My plan was to finish the above-mentioned article within the five parts, unfortunately, my calculation was wrong. I failed to cover the five pillars of the national project within the specified period. Therefore, I need another a space or two spaces to cover the remaining parts of the national project, namely; the strategic goals statement and principles and values statement. In this part of the article, I will ty to cover the fourth and fifth pillars, which are strategic goals and principles and values statements.
As I cited in part one of the article that problem statement is the foundational bedrock for the five pillars of the national project without which the national project will suffer from a serious limping, namely; problem statement, vision statement, mission statement, strategic goals statement, and principles and values statement. The concerned people need to undergo contextual or situational analysis in order to identify the strategic issues that interweave into forming the problem statement that encounters the concerned nation.
To develop strategic goals out of these strategic issues, the concerned people just need to reverse the strategic issues from their negative forms into their positive forms. Strategic goals are the cornerstones without which the shared vision of the national project will not be actualized. Strategic goals and strategic issues are intrinsically connected. Strategic issues come first then strategic goals follow. Strategic goals are the changes that have to take place before the shared vision comes true. Strategic goals are the changes that happen in the status, social, cultural, economic, political, environmental status and suchlike of the concerned people or communities. Strategic goal is a high-level long-term objective that aligns with an entity mission and vision to define its future direction. Problem Statement, Vision Statement, Mission Statement, Strategic Goals Statement, and Principles and Values Statement are organically correlated. Any flaw in anyone of them will have instantaneous negative effects on the other pillars. The concerned representatives of the people must be very careful when developing these pillars. Having developed the strategic goals, representatives of the people will proceed to another step which converts these strategic goals into strategic objectives or digital objectives then they move further in order to develop the necessary strategies and interventions that make the shared vision come true.
The last fifth pillar of the national project is the principles and values statement. Nations without principles and values perish. Any interventions or initiatives without principles and values will not sustain. Principles and values represent the hub of the national project pillars without which the other four pillars of the national project will fall apart. Any success in life is strictly connected with a set of principles and values. In order to achieve any goal, the concerned people need to equip themselves with relevant and necessary set of principles and values that help in governing their attitudes, behaviours, and practices. National project must have principles and values that rule and regulate the inter-relations and intra-relations of the governing institutions and structures. Sudan is a county of diversity. It is composed of nations with different backgrounds; social, cultural, economic, political, religious, racial, ethnic, tribal, geographical backgrounds and suchlike. These diverse backgrounds have shaped their ways of seeing things and the world around them. This diversity necessitates principle-based or value-based reference to regularize and manage their relations in a way that serves their interests and helps in realizing their shared vision.
Principle system or value reference is more said than done in our political parties’ lexicons. Literally, principles and core values are not well practiced or exercised in the Sudanese political parties’ day-to-day activities and interventions. Yes, principles and values statements are well incorporated and placed in their political constitutions and manifestos but are not well placed in their hearts. Sudanese political parties together with their leaders do not walk their talk and do not practice what they preach. As the idiom says, ‘they preach water and drink wine’. There is no consistency between what they raise as their political principles, values, and slogans, and what they truly practice on the ground. Most of the Sudanese political parties and leaders are politically cursed by hypocrisy. What a ridiculous situation!
In a nutshell, lip-service is the norm in the political culture of the Sudanese political parties. This inconsistency is the sole source of Sudan dilemma which necessitates a robust national project’s principles and values statement in order to remove such deficiencies and ideally lead all the Sudanese political parties toward one direction in order to actualize the shared vision, mission, and strategic goals.
No glory for gun, yes glory for peace
Mahjoub
Kampala, Uganda
