Africa-Press – South-Sudan. The youth and women in South Sudan are not in key leadership positions because the country’s politicians are unwilling to give them the chance due to selfish interest, the Vice President for Youth and Gender Cluster, Rebecca Nyandeng has said.
In her speech ahead of the International Women’s Day slated for March 8, Nyandeng said politicians only mobilize the youth to fight and safeguard their interest.
“We politicians are very selfish and we go and pick the youth when we are angry and use them,” she said. The Vice President said public offices in South Sudan are dominated by the old age group while young capable people roam the streets.
“The conflict which is going on is because youth which is 73.7 per cent are not engaged. They have nothing that they are doing, and they are the ones who fought for this country. If you go to the offices, it is the elderly people with grey air behind the tables, and young people are just on the streets,” she said.
Nyandeng argued that if the youth and women were engaged in productive initiatives, the subnational conflicts around the country will cease. “If we engage the youth, this conflict will not be there. This is what we want to fight,” said Nyandeng.
The Vice President also challenged women in the country to compete with their male counterparts in both private and public affairs. She said the International Women’s Day should help break the barriers and bring about equality between men and women in South Sudan.
She said women should use the special day to begin the struggle towards women emancipation, develop themselves, and show that both men and women were equal and could work jointly to effect development in the country.
“Some educated women can compete with men, but they are being denied the opportunity, and it is because we women are not financially strong. So, we need to [start to empower] ourselves economically so that men know that we can be part and parcel of upbringing our families together,” Nyandeng stressed.
“I want women to join private sectors, I want women to stand in the political field so that they are strong and educate themselves politically and in public lives also.,” she said.
She added “those areas are not simple. They are very challenging but we [women] need to stand up for it. We should not give up, be discouraged, and be despaired by anybody. We have equal rights like any other human being on earth. So, let us not be despaired for anything.”
The vice president said South Sudan has continued to witness violence in most parts of the country due to a lack of young people engagement, adding that her office was engaging partners to economically empower and deter them from violence.
Nyandeng cited her late husband and founder of SPLM/A, Dr. John Garang, and President Salva Kiir including other senior former rebel leaders’ active role in liberating South Sudan when they were still youth.
Since the commencement of the revitalized government in 2019, youth entrepreneurship and empowerment, and women equality became top priorities of the vice president’s mission in a bid to bring about security and stability in South Sudan.
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