SHOWDOWN in South Sudan as President suspends vice president, sacks cabinet.
Those removed include the vice president, Riek Machar, as well as Pagan Amum, the secretary-general of the ruling party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).
Special to USAfricaonline.com and USAfrica multimedia networks, Houston. Follow Twitter.com/Chido247, Facebook.com/MandelaAchebeChido Facebook.com/USAfricaChido , Facebook.com/USAfrica247
AFP, Juba: South Sudanese President Salva Kiir has suspended his entire cabinet and vice president in the largest reshuffle in the history of the two-year-old nation, the former information minister told AFP Tuesday.
The swathe of sackings has sparked concern among diplomats at potential instability in the fledgling nation, awash with guns, riven by ethnic rivalries and still reeling from decades of war.
“President Kiir wants to make a major reshuffle, so from the vice president downwards, all national ministers and deputy ministers have been removed,” said Barnaba Marial Benjamin, who until his suspension Tuesday was the information minister and government spokesman.
Those removed include the vice president, Riek Machar, as well as Pagan Amum, the secretary-general of the ruling party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).
Amum was the top negotiator with arch-foes Sudan at long-running African Union-mediated talks over a raft of issues left unresolved at independence, including border demarcation and oil exports, currently under threat of suspension again, this time by Khartoum.
Many of the ministers were key figures in the rebel SPLM or its armed wing that fought a brutal 1983-2005 war against the government in Khartoum, which led to a 2011 referendum in which South Sudan voted overwhelmingly to split from the north.
Large numbers of security forces were deployed on the streets of the capital — a common sight in the city — but all seemed calm.
However, embassies issued warnings to citizens to take care, including Britain, who said its nationals should “remain at home or in another safe place”.
“It is possible that this move could lead to increased political tension or disturbances in Juba and other parts of the country,” Britain’s foreign office warned in a statement.
Benjamin however scoffed at such concerns.
“Why should there be instability? This is a constitutional position… he (Kiir) is the head of the government,” said Benjamin, who said he was speaking now as a member of parliament, not as a minister.
“It is his constitutional mandate to form and dissolve a government.”
Amum was also suspended for alleged “mismanagement of the party” with a parliamentary committee to be set up to investigate allegations, Benjamin said, without giving further details.
No replacements have been announced, and it was not immediately clear whether all those suspended would return, or if new blood would be brought in to replace them.
“Some of these people will come back and some will not,” Benjamin added.
“Undersecretaries of the ministries will be taking charge in the absence of the ministers until the time that he will form the next government.”
While Juba has been rife with rumours in recent weeks about a potential reshuffle by Kiir — especially concerning tense relations with his deputy Machar — the move still took those involved by surprise.
“I’ve been told that this was announced on the national South Sudan television,” Amum told AFP.
“I understand, from the phone calls I have had, that I am suspended because of a number of reasons,” he added, without giving further details.
Residents in Juba said there was concern at the suspensions, which follows earlier orders by Kiir in April to clip the powers of Machar.
“People are staying at home, and if people are out in town they are rushing back just in case there is trouble,” said Richard Jok, a student.
South Sudan is divided by ethnic tensions, with the military struggling to control rebellion and mend a society torn apart by one of Africa’s longest-running wars, in which Khartoum pitted different southern militia forces against one another.
Machar, from the key oil producing Unity state, is a controversial figure for many in South Sudan, but commands loyalty among many branches of the Nuer people, which form an integral part of the footsoldiers of the new nation’s army.
He fought on both sides of the civil war, leading a splinter SPLM faction that sided with Khartoum, battling troops commanded by Kiir, who comes from the Dinka people.
Last month Kiir suspended two of his most senior and influential ministers to launch investigations into an alleged multi-million dollar corruption scandal.
Probes were launched into finance minister Kosti Manibe and cabinet affairs minister Deng Alor, powerful leaders of the young nation.
Dozens of generals have also been relieved of their positions in the past year.
Oil-rich but war-ravaged South Sudan, which gained formal independence from Sudan on July 9, 2011, is one of the poorest countries on earth.
It was left in ruins after five decades of conflict between southern rebels and successive governments in Sudan, with South Sudan now struggling with some of the worst development indicators of any nation.
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MANDELA: 95 hearty cheers to his footprints of greatness. By Chido Nwangwu, Founder & Publisher of USAfricaonline.com and USAfrica multimedia networks, Houston. https://usafricaonline.com/2013/07/18/mandela-95-hearty-cheers-to-his-footprints-of-greatness-by-chido-nwangwu/
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USAfrica: Today, July 18, 2013, the great Nelson Mandela turned 95 years old. To Mandela, for your humility and greatness, firm resolve and friendly, humorous dispositions, all rolled into one mythical, complicated but uniquely amiable personality, here’s the same toast I made to you before you left in June 1999 as South Africa’s president; on this your 95th birthday: Madiba, may your lineage endure! Without a doubt, it has been 95 years which have left, what I call, indelible footprints of greatness!
Amidst the increasing challenges of his ill-health — especially these past 10 months, his towering moral height and earned respect have grown, exponentially, across continents and diverse people.
The complication and stress of his lung infection and sheer wear and tear of old age have not minimized the mile deep affection and charismatic adulation about the global testimonies to the actual greatness and vision of Madiba Nelson Mandela.
At the blessed age of 95, I believe it fit and proper to do an updated word portrait of a good man who is certainly the greatest political figure in the recent history of people of African ancestry and one of the greatest leaders and inspirers of the 20th and 21st centuries. He talked the talk, and walked the walk. He’s at once visionary and practician; excuse the latter usage.
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Follow @Twitter.com/Chido247, Facebook.com/USAfricaChido n Facebook.com/USAfrica247
CNN International profiles USAfrica’s Founder Chido Nwangwu. https://usafricaonline.com/2010/06/29/cnn-chido-usafrica/
Also, see Tiger Woods is no Nelson Mandela!
Eight lessons of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide. By Chido Nwangwu, Publisher of USAfrica multimedia networks, Houston. https://usafricaonline.com/2009/11/01/chido-8lessons-rwanda-genocide/
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—— Forthcoming 2013 book: In this engaging, uniquely insightful and first person reportage book, MANDELA & ACHEBE: Footprints of Greatness, about two global icons and towering persons of African descent whose exemplary lives
and friendship hold lessons for humanity and Africans, the author takes a measure of their works and consequence to write that Mandela and Achebe have left “footprints of greatness.” He chronicles, movingly, his 1998 reporting from the Robben Island jail room in South Africa where Mandela was held for decades through his 20 years of being close to Achebe. He moderated the 2012 Achebe Colloquium at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.”I’ll forever remember having walked inside and peeped through that historic Mandela jail cell (where he was held for most of his 27 years in unjust imprisonment) at the dreaded Robben Island, on March 27, 1998, alongside then Editor-in-chief of TIME magazine and later news chief executive of the CNN, Walter Isaacson (and others) when President Bill Clinton made his first official trip to South Africa and came to Robben Island. Come to this island of scourge and you will understand, in part, the simple greatness and towering grace of Nelson Mandela”, notes Chido Nwangwu, award-winning writer, multimedia specialist and founder of USAfricaonline.com, the first African-owned U.S-based newspaper published on the internet, in his first book; he writes movingly from his 1998 reporting from South Africa on Mandela. http://www.mandelaachebechido.com/
Margaret Thatcher, Mandela and Africa. By Chido Nwangwu, Founder & Publisher of USAfrica, and the first African-owned, U.S-based newspaper published on the internet USAfricaonline.com. Click for newscast video of London-based SkyNEWS, the global, 24-hour British international tv network’s interview with USAfrica’s Publisher Chido Nwangwu on April 11, 2013 regarding this latest commentary http://youtu.be/G0fJXq_pi1c )
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‘POPE FRANCIS, champion for the poor and evangelistic dedication’ by Chido Nwangwu
Long Live, CHINUA ACHEBE! The Eagle on the iroko. Africa’s most acclaimed and fluent writer of the English Language, the most translated writer of Black heritage in the world, broadcaster extraordinaire, social conscience of millions, cultural custodian and elevator, chronicler and essayist, goodwill ambassador and man of progressive rock-ribbed principles, the Eagle on the Iroko, Ugo n’abo Professor Chinua Achebe,joined his ancestors a few hours ago, at the age of 82, in a peaceful and graceful transition in the warm company of his family.
Reasonably, Achebe’s message has been neither dimmed nor dulled by time and clime. He’s our pathfinder, the intellectual godfather of millions of Africans and lovers of the fine art of good writing. Achebe’s cultural contexts are, at once, pan-African, globalist and local; hence, his literary contextualizations soar beyond the confines of Umuofia and any Igbo or Nigerian setting of his creative imagination or historical recall.
His globalist underpinnings and outlook are truly reflective of the true essence of his/our Igbo world-view, his Igbo upbringing and disposition. Igbos and Jews share (with a few other other cultures) this pan-global disposition to issues of art, life, commerce, juridical pursuits, and quest to be republicanist in terms of the vitality of the individual/self.
In Achebe’s works, the centrality of Chi (God) attains an additional clarity in the Igbo cosmology… it is a world which prefers a quasi-capitalistic business attitude while taking due cognizance of the usefulness of the whole, the community.
I’ve studied, lived and tried to better understand, essentially, the rigor and towering moral certainties which Achebe have employed in most of his works and his world. I know, among other reasons, because I share the same Igbo ancestry with him.
Permit me to attempt a brief sentence, with that Achebean simplicty and clarity. Here, folks, what the world has known since 1958: Achebe is good! Eagle on the Iroko, may your Lineage endure! There has never been one like you! Ugo n’abo, chukwu gozie gi oo!
FULL text of this tribute-commentary at USAfricaonline.com click link https://usafricaonline.com/2013/03/22/long-live-chinua-achebe-by-chido-nwangwu/
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