Majok Deng
Africa-Press – South-Sudan. All eyes are on the finance minister, Dr. Bak Barnaba, to salvage the ailing economy. During his swearing in ceremony, President Salva Kiir assured him of his unwavering cooperation in pursuit of restoring macroeconomic stability. In my view, the corporation between President Kiir and his finance minister is the only arsenal with efficacy in dealing with powerful elites, whose activities have failed most ex-finance ministers.
President Kiir gave a similar promise during the swearing of the then finance minister, Hon .Agak Achuil in 2021. He told Agak not to be deceived by those who would blackmail him, that they are the ones who brought him into finance ministry. He said that it was his own decision to appoint him based on his capabilities, but not because of lobbying.
Unfortunately, Mr. Agak went to bed with cartels and who siphoned public fund offshore. Consequentially, he was shown an exit door barely eight months into his tenure. Again, the president made the same assurance to the new minister. He urged Dr Barnaba to stay focused on the job and “not to accept being intimidated by those who want to run away with public money”.
It is against this backdrop that I think Dr. Barnaba ought to take president’s order seriously and by so doing, he will have a Swiss arm approach in dealing with the powerful cartels. He will not only will he save his job but also rescue the ailing economy. He ought to chart new territory in his working relationship with the president. I know things would not be easy for him. However, with the backing of the president, he would open a new dawn of economic prosperity for the suffering people of South Sudan. He ought to proactively use the president as his insulator as things get hot along the road, including temporary relocation of his office to J1 in worst-case scenario. The success of any future economic reform will depend on a cordial relationship between the president and his finance minister.
In my view, President Kiir has given assured protection to the new finance minister and cartels won’t be afraid of him. To make his statement explicit, the president should have guaranteed the new minister a tenure of office or job security of say three or five years. By doing so, it would have given the new minister an audacity to deal with corrupt and powerful political leaders without fear or favour. It would enable the new minister to defy all forms of threats knowing that his job and personal safety have been secured and so he would put national interest first.
Source: The City Review South Sudan
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