Weekly Column: The break away nation
By Omordia, EfeAlexandra – The people of Southern Sudan are in high spirits. This is because in a short while, they will most likely break-away from the North. According to reports most of the Southerners are delighted to be given the chance to vote through a Referendum to be separated from their Northern counterparts but before they roll out the drums to celebrate let me put in not a word of caution but a litany of warnings. Let me murmur like an old woman who is plagued with arthritis; who speaks of things that are way beyond the surface, beneath all the oil wells that the Southerners seem to be reluctant to share with their hitherto Northern siblings. There is a popular African saying which goes thus: ‘when an old woman continuously pauses from her dancing and points at a particular direction, one should know that something unforgettable happened to her when she was much younger in that very spot she is pointing at”
I pause like the proverbial senior citizen this day to warn the Southern Sudanese that the agitation for self rule by them is no guarantee for equitable distribution of the resources there-in. rather; it may encourage greed, violence and laziness. The rush may lead the nation to experience their version of the Nigerian oil curse and with the history of violence in Sudan; it may become more alarming than the Nigerian situation. Self-rule in the South is not necessarily a guarantee for growth and development. What matters more is the desire of the leaders and their followers to learn from others by borrowing a leaf from citizens of nations in Asia like Japan and China who have little or no human resources to tap from but rely on virtuous and enviable qualities like fairness and hard work to take them to higher heights.
