Citizens in Northern Bahr al Ghazal State have called on the members of the state legislative assembly to discuss matters affecting the public, such as rising living costs, and poor education, among others.

Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Wednesday, several citizens in the state appealed to their lawmakers to focus their debates on issues affecting the ordinary citizens, such as food insecurity, poor education system, and bad roads, among others.

Citizen Abraham Wek, a resident of Aweil, said: “I would like to recommend that our MPs find a solution to food insecurity. People are crying in greater Aweil because they are affected by the floods, so our MPs should come up with mechanisms on how to deal with the crises.”

Another resident, Aker Deng, said poor education and bad conditions of roads and youth unemployment are essential matters that should be addressed by the state legislative assembly.

 “For example, the school progress in Northern Bahr el Ghazal is going slowly, not very fast.  Secondly, there are no good roads, and we need the Members of Parliament to talk about roads and schools,” she said.

For his part, Ernest Mangok Mangok, an MP in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State, said there are attempts to silence the parliamentarians who always want to deliberate on matters affecting the public.

“Some MPs fear and decide to keep quiet. They cannot say anything, whether the ministry of finance misappropriates public funds or not,” he said.

Santino Deng Ngong, a civil society activist in Northern Bahr al Ghazal State, said expressed dissatisfaction with the way the state assembly has been operating.

 “As civil society organizations, we are not comfortable in the way the assemblies are operating because the representatives of communities who were appointed and the ones elected in 2010 don’t have free and fair debates,” he said.

The civil society leader called on the parties to the 2018 peace agreement to put aside their differences and allow the MPs to work without interference.

The members of the state legislative assembly were sworn-in in February this year.