Mogadishu (WDN) — Somalia’s Ministry of Interior has unveiled the Bulsho Project, a $35 million initiative billed as a bold step toward bringing government closer to its citizens. With speeches polished and ambitions set high, officials promised a decade-long transformation of local governance, decentralization, inclusion, and service delivery finally taking center stage.

Interior Minister Ali Hoosh described it as a breakthrough. Finance Minister Bihi Iman Egeh reinforced the message, outlining a ten-year plan backed by the World Bank. The numbers, on the surface, appear straightforward. Until they aren’t.

Because while the project is marketed as nationwide, its execution tells a more selective story. The initiative includes Somaliland, Puntland, Jubaland, Hirshabelle, Galmudug, and South West State, yet conspicuously excludes the “Northeast” administration.

This would be easier to explain if the numbers didn’t raise eyebrows.

Roughly $5 million has reportedly been earmarked for Somaliland alone. That leaves $30 million in the pot, more than enough, at least in basic arithmetic, to distribute equitably among six federal member states, including the Northeast administration. Unless, of course, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Interior are working with a different kind of calculator one where political preferences quietly override numerical logic.

No official explanation has been offered.The omission is particularly striking given that the federal government had previously signaled recognition of the Northeast administration. Recognition without resources, however, appears to be the new operating model.

For its part, the administration’s president, Abdiqadir Firdhiye, has yet to respond publicly. Silence, in this context, may say as much as any statement.

The Bulsho Project was meant to symbolize unity government reaching down to meet its citizens where they are. Instead, it has exposed a familiar contradiction: inclusion in rhetoric, exclusion in practice.

After all, bringing government closer to the people is easy to announce. Ensuring that all people are counted in the equation, that’s where the math suddenly gets complicated.