Ghana, South Sudan ties strategic — Envoy
The Ambassador of South Sudan to Ghana, Mr Ambrose Raphael Tamania, has described the bilateral relations between his country and Ghana as a great strategic value for the newly independent country.
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He said South Sudan, since it became independent country on July 9, 2011, had selected some countries, including Ghana, as strategic partners from whom it would pick experiences on good governance.
He said to translate this strong, strategic bilateral relations into reality, South Sudan opened the first embassy in sub-Saharan West African region in Accra.
He said South Sudan was the luckiest country in Africa because it had its independence late, which has enabled it to learn from other countries’ mistakes as it embarked on nation building.
Ambassador Tamania said South Sudan was learning from Ghana some of the international best practices and standards in the fields of good governance, democracy and peaceful co-existence, as well as the stability prevailing in the country.
The ambassador said during his country’s struggle, Ghana was one country that stood with it and Ghana did not raise any resistance when that country wanted to establish a liaison office in Accra.
He said fortunately, Ghana and South Sudan had common interest such as trade relations in the petroleum industry, where both countries could exchange data and ideas on how to manage their oil affairs so that the local people could benefit from the oil revenue.
He said South Sudan had enough experience in that area, which it was willing to share with Ghana.
Ambassador Tamania said in the area of agriculture, Ghana and South Sudan had the same type of climate and Sudan would be more willing to use Ghanaian expatriates to exploit its untapped lands for the mutual benefit of the two countries.
He said currently three Ghanaian companies had won contracts in South Sudan to construct oil pipelines, housing estates, as well as installing ICT in schools to help solve the acute infrastructural deficits in the country.
The ambassador said South Sudan was marginalised by the North in terms of development and power-sharing, as well as religious matters, since the Africans in South Sudan were not regarded as first-class citizens of Sudan but as fifth-class citizens.
He said their forefathers were only fighting for a fair share of the national cake under one Sudan but since the North neglected the South, when the opportunity came for a referendum under the Nairobi accord, the people voted for a separate state.
He said the people voted for a new state because there were no development projects such as roads and schools that the politicians from both the North and South could point to, to convince the people from the South to vote for a unitary state.
Ambassador Tamania said South Sudan, which is a free independent state, had learnt a lot of lessons from its experiences with the North, which had subjugated the South since independence from British rule in 1956.
The ambassador said South Sudan had, therefore,resolved not to create a class society but to spread development so that every South Sudan citizen would benefit from the fruit of good governance.
He assured Ghanaian investors that South Sudan was a peaceful country and reports of insecurity as carried by the foreign media emanated from pre- and post-independence challenges from cattle rustlers and not South Sudan citizens fighting among themselves.
He said the President of South Sudan had vowed not to go to war with Sudan no matter the provocation. He said the priority now was how to develop the country and learn to live with its neighbour Sudan in a peaceful co-existence even if the relationship was a complex one.
By Abdul Aziz/Daily Graphic/Ghana