The Governor of Jonglei State, Philip Aguer, says he supports the national day of prayer announced by South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir. Aguer declared Friday, March 10, a public holiday in Jonglei State, allowing citizens to attend the prayers.
In a statement read out in church on Sunday, March 5, Aguer called on residents to turn out in large numbers for the prayers at Freedom Square in Bor.
The Minister of Information in Jonglei State, Akech Dengdit, said the “10th of this month was announced as a national day of prayer” and nobody can question it, as it “comes from the highest authority” in South Sudan.
“It is in solidarity with what the president said in Juba,” Dengdit said, adding that “we in the state have to be the ones disseminating” the call for a national day of prayer.
The national day of prayer is a prelude to the national dialogue. It is yet unknown when the actual national dialogue would commence. “We have not yet got all the time table and the plans from the national government, because it came from them and we have to wait for that,” Dengdit said.
However, the minister said preparations are on the way. The state has called on church leaders, chiefs and county commissioners, among others, to “embrace the national dialogue process”, according to Dengdit.
Ayuen Garang, a student at the Dr. John Garang Memorial University, welcomed the governor’s national day of prayer endorsement. “National prayer day is welcome. It is a good idea so that we ask God to forgive our nation,” he said.
He however added that he is skeptical about the national dialogue itself. “We can have national dialogue when the nation is at total peace. See what is happening, in some parts of the country there is war going on.”
Anyieth Mabior Anyieth, a resident in Bor, rejected the national day of prayer on March 10. “There is no way you can force a cow to drink water if it does not want. So let them do whatever they think is right for them,” he said, adding that he does not believe the national dialogue will achieve its objective.
South Sudan’s President Kiir, whose power-struggle with his former First Vice President Riek Machar plunged the country into a civil war in December 2013, gave a speech to parliament in December last year, calling for a “national dialogue”. The initiative, he said, will “save the country from disintegration and usher in a new era of peace, stability and prosperity”.
Photo: Jonglei State Minister of Information, Akech Dengdit, speaking to journalists in Bor on March 6, 2017. (© Radio Tamazuj)