eight Presidents Disguising as National Leadership Council (NLC) or Is it Revitalizing, the Revitalized Peace Agreement?

By: Ateny Wek Ateny

South Sudan has been and continued to be a place for experimenting things that never been applied anywhere before. Born into geo-political family, South Sudan, came to being while being doubted to have the ability to pick itself up, if she falls to the ground. Therefore, the adjective “fragility” was attached to it since its birth on July 9th, 2011, in an attempt to see it accepting anything brought on its table by anybody. Hence, she was born with another established parallel administrative entity in the name of UNMISS.

Unfortunately, the war for power struggle flared up on December 15, 2013, which divided and destroyed our social fabrics to the point of nearly impossible to stitch again. Factions after factions, affiliated to ethnicity were created and turned into political parties masquerading as political saviors. Wolves in sheep’s clothes at best. Still, any peace is better than war. Hence, we were given the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan which we have wholeheartedly accepted.

Notwithstanding, it is always said, “having peace that provides ceasefire even for a week is better than continuous fighting “. In that, the September 2018 Agreement was rejected by the parties now negotiating in Nairobi, Kenya under the Tumaini Peace Initiative. I thought we were already given peace Agreements with formula that has never been successful or tried anywhere. Yet, we need to know which one is with the holdout groups.

Now, what do we expect of Tumaini Initiative? Will they be signing a peace agreement that, signs out the revitalized peace agreement and replace it with what suites the leaders of holdouts group? If, in fact the Tumaini is signing off the R-ARCSS or tries to limit Dr. Riek Machar’s powers given to him by the agreement of 2018 and further limits the powers of the President, then what do we expect to be transpired as a result? Dr. Riek has already protested the Tumaini attempt to undo the Revitalized Agreement through backdoor vide his letter to the Mediators dated June 19, 2024. Imagine, the war stopped because Dr. Riek’ SPLM/A IO is implementing the agreement, not the Tumaini’s holdout group signing to replace him. So, we must be careful not to play with fire.

Again, for the sake of peace to reign in the country, President Salva Kiir Mayardit has already given up some of his powers to the parties in the Revitalized Peace Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan. At least 4 governors and more than 10 National Ministers, some Speakers, some Ministers and commissioners at the state level are appointed or revoked prior to the advice of a given signatory of the R-ARCSS. What more can President Kiir away again and remain as President of this country? In a leaked document trending on social media and particularly on Radio Tamazuj’s website, I was shocked to learn that the Tumaini- holdout groups have proposed the establishment of leadership council. The composition of NLC shall comprise of the President, First Vice President, 4 Vice Presidents, one representative from RTGoNU and another from the Tumaini’s signatory – 8 in numbers, including the President. The author is not sure of what is meant by the representative of RTGoNU apart from the President, First Vice President and 4 Vice Presidents? It is clear the Tumaini group wanted a share in leadership – hence the proposal of NLC.

Even, if the proposal is approved, the following provisions bedeviled the good intentions of the Tumaini group. In this proposal and I quote “the Role of the National Leadership Council is to provide leadership and guidance to Join Defense Board, The NCRC, The National Elections Commission, the Political Parties Council, and other agencies whose mandate is relevant to the implementation of Tumaini Framework”. Unquote, if this NLC is established, then we shall have 8 Presidents seating in the same council. The decisions taken by this council would be by two third majority, which means 4 members plus one would veto the President. In fact, the Tumaini is negotiating President Kiir out of power. To be continued in the next article.

The writer is the former Press Secretary in the Office of the President and the views expressed here are his own, devoid of any internal or external influence. I can be reached at atenypiokerwek@gmail.com