A delegation from the government of South Sudan’s Unity state led by deputy governor Stephen Mabek Lang met with President Salva Kiir recently to discuss the future of the state governor’s position.
The Unity state governorship will be given to the SPLM/A-In Opposition ias per the terms of the Compromise Peace Agreement. The current governor is Nguen Monytuil who hails from Mayom county.
Deputy governor Mabek said his delegation relayed to the president their concerns over the rebels being given the governorship.
“We shared with him the feelings of the people of the state with regard to the fact that the administration of the area has been given to the rebels,” Mabek explained. “This has created a lot of concerns and this was why we came to solicit the views of the president on how best this can be addressed, given that majority of the people in the state stands with him because of the wise decision he made to appoint Dr. Joseph Nguen Monytuil as the governor of the state.”
Mabek said Governor Nguen is popular in the area citing the willingness of people in Unity to fight for Kiir’s government against the rebels of Riek Machar.
“Unity state is now under full control of the government. The rebels have no presence there,” Mabek said. “They are no longer there and this is why people from the area have been asking why giving them the administration of the state?”
“This has been a very difficult question which we have been getting from the people,” he said. “Because we could not get appropriate answers to this genuine question, we felt it would be wise to seek the views of the government and the president himself but this does not mean we do not support the implementation of the peace agreement.”
Mabek said the state government stands with the president. He commended Kiir’s leadership.
“The implementation path is not going to be an easy job because there are still difficult points to agree upon, but that is the instruction we have given to our people that they should support the president and the government despite these reservations,” he said.
Mabek said Kiir acknowledged their issues and told them he would do his best to address some of them. Mabek declined to give further details on what the president said.
Earlier this week Kiir appointed Lt. Gen. Bapiny Monytuil as SPLA Deputy Chief of Staff for Moral Orientation. Bapiny is a close relative of governor Nguen.
Unity governor Joseph Nguen Monytuil