Life
Formerly a chemical engineering lecturer at the University of Khartoum, with a Ph.D. from the University of London, Dr. Lam Akol joined the SPLA in 1986. In 1991 he joined Riek Machar and Gordon Kong to break from the SPLA and form the SPLA-Nasir. He broke with Riek in 1995, and became chairman of SPLM/A-United. He subsequently signed the Khartoum Peace Agreement with the government in 1997 and was appointed Sudan's Minister of Transportation, a post he held for five years. In 2002 Dr. Akol resigned from the ruling National Congress (NCP), and became a key member of the newly formed opposition Justice Party. He, with most of his militia, rejoined the SPLA in October 2003.
In 2005 Dr. Akol wrote a piece detailing his role as a negotiator on behalf of the late leader of the SPLA, Dr. John Garang, in the initiation of OLS.
In October 2007, the SPLM withdrew from the Khartoum government; it demanded, among other things, that Akol not be removed but kept at his position as Minister of Foreign Affairs, as he was seen as being too close to the regime. But on October 17, President Omar al-Bashir moved Akol to the less important post of Minister of Cabinet Affairs and appointed Deng Alor, a leading SPLM member (member of the SPLM political bureau) who had previously been the Minister of Cabinet Affairs, to replace Akol as Foreign Minister.
Read more about this topic: Lam Akol
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“It’s not a matter of revenge, you know that. When a man turns informer, it’s his life or ours.”
—Dudley Nichols (1895–1960)
“There are books ... which take rank in your life with parents and lovers and passionate experiences, so medicinal, so stringent, so revolutionary, so authoritative.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Kittering’s brain. What we will he think when he resumes life in that body? Will he thank us for giving him a new lease on life? Or will he object to finding his ego living in that human junk heap?”
—W. Scott Darling, and Erle C. Kenton. Dr. Frankenstein (Sir Cedric Hardwicke)