ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes how corruption has resulted in part from poorly instituted land laws and the dynamics of factionalism. South Sudan has failed to institute functional institutions; institutions which could have initiated peace-guaranteeing conditions, ensure national cohesion, and spur economic development and prosperity. This has created war-enabling conditions and made peace and security almost impossible to realize. Some of the reasons advanced by experts, foreign diplomats and other stakeholders with intimate knowledge of South Sudanese history, include lack of political will, militarized mentality, political and economic patronage, tribalized politics, kleptocracy, and the general desire to amass wealth. While the mentioned causal factors have undermined state formation and institutional structures, this article contends that the current South Sudanese political quagmire stemmed from a lack of disciplined and conscientious leadership that could have dealt with the above mentioned problems. The chapter aims to show how the lack of leadership undermined nascent institutional structures and protocols as leaders failed (or didn’t know how) to give problems context, guide civil servants, and prescribe fact-based governance models. A sound leadership, notwithstanding lack of experienced local civil servants and nascent institutional structures, would have strategized in a manner that focuses on addressing state shortcomings in consistent, forward-looking modalities outlined in the South Sudan Development Plan (2011–2013).
