It is unfortunate that Sudan is one of the few countries in the world that has no national project. Sudanese political parties, civil governments, and the Military Establishment are in a continuous business of pulling in different directions. They are in this damaging business since the independence of the country in the year of 1956. Due to this irresponsible political practices on the part of the Sudanese political parties, civil governments and Military Establishment, the country’s territory integrity has badly been affected, and its national sovereignty got dishonored, and deformed. Due to these political malpractices, the country is ailing to get dismembered and fallen apart.
The turbulent, dynamic, and ever-changing situation of the world necessitates a national project of some kind to come true to rescue this country from its bleeding. It has to compel these short-sighted political entities to put an end to their trivial political skirmishes and look beyond the tips of their noses.
In order to develop a sound Sudanese National Project, primary stakeholders need to focus on five important areas, which we call them the pillars or constants of a robust national project, they are namely; problem statement, vision statement, mission statement, strategic goals statement, and principles and values statement.
A robust national project is usually developed or built by the true nationals of that particular country. The true representatives of these nationals are the ones who should, on behalf of their respective communities and people, get engaged in the process of national project building. In order to make this national project a success, the values of flexibility, good-faith, and good communication must be adopted by those involved in the process of national project building.
By common sense, national project builders are the nationals of that specific country. Entities with foreign-related or imported agendas or goals or ideologies are not allowed to participate in the building process of national project. Likewise, people or entities with tribal or ethnic orientations are, as well, not allowed to participate in this national process. The same rule applies to racial or religious or sectarian parties and entities. These entities are controversial entities whose participation will doubtlessly spoil the entire process of national project building. It is said that ‘common sense isn’t always common practice.’ If they were allowed to get involved in the process, they would spoil the sauce, no doubt about that. They would try, by all means, to impose their respective agendas and ideologies on others’ national agendas. They lack spirit of democracy, they are always in pursuit of imposing their beliefs and ideologies.
Now one can fully understand why these controversial entities have kept manipulating and dodging since the independence of Sudan. They have kept to be adamant and reluctant to call for such a process of national project building where nationals assemble to democratically agree upon their strategic issues, strategic goals, and shared vision. Democratic climate is not a conducive environment for the survival these controversial entities.
Now, going back to the five pillars of the national project. The first pillar is about the ‘Problem Statement.’ It is the most foundational pillar and bedrock upon which the other four pillars are built. Sudanese nationals, through their representatives, assemble in order to clearly identify the challenging issues that have been encountering them and crippling them from moving forward toward realizing their shared vision. Having identified the challenging issues, the involved representatives of the Sudanese nations jointly proceed to make another giant step which is the prioritization of the already identified challenging issues that encounter the Sudanese people. Here, challenging issues are prioritized in terms of their importance, that is to say the most important and challenging issue ranks first whereas the least challenging issue ranks last. After the prioritization step, they proceed to another important step which is called strategization step, it is the step in which the involved representatives identify their strategic issues which represent the National Strategic Issues such as National Identity Issue, the Relation between Religion and State Issue, the Decentralization Issue and so on. It is the people, through their representatives, who identify and define their strategic issues and not the elites or the governments. Such strategic issues truly represent the challenging issues that face the entire Sudanese Nations which need principled solutions from the concerned governments. All nationals will fully get aligned behind the government in its interventions that address these strategic issues. It is through this democratic and participatory process that the true representatives of the Sudanese nations will lock the door against any endeavor that aims at imposing any agendas or issues on the agreed upon strategic issues. Any issues other than the issues raised by the representatives of the Sudanese nations will be turned down, and this is what sectarian entities and political parties with foreign agendas and imported ideologies reject.
The second pillar or component of the Sudan National Project is the ‘Shared Vision Statement.’ Shared vision statement is about how Sudanese nations wish to see themselves look like in the future, say in ten years’ time or in fifteen or twenty years’ time. Shared vision is a brief description of the status that Sudanese nations wish or want to be in. socially, culturally, economically, politically, and environmentally, how do you, “Sudanese people,” want to be in the future. The shared problem statement will help the representatives of the Sudanese nations to coin their shared vision statement, to help them envision their desired future, the New Sudan that will accommodate all Sudanese nations with their diversity. To develop an aspiring shared vision statement, the involved representatives of the Sudanese nations in the National Project Building Process must undergo the first process of the first pillar ‘problem statement’ perfectly well.
In the coming part (5) of my article, Sudan National Project, the Missing Link (5-5) I will be covering the other three pillars, namely; the mission statement, strategic goals statement, and the principles and values statement. If we fully understood these five pillars and components of the Sudan Nation Project, we would be in a good position to creatively and effectively participate in building Sudan National Project that rescue the Sudanese nations from the ongoing crisis.
Be continued.
Mahjoub
Kampala, Uganda.
mahjoubferen@gmail.com
