Upper Nile University to Remain Closed For Lack of Students’ Accommodation Funds

By Ariik Atekdit
The Director for External Relations in Upper Nile University
says, “The institution will not open if there are no funds available
for students’ food accommodation in the hostels.”
Dr. Peter Adwok Otto said “the students’ accommodation budget is badly
affected by the austerity measures in the country.”
From 2005, the government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) used to provide
free food and accommodation to all the students in South Sudan
universities until 2012 when the country’s economy faced difficulties.
“The Ministry of Higher Education stopped availing accommodation for
the students,” Dr Adwok added.
In late 2011 South Sudan claimed that the neighbouring Sudan stole the
new nation’s oil which travelled through Sudan’s territory to Port
Sudan for international market.
South Sudan responded by closing down their oil well which was the
backbone of its economy so the leadership is forced to declare
austerity measures in the country. South Sudan economy depends on oil
for about 98%.
Adwok said students cannot manage to study in the university without
any accommodation support.
“Other students come from very far places to Malakal for studies. They
have no relatives to accommodate them. And they might be children from
poor families, nevertheless they need to study. This means there can
be many problems to face them. If their needs are not addressed, it
will be a threat to the university and the state stability”, Adwok
said.
Adwok revealed that the university administration has already
approached Upper Nile state government to support fundraising for
students’ welfare to avail food accommodation for the students in
hostels.
Since October 2012, the students have been for long break whose
deadline is not known update.
“We don’t want to start something which will break down somewhere. We
will not start the supplementary and substitute exams too, because we
are not near to opening. The university is closed indefinitely. We are
doing this so that we can base the opening of the university on things
which are concrete till the end of the academic year,” Adwok added.
Upper Nile state government has responded positively to the request
made by the University to create Students’ Welfare Fund.
The state minister for information and broadcasting, Philip Jiben Ogal
said they will work closely with the university administration to
address some of the issues facing the tertiary institution.
“The state government will take one pound (SSP 1) monthly from every
employee working for the government or civil societies to make the
university stand,” Jiben stated.
Jiben added that the contribution will include constitutionals who are
sons and daughters of the state to also support the infrastructures
and internal roads inside the Upper Nile University campus.
“We have already formed two committees, the fundraising committee and
information and mobilization committee. The two committees will work
towards the success of the program,” Jiben said.
William Mabior Deng, a student representative, said that the
accommodation of the students is very important and hoped the two
committees will sensitize the citizens to support the university
operate again.
Mabior thanked the University for trying hard to offer the
accommodation to the students as well as struggling for better
infrastructure in the university.
“I hope if all mobilization and sensitization is done successful, and
funds are available we should re-open very soon may be in February,”
Mabior suggested.
Upper Nile University was founded in 1991. Due to the Second Sudanese
Civil War, some of the university faculties were relocated to
Khartoum, Sudan, for safety of staff, students and infrastructure.
Following South Sudan's independence in July 2011, the university is
consolidating all activities to its main campus in the city of
Malakal, Upper Nile State, in South Sudan's northeast.

Upper Nile state trains 30 establishment officers to control corruption

The state ministry of Labour and Public Service in Upper Nile conducts three-day workshop for 30 establishment officers in various government institutions.

The workshop begins from 22^nd – 24^th Oct under the theme:  “building honest and effective public service.”

The training was opened by Governor Simon Kun Puoch this morning.

The training was organized to prepare the participants for better layout of pay sheets, recruitment of new employees and how to organize files for workers.

The establishment officers will also keep an eye on how promotion system is done in the state.

Simon Kun told the participants to organize the system of files keeping and better salaries presentation to the government employees.

Kun said if there is an improved system corruption can be easily controlled. He told the officers to curb the complained of losing files in the state

The minister for Labour and public service, Aban Makol, said the officers will look into payrolls to discover cheating names in various government departments in the state.

Aban told the participants to give accurate information and public service regulations to their ministers so that they cannot recruit new employees without vacancies.

Upper Nile University Graduates over 2, 500 graduate

The Vice chancellor said, the university is graduating about 2, 572 graduates.

The graduates are a six-year generation who accomplished their studies in the university from 2006 to 2012.

The graduation ceremony was the first of its kind in South Sudan since independence under theme: “Upper Nile University graduates for Quality education, prosperity and development of the new nation.”

The Vice Chancellor Bol Deng Chol, congratulated students and their parents and relatives for the achievements they have reached.

Professor Bol said, “The University has managed to arrive to the end of the academic year passing through many challenges being lack of teaching staff, infrastructures, students’ accommodations, reference books, laboratory equipment, electronic libraries and scientific research centres.”

He asked the government of South Sudan to avail scholarships and training opportunities to teaching staff so that they become more qualified.

Like any other universities in South Sudan, Bol said the Upper Nile University is badly affected by the austerity measures declared by the government after the closure of oil wells.

“The cut of housing allowances in salaries if not address, may affect the interest of teaching staff and workers in the university,” said the vice chancellor.

Though the Ministry of Higher Education has said that there is no students’ accommodation in the universities Upper Nile University has continued supplying students feeding on its own.

The contractor has not paid student feeding for a yearlong but the university shoulders it.

Bol said, the issue of student feeding is very sensitive and it needs to be looked into by the government of South Sudan.

“If this issue is not treated well the opening of the next academic year will be threatening,” he said.

He appealed, to the government to struggle for the sustainable stability of higher education in the country.

The Graduation was attended by the chairman of the University Administration Council Pagan Amum Okic

Amum called for education promotion across the country especially higher education to cope with development in various sections in the country.

Amum pointed out that taking care of university environment is fundamental to ensure bringing up competent generation that will be capable to work and deliver good services to the country in upcoming period.

Amum said it is a responsibility of graduates to transform the traditional knowledge of our people into the modern ones.

“It is not possible that the country keeps its position of becoming the last to get its independence and also the last in development forever. We must change it,” said Amum.

Amum said the country is rich in resources so it needs qualified workers who are nationals so that they work for the good of their country.

He asked the local communities and leaders in greater Upper Nile to support the university.

Upper Nile University academic registration starts

The new academic registration for Upper Nile University has started on Monday Jan., 16.
The University Secretary of the Academic Affairs, Dr. Wani Anthony said the institution has formally reopened.
“We came out with the resolution of the Dean Board on 3rd of this month that the university is officially opened on the 5th of Jan and the registration and interview of the new students start on 16 respectively,” explained Wani.
Upper Nile University academic activities got closed earlier last year due to the South Sudan referendum arrangements and did not resume very quickly because of lack of teaching staff and infrastructures according to the academic secretary.
Wani exposed that most of the lecturers in the university used to be Northern Sudanese but as a result of South Sudan independence they went back to their country.
“We are starting in spite of the difficulties the institution is facing but we have decided that our students cannot stay away for one year again.”
However, Wani revealed that the difficulties differ from faculty to faculty.
“The faculties of Education, Animal Production and Human Development have no problems. We have 90 percent of their teaching staff.” Citing out that the problems are in Human and Veterinary Medicine faculties.
Regarding faculty of Human Medicine according to Wani, it will operate in Khartoum at Bahri University with all its senior students from 3rd up to sixth year except for the new admission of 2011/2012.
“We have signed a memorandum with Bahri University in Khartoum to allow our medical students to complete their studies in Sudan,” said Wani
Wani said though northern students were asked by Khartoum to go back, some Darfur and South Kordufan students decided to continue in Upper Nile University. According to him they will be given normal consideration.
Dr. Wani said the institution has enough space of lecture rooms that can take 600 students. He added that students’ hostels are arranged two months ago and ready to be used if the students come in. “The contractor is there on ground to give students the needed services in their hostels.”
Dr. Wani Anthony asked the Government of South Sudan to give salary of the university staff on time in order to attract new employees to come from abroad to work in South Sudan universities.

Dowry payments in S. Sudan have bad impact in the country.

By Ariik Atekdit,

ariqdudic@gmail.com

Akoi Madol, an eighteen year-old girl from Kolnyang District of Jonglei State became the victim of love when she decided to marry her long termed boyfriend in her Dinka community of South Sudan. She was beaten with her sister, Agot Ngong who survived brutal torture with bruises.

“I got a call when I was about to eat. They forced me to move where Akoi was and ordered us to remove all clothes and lay us flat on the ground with face down,” Ngong said. “Four people two with each of us came with ropes, one each side and begin to beat us,” Ngong explained to Sudan Tribune.

According to the article published on Sudan Tribune website Ms Madol was beaten to death on February 28, 2011 after she escaped with her groom who was not of their parents’ choice. Madol died for her love in heart, leaving behind her sister, Agot Ngong suffering from bruises and pain and mourning for her deceased sister. “I tried to escape but they caught me after some minutes. They continued beating us till we were unconscious. I recovered but Akoi died the following morning,” said Ngong attending treatment in Bor Private Clinic.

An eye witness in Malual Agorbaar, ten miles away from Bor town on Bor-Juba road where incident happened said, “The late Akoi escaped with her husband on 19 February. She was accompanied by her sister Agot Ngong and spent one week hiding before they were traced on 25 February. Although warned against it, Akoi returned to the man she wanted to marry. The marriage was rejected and Akoi was brought home by group of man including her brother. The father to the dead girl, Madol Alier beat his daughter for violating his orders and ordered his sons and cousins to continue punishing her,” which in result caused death.

The father to the victim survivor with injuries said that his daughter was cruelly beaten against his will, saying the people responsible must be arrested to face justice.

In South Sudan and especially among communities that keep cattle, girls are understood to be sources of wealth to their families and believed to be forced to marry any men that may afford them without considering love relation between the two couples. Girls are said to have no rights of choosing their future husbands or reject husbands arranged for them by their parents. They are believed to be married without a choice, to deliver children and as well as being confined to kitchen.

Doctors in Bor Civil Hospital said that the death was caused by neck fracture. Her case is not the only dowry related case practiced in South Sudan. Some similar cases are said to have occurred in states like Warrap and Lakes and many other cases occur anywhere and remained untold in various states of South Sudan.
In this way parents or relatives to girls never care so much about the lives of their girls as human beings but they have the mentality of getting bride wealth from grooms once their daughters are married. Once they lose that chance they tend to act violently.

According to South Sudan Transitional Constitution; “every person of marriageable age shall have the right to marry a person of the opposite sex and to found a family according to their respective family laws, and no marriage shall be entered into without the free and full consent of the man and woman intending to marry” as stated in Article 15.

However, the written law remains unimplemented and not observed by the concerned authorities in the nation. As the result there continues to be related crimes committed against the interest of young girls & boys and later tried to be solved by customary law as an excuse of avoiding what the constitution says about them. They do so to suit the interests of parents over their daughters’.

Though, the constitution gives right to youth of different sex to found a family of their own choice, nonetheless, the problem of dowry (bride price) remains unanswered. There is no law that regulates bride prices in some communities. The Transitional constitution never tells how much wealth should be paid to the parents of the girl before she becomes a legal wife to the boy. And there are no written customary laws for better referral as well.

A special report from United States Institute of Peace in the research which was conducted between April and May 2011 in some states in South Sudan cited that; “the increasing inability to meet dowry (bride price) demands was the main research finding. Unable to meet this demands many male youths enlist militias, join cattle raids or seek wives from different ethnic groups or countries.” “The skyrocketing dowry demands have alarmingly and negatively affected the female youth,” the report said.
Though every person is entitled to marry a wife/husband of their choice, this has not been the case of the recent years for the reason that parents keep their demands higher and higher on their daughters and rich people also are ever capable to continue marrying wives as many as possible leaving poor men getting married to only one or none at times. The high inflation in dowry (bride price) has kept young men unable to marry and therefore get scared or frustrated by the situation.

The report said that in pastoralist South Sudan, dowries are measured in cattle: “you cannot marry without cows,” one youth explained, “and you cannot be called a man without cows.” In agricultural areas payments can combine money with cattle or other livestock. There were steady descriptions of a difficult situation getting much worse. “The number of cattle in Unity state is declining,” a male youth in Bentiu explained, “while the price of dowry is going up.” “Dowry is the biggest challenge in South Sudan,” an urban male youth stated simply in the report.

Emmanuel Gambiri in his article said that an educated wife in cattle herding Mundari tribe in South Sudan costs 50 cows, 60 goats and 300, 000 Sudanese pounds ($12, 000) in cash. According to Gambiri some boys who cannot afford a bride price turn stealing livestock in order to buy a wife and gain status. In the past in Emmanuel’s village of Terekeka of Central Equatoria wives cost as little as 12 cows and tribal chiefs wielded enough power to call the parents and set an affordable bride price.

An unpublished UN report states that dowry prices have grown up by 44 percent since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in Southern Sudan. Some of those interviewed reported that, instead of negotiating a dowry price down, wealth men want to meet the exorbitant demands. The reason given was simple: it provides high public status. “It becomes an ego issue,” a Juba businessperson explained. “The more you pay higher the status of the husband and his new wife received.” Many claimed that Government officials flush with cash were the main cause of dowry inflation. “People who work for GoSS they have money,” a twenty one year old male youth in Juba stated, “So when they want to marry a girl they pay a lot. This makes it more expensive for everyone.”
In South Sudan years before CPA experienced a lot of difficulties with no source of income almost for every south Sudanese because everyone was not employed even the learned former SPLA soldiers. Unlike today some people have got employed as a result of the semi-autonomous government and subsequently with the independence. This has created employment so some people are able to pay more cows or any possible wealth wanted by the girls’ parents.

Some government officials because of no active accountability are involved into corruption, so they can pay high dowry of their wives or wives of their sons using government money.

Now that dowry (bride price) has become so high for an ordinary man strong youths who do not want to die unmarried have decided to join militias to rob or loot people’s properties so that they get wealth for their wives. This has resulted into death of so many people across the country and especially in case of Jonglei state and other states of South Sudan in which cattle rustling is practiced. In view of that Jonglei state’s Governor Kuol Manyang in the 7th Governors’ Forum held in 2009 in Juba, he proposed the reduction or totally abolition of the dowry (bride price) in hope to curb cattle rustling in South Sudan. According to Kuol he said, “We are losing many lives because of the cows and I am telling the house of South Sudan that it is the right time we look into this issue of dowry payment seriously.”

Many lives have been lost as bride price surged. On the other hand girls and women are being denied their basic human rights because of cows. The best example is the story above.

Let’s stop entertaining negative ideas

By Ariik-Dut Atekdit
In South Sudan we injure ourselves by the negative ideas we entertain. How often have you wounded yourself by getting angry, fearful, jealous, or vengeful? These are the POISONS that enter your subconscious mind; none of us were born with these Negative Attitudes. But the environment has made you look on others with your own negative eyes and suspicion. People have failed many times to think over situations and perform true and accurate evaluations. Due to these, South Sudan is occupied by hatred and jealousy with every person blaming it on others. Every person tries on his/her everyday life to point fingers on others holding them responsibility for all failures and glorify him/herself with what is good. However, that won’t help us out.My new country South Sudan, a nation which is emerging out of war to maybe the most hoped and expected permanent peace has so many problems to be told about it. The country which is coming out of the marginalization needs to lose the culture of peace but trying to cling on the shocking development of war which is a true inheritance of the protracted two civil wars battled by my country-men and the Arab Muslims of Sudan.Indeed one is right to say South Sudanese had never been united even before the arrivals of Arabs or colonizers to Sudan because they had existed in their closed tribal borders for so many years. They came to be united recently during their struggle for freedom against the successive Khartoum Islamic regimes. But with truth, dates beyond can never retained information of any togetherness among various ethnic groups in South Sudan. Though most of the ethnic communities have many similarities among their cultures, distinct tribes had lived for ages without coming beneath solitary rules. So to whom can this be blame on? It was a lack of communications among the communities maybe that had stopped them from getting united. But this must stop with the coming up of the modern South Sudan which is independent with its sovereign Government. Wars of cattle rustling and tribal land grabbing must be brought down by South Sudan leadership before we could announce any failure.
We would actually like the Government of the youngest Republic to work jointly to fight for unity and peace for our local communities. Igniting of tribal or clan conflicts because of political or personal interests may not help since that appears to be an attitude of north Sudan with its Islamic regimes which we had all witnessed in the past. There is no any other way of making South Sudan a prosperous country when it contains a number of tribal wars whose end is not known at all. The best and the only better way is to find a peaceful solution to the nation’s tribal problems. It is supposed to be the extraordinarily work that the appointed cabinet looks into to bring our communities to peace. I am sure it will be ugly for the selected ministers and the elected MPs to sit in their luxurious offices of the world’s newest state without diagnosing the internal problems in their motherland country. There will be no anymore possible excuses to blame chaos in South Sudan on Khartoum as an enemy or the opposition political parties as the strikers of tribal clashes.
As we know that every MP comes from a constituency in South Sudan it is also the same that our national ministers represent vast geographical regions in the country. It won’t take them long if the work together to combat tribalism as that would very well easy a way out for corruption in the country.
It is sometimes hopeless to find that the hardest headlines of our day to day news in South Sudan is all about violence which results into death of hundreds of lives every now and then. We were expecting our hardest headlines to carry developmental news. It is good for any leadership to continue leading and find a way out to solve the situation. The problem of Lou Nuer and Murle communities needs to be solved before darkness. We can’t talk of peace and rule of law when the necessary security is not provided to the citizens.
Our government should work hard to bring education and development to our rural villages in order to engage the civil population. Otherwise it has been a long holiday for development to work since 2005. The former Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) was termed to a very small child for so many until it got outdated. I hope the Government of the Republic is born an adult to avoid us wasting a lot of time without development. We need not to entertain leaders who have self-interests in public offices.