The Governor of South Sudan’s Torit State has urged citizens to have development mindsets and shun destruction.
Speaking at a peace transformation workshop in Torit town on Tuesday, Governor Tobiolo Alberio Oromo said citizens do not respect the law, but their guns.
“Our development is brought down by us, not foreigners. We are the ones who build and then we start destroying it because our hearts and minds were not transformed,” Oromo told peace committees.
He added, “We remained with all the elements of war, hatred and tribalism. We did not respect our chiefs, but we respected only our guns and it is now good that we have learned from those lessons”.
The governor further said it is time for the citizens to work for peace and development. “Once we achieve peace, we shall achieve development,” he said.
Meanwhile Oromo urged youth to get involved in development activities to avoid chances of being led into the country’s conflict.
When left idle, he said, youth can easily be misled by greedy people.
“When you find that most youth there are idle, playing dominoes, smoking opium then there is worry of fighting, but if you get youth who are engaged in agriculture, laying bricks and other things, then we expect development,” said Oromo.
He said isolated insecurity cases still exist within some communities, but expects local chiefs and county commissioners to end them.
The ten-day workshop aimed at transforming local chiefs into better tools for community transformation was organized by VISTAS in partnership with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).