Governors ready to implement resolutions, says Lobong

The governor of Eastern Equatoria State, Louis Lobong Lojore, has revealed that the 10 governors and three chief administrators are ready to implement the resolutions that were passed during the governor’s forum for the development of the country.

Speaking to the media during the closure of the forum yesterday, Lobong said the national government should provide support for the implementation in order to serve the people effectively.

“The top state officials are ready to implement the resolutions of the forum to boost effective service delivery to our people in the states and throughout the entire country,” he said.

He said the forum has provided them with the opportunity to deliberate on the issues that affect the states and the entire nation.

The recommendations the governors came up with include the construction of dams, canals, dykes  and waterways to mitigate the effects of flooding in some parts of the states. They also recommended that an agricultural scheme should be revived because there are eight schemes in the country.

They include the Aweil Rice Scheme, the Nzara Complex, Mangala, and the Melut Sugar Scheme. Others are the Upper Talanga Tea Project in Torit, the Tobacco Plantation, and Watoka Coffee in Yei. The state bosses said the implementation of these projects would boost the economy.  

Last week, at the beginning of the Fifth Governors’ forum, Lobong said the centralisation of the resources at the national and state levels hinder services delivery to the grassroots. He called on the national government to send a reasonable amount of money to the state where there is a large population with the majority of people living below the poverty line.

He said increasing the fund at the state level would end the suffering of the citizens right from the grassroots level.

He revealed that states are currently facing financial challenges, particularly in meeting the high demands of the government partnership brought about by the 2018 Peace Agreement. He said there is a need to know even the percentage that the central government is disbursing to the states.

 He said people have been asking tough questions that they, at the state level, were unable to answer. He said at least salaries should be increased and paid regularly to civil servants.

Lobong said the state government is doing all it takes to move the state toward a path of sustainable peace and stability as well as development.