The anticipated constitution and present national challenges

Photo credit: UNDP

Civil society organizations are keen on all-round participation for the purpose of creating a constitution that comes satisfactorily close to consensus.

With the secession of South Sudan, it became necessary to restructure the state in such a way that all regions can realize their legitimate aspirations for a fair share of power and wealth, which the Naivasha agreement and the interim constitution failed to deliver, leading to the conflicts we are now seeing.

This cannot be ignored as it represents the only gateway for reinstating stability in this country.

We are facing a serious and escalating crisis of national unity that can only be dealt with through a new scheme for restructuring the state on a more democratic basis, and in a manner that responds to legitimate demands.

 It has been proven that the most serious challenge to this unity is the willful disregard of legitimate regional demands, which basically creates a "centralized state" that monopolizes power and wealth, giving rise to grievances which practically invite rebellion against the central authority.

 Any attempt to deal with the issue through force of arms is destined to fail, as evidenced by the South Sudan experience.

We should learn from past experiences, and that of South Sudan bears witness to our utter failure to manage diversity. Continuing with our old practices simply means that further fragmentation awaits the rest of this country.

We are now, without exaggeration, going through a critical historic juncture where the challenge is literally "to be or not to be", and the answer is definitely not more of the same. We need practical solutions; not slogans and cosmetic measures to conceal our tarnished unity.

If we misread our situation and where we stand, we will lose our way, and when this happens we can only expect more splintering and internal wars.