“Geography has made neighbours. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners. And Necessity has made us allies. Those whom nature hath so joined together, let no man put asunder”. President John.F.Kennedy in Ottawa Canada 1961.
By Isaac Akuoch Chol, Juba South Sudan
south sudan map by counties
March 16, 2016 (SSB) — Twi East County currently has five administrative units or payams. It flag has the portrait of one of the most admirable bird species in Africa, the red-crown crane which is locally known as Arialbeek. This bird not only unites the Twi people it also portrays a lot about their behaviour, interrelations and co-relations. The majestic, upright, calm and adorable qualities of this bird are the same qualities exhibit unceasingly by the inhabitants of this area. Twi people are kind, benevolent, somewhat innocent, keen and above all intelligent exactly like Arialbeek.
People in this County are so much intermarried and interdependent that they appeared like they are descendants of a single lineage. Their physical land boundaries are communal and grazing rights are shareable without major quarrels.
However now as modernization sets in and the centre of governance is increasingly being devolved, Twi East is also likely to have a share of problems brought by these developments.
With the former ten States of South now portioned into twenty eight entities, Twic East County is possibly going to be divided into a certain number of prospective counties.
Speculations at this juncture indicate that the new Jonglei State will have a total of seven counties: four in former Bor County, two in Twi area and Duk County to remain undivided.
If this is the case, how will the two counties of Twi area be named? Which payams can be amalgamated together without any resistant? What about the question of county headquarters?
Looking at the current map of Twi East and dividing it into two, we will have North Twic East county and South Twic East County. Lith payam, Kongor payam and the whole of Ayual areas will form the Northern Twic while the Southern Twic will be Awulian, Dachuek of Nyuak, Ajuong payam and Pakeer payam.
Panyagoor can still serve as the headquarters of Northern Twic East because it has the institutions required to carry out County activities i.e. Offices, clinic, police and prisons .
However in Southern Twic East County, choosing a county headquarters could easily ignite disagreement and disintegration. Suppose Maar is chosen, will Paliau accept? If Paliau agrees and both Awulian and Dachuek insist on another location?
There is also the question of Kongor payam demanding its own county or its name be use to generalize the partner payams like lith and Nyuak.since there is Kongor Diocese then there must be Kongor County and this a genuine point!
Building a consensus on these issues in the current political environment is a real test. Our politicians can only manage the role of clan chiefs and the youth cannot stand alone because they are easily manipulated.
Therefore in my opinion, it is wise if we continue to remain as One County if we cannot be five counties.one Super County and we can achieve the unachievable.
Email:akuochishakho@yahoo.com.
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PaanLuel Wël Media Ltd - South Sudan 
Five better than one and let share our flag or our Arialbeek to keep us untied like south sudan flag.
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name should not be an issue.
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Even this Kiir Mayardit federalism is just a manipulation of the ethnic simmering conflicts.He made sure that his people in Bhar el Ghazel are well served with his federalism when he just lumped the rests together into big states where conflicts are more likely to flare up. Its the latest manipulative scam Kiir and conspiratorialists in Juba manufactured after they failed on their coup narratives, rebellion stories and all their Blaaaah,blaah fake stories.When they realized that they had failed to win on every attempt they made and everythings that they touched got worst. They resorted to making policies that will makes their war more ethnic and to bring the war and violence closer to the Dinkas.Now their war is between those tribes and sub-tribes who are satisfied with ethnic federalism and those who are not.
This government in Juba had become an ethnic resentment industry(factory)
This Kiir federalism had not gone far enough and is more likely to cause more conflicts then it had resolved or could solve.
I don’t see any reason for more counties in the new Jonglei state. We should keep the three counties and if there is a budget, direct that budget to payams and Bomas to deliver more services using the current administrative structures instead of creating more government officials to pay when we have now resources.
We should stop all these red buttons counties or more destructive administrative units that are more likely to cause troubles and distract attentions from real issues that are facing the citizens.
Tell Gov. Philiph Aguer to stop all these and uses the current local government administrative structures instead of creating more problems for himself and the rests.Aguer should not resurrect residual conflicts and create new ones.If he has any capacity at all, he should resolve the old conflicts instead of creating more for himself from Nyarweng to Abii.
If the Gov. tries to create more counties, it will be a clans’ feud over the lands and boundaries from Abii to Nyarweng.Belief you me.
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it is a time bomb. Our people should be very wise and pay less attention to this petty politics.
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You are right. This ramphant creation of states and counties at the moment of war and economic crisis is not a solution to the already existing conflicts, but an attempt by those malicious power holders in Juba. It was not intended to remedy the situations, but was meant to worsen it.
They thought it was a way of dragging and engulfing everybody in a war that was born out of their political dumbness and dullness.
There should be no reasons to create more counties that will create more intertribal and clans feuds over lands, boundaries and positions when in actual senses, there will be no resources to support them.
So what is the point of stirring up conflicts for something that will not materialize?
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“So what is the point of stirring up conflicts for something that will not materialize?” I guess, as you might as well know Simon Garang, that it is politics. And I would like to parody Senator Marco Rubio: “Let’s dispel once and for all with the ficiton that Barack Obama doesn’t know what he is doing, he knows exactly what he is doing. Barack Obama is undertaking a systematic effort to change this country, to make America more like the rest of the world… it is a systematic effort to change America”
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So Paanluel Wel, is that systemic is for the betterment of South Sudan, or ultimate destruction and do you think it is the right time to do those changes or there are other direly needed priorities such as peace and economic stability?
Secondly, your analogy of the two changes donot really matches well. Barack Obama is changing policies in certain small areas not political units or structures. He is not creating new states or counties.
Creating states and counties deserves referenda not decrees.In politics, there are certain policies wise policymakers avoids at certain times.
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So Paanluel Wel, you are right, the leaders are purely playing politics with country and the lives of the people to the detriment of our national collapse and disintegration which is eminent.
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