Not Just a Number…!!

Al-Tahir Satti

:: Finance Minister Jibril Ibrahim has confirmed to Agence France-Presse what was revealed here a week ago about Sudan’s looted gold. Jibril stated that exports did not exceed 20 tonnes, while officially recorded production reached 70 tonnes—meaning that smuggled quantities exceed 50 tonnes of officially registered gold alone. As for unregistered production that is smuggled, it is several times greater than what has been acknowledged…!!

:: Today comes another equally painful fact: the much-celebrated production figure of 70 tonnes, recorded in official state reports, is not accurate. It is merely an estimate—like livestock statistics and other public resources—because the administrative mindset is unable to keep pace; it is traditional, backward, and lazy…!!

:: As you know, artisanal mining accounts for nearly 90% of total output. The tragedy is that those we call “officials” collect the people’s share as a fee on ore before it is processed and the gold extracted. From the sum of these fees, they then determine total production. This means the celebrated 70 tonnes is nothing more than an arithmetic calculation based on ore fees. What misery is this??

:: The authorities are neither qualified to know the actual output of a sack—or a truck—of ore, nor willing to qualify themselves to know. They are lazy authorities, incapable of innovating means of measurement, content to estimate the output of a sack—or a truck—of ore. On the basis of this miserable estimate, they set their fees, then label those fees “production.” This is how they deceive themselves and the public. The celebrated “achievement” is ore fees, not actual production…!!

:: Incidentally, smuggling starts right here—at the ore stage. A miner delivers one truck for assessment so officials determine the fees on its ore load, then smuggles another truck—or several—that go unrecorded. This is how the people’s resource is looted. Smuggling and plunder then continue through other stages, until they culminate in the flight of export proceeds…!!

:: (Loose money teaches theft.) Under the above procedures, the people’s gold is “loose”—open to plunder through smuggling due to the absence of strong, honest, and intelligent guardians of protection and oversight. It is heartbreaking that the people stand in the line of fire, defending their country with life and blood, while scoundrels enjoy its resources—no different from the Janjaweed except in the method of theft…!!

:: Let the Council of Ministers be aware: wars are not fought with firearms alone. There are other fronts—among them, the economy. The worst defeats societies suffer in war do not come from the visible enemy, but from the hidden enemy—the one that turns administrative systems into chaos, exposing resources to looting instead of making them a pillar for soldiers and support for the displaced and homeless…!!

:: And let the Sovereign Council know: nothing in this country is more important—or more dangerous—than non-oil resources, especially minerals. When these are smuggled through corruption and mismanagement, the people do not lose merely a number like the one cited by the finance minister; they lose their country’s resources, the strength of their currency, opportunities for development and stability, and a life of dignity. They remain hostage to loans and begging. Govern responsibly—or leave. You are not more precious than the best of the people who sacrifice everything…!!