Dr. Mohamed Abbas Omar

Rampant Corruption

Apart from the security breakdown, there is a massive corruption that is running deep in government institutions. It is not an exaggeration to say that President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s administration was born out of corruption. It started with the corrupt process of bribing Somali MPs during the federal election by cash handout, which actually ascended the current Somali leader and his Damul Jadid movement to power in September 2012.

The former Governor of the Central Bank of Somalia Ms. Yussur Abrar also resigned from her position after less than two months on the job citing that the Central Bank of Somalia was not allowed to function free of interference from the President’s office, and therefore, the bank couldn’t operate as an independent credible institution. Likewise, a U. N. report on Somalia released in July 2014, stated that eighty per cent (80%) of the withdrawals from the country’s Central Bank was used for private purposes!

Just recently, the U.N. monitors have also submitted a report to the U.N. Security Council committee, mentioning that the Somali Federal Government has received large payments from Soma Oil and Gas, a British oil company as part of un-announced deals to expand an energy exploration contracts. The Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) also confirmed that it opened an inquiry on this serious corruption.

Political Infighting and Broken Promises

Political infighting and weak leadership are the hallmark of the Mogadishu-based Federal Government. The President always struck up bad working relations with his handpicked Prime Ministers, and each time he sacks them through the Parliament. Having three Prime Ministers (Abdi Farah Shirdon, Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed and Sharmarke) in less than two years is definitely a sign of political instability and leadership failure. When he won the office, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud had promised a six-point plan that included (1) improving the security sector; (2) national unity; (3) public service delivery; (4) peace-building; (5) economic recovery; (6) and improving Somalia’s international relations with the rest of the world. In the eyes of Somalis, the President has totally failed to achieve none of these.

Destabilizing Puntland and Jubbaland

The Somali Federal Government has become known as the government that always violates the country’s Provisional Federal Constitution. Just recently, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and his close associates have tried to destabilize Puntland by annexing parts of its territory. What a fake dream from a failed government!

Puntland State of Somalia is a region defined by peace and stability and it has a fully functioning state government. Its political maturity has attracted the international community when the power-transfer took place peacefully by a single ballot during the state’s Presidential election on January 8, 2014. This was an unprecedented phenomenon, not only in Somalia, but also in Africa at large.

Puntland consists of one third of the nation’s geographical area, and almost a third of Somalia’s population lives in this state (4.1 million). The hospitable environment in Puntland has also attracted many peace-loving Somalis from the Diaspora and other regions of the country, particularly from the south-central regions.

Jubbaland, on the other hand, is a newly-formed state government and its process has been in the making for years. It was founded by the former Somali Defence Minister Professor Mohamed Abdi Gandi through a bottom-up approach and a grass-root support and not through the corrupt process of bribing Somali MPs by cash handouts as the situation is in Mogadishu. But despite its limited resources and terror threats, Jubbaland is making headway in many fronts. At the moment, it is having a fully functioning government, and its armed forces are its pride. Unlike the Mogadishu-based army who rely on AMISON in their fight against Alshabab, Jubbaland security forces are battle-tested defense forces that can take on Alshabab terror group regularly without hiding behind AMISOM tanks.

To undermine the establishment of Jubbaland State, the Somali Federal Government prepared last month a failed motion which was tabled in the Federal Parliament in Mogadishu, questioning about the legitimacy of Jubbaland Parliament. In late 2013, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud sent his former Interior Minister Mr. Abdikarim Hussien – who is his right hand man – to Kismaayo for the purpose of dismantling the newly-formed state through arming the well-known notorious Somali warlord Barre Hiiraale and his clan militia. A heavy war erupted in the city and Jubbaland forces chased the warlord and his militia out of Kismaayo. The Somali Federal Government was responsible for this unnecessary fight, in which many lives were lost on both sides.

It goes without saying that a ‘centralized authority’ is a fantasy that the Somali President and his team could only dream of. They are being preoccupied with centralizing institutions of governance instead of harnessing the federal system as the country’s Provisional Federal Constitution dictates.

The position of Puntland and Jubbaland is that the promotion of a united Somalia can only be achieved through the implementation of the federal system of government, which is reflected in the Provisional Constitution as the federal member states will have the freedom to govern their own affairs to a significant degree, and will have the chance to participate in democratic decision-making at the federal level.

Another issue worrying the Somali people is that the federal election at the end of 2016 won’t be free from corruption. The mainstream of the Somali people strongly believe that the same process that brought President Hassan Sheikh and his team to power – using public funds to buy the votes of the lawmakers (MPs) – will replay again in the forthcoming election.

In short, the security failure, the clan nepotism and the massive corruption are just a tip of the iceberg. I have a lot to reveal to unveil the dark side of the federal government, but I don’t want to dig more than this because – as the internationally-renown Somali novelist Nuruddin Farah once said – “Somalia has become like a can of worms, the more you dig, the more you discover nasty and unspeakable miseries”!

To get the country out of this political, economic and social mess, Somalia needs a leader with a firm hand and far-sighted mind and whose primary concern is to unite the divided Somali people and to put in place a working federal system for both the living and the unborn Somalis.

Today, Somalia is a show acted badly by an incompetent actor – the federal government. But despite all the sufferings, I am hopeful the country will one day get out of trouble and reclaim its past glory. Allah says in the Qur’an:
“Surely, with every difficulty there is a relief.” (94: 6).

Dr. Mohamed Abbas Omar
Puntland State of Somalia
Email:Kismaayo91@hotmail.com
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Dr. Abbas is a State Minister for Presidency and International Cooperation, Puntland.