Yiep Joseph
Africa-Press – South-Sudan. The Speaker of Jonglei State, Amer Ateny, suggested the institution of a speakers’ forum to enable the state legislative assembly leaders to meet the president for the solution of issues bedevilling the states.
In an interview with The City Review on Saturday, Ateny said people in the states and the administrative areas constitute a larger population whose challenges are presented to the state assemblies for discussion.
She appealed to President Salva Kiir and the vice presidents to give a chance to the speakers as representatives of the people at the grassroots to meet and explain to them what the people want done for them.
“We want the speakers from ten states and those in administrative areas to come and meet presidents like governors do and give exactly what people want to be done for them because they are the directions to the people and they meet with them every time as they are representing them,” Ateny said.
However, she stressed that the request was not to undermine the work of the governors but to close the gap in governance.
“The move is not against the work being done by the governors, as they usually report to the president, but to close the gap.”
“We talk to communities directly as we represent them, but there are things that are challenging and sometimes left out of being presented to the president in the way people in states wanted it to be presented to the president,” Ateny said.
She added that sometimes there are challenges that are addressed by the Council of States while others are left out, and there is also a need for speakers to present them to the head of state.
“South Sudan has 10 states and the administrative areas, and this is where most challenges are faced, so there is a need for speakers to meet the president and feed him with what people want,” she stressed.
“Many challenges are in states and administrative areas, such as communal violence, attacks on roads, and poor roads, and all these have to be reported to the president and presidency.”
Ateny appealed to the citizens to embrace peace as the government continues to provide necessary services to them.
She was reinstated to the position of the speaker in Jonglei State in early April through a presidential decree after being fired without considerable reasons, a move that sparked complaints from the opposition SPLM-IO.
Source: The City Review South Sudan
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