By The Editorial Board
When President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed “Farmajo” was elected on Feb. 16, 2017, spontaneous celebrations erupted in every region where Somalis live around the world.
The ecstasy was primarily prompted by a belief that the man delivers when he is in the driver’s seat. For, that is exactly what he did when he was a prime minister between 2010 and 2011. As president, Somalis surmised, Mr. Farmajo can fix the national and international problems facing the nation.
But after more than a year at the helm, a whole lot of things are not going in the right direction, and more questions are being asked about the effectiveness of the current crop of politicians running the country.
To be sure, Somalia’s problems are more complicated to be solved by one individual or within four years, but what Somalis expected from Farmajo was to show them a different style of leadership that has its finger on the pulse of the nation.
The country’s burning problems that cry out for solutions include recalcitrant regional administrators who’re acting like presidents of independent countries, the bloody al Qaida-linked militants who’re wreaking havoc across the country. A titular national government that has no budget commensurate with the scale of the political, security and economic ills bedeviling the nation.
The clearest sign of a national government in comatose state came to light when the Blue House opted to remain tight-lipped on the regional administrators’ declaration last week to unilaterally invite foreign countries and companies – “anyone,” according to the Somali text of their communiqué – to the Somali soil.
How come a government that represents the interests of Somalia can keep mum on such an incendiary statement defies the political logic of any modern nation. Doesn’t the Blue House comprehend what’s at stake here?
These rabble-rousers are not acting alone. They’re being prodded on by Abu Dhabi whose intention is to kill the Somali nation idea to create Somali emirates it can have under its thumb.
The administrators – probably at Abu Dhabi’s urging — openly ditched the national government’s position and sided with the United Arab Emirates in the row over the Gulf crisis in which Mogadishu rejected to bow to the demands of the Saudi-led coalition to cut ties with Qatar. That policy item alone should have been enough to raise national alarms.
If Kenya’s attempt to annex a large, natural resource-rich chunk of the sea was the biggest foreign policy challenge under Farmajo’s predecessor, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, the new and emerging problems are as enormous as Kenya’s bid.
Abu Dhabi knows what it wants, and that is why it recognized Hargeisa’s passport, trains northern militias and buys off politicians. The question is why does the Blue House appear confused and clueless about the existential danger such actions pose to the nation’s political health and territorial integrity.
Does the national government need any other proof to stand up to the UAE’s interference in the affairs of the sovereign Somali nation when Abu Dhabi finances gatherings of rogue, self-seeking politicians so as they defy Mogadishu’s writ. The seizure of $9.6 million at the nation’s main airport in Mogadishu should have been enough evidence to shame the shameless Abu Dhabi emirs.
The actions of the UAE in the country – from cutting military deals with northern regions, awarding Ethiopia 19 percent stake in the Port of Berbera and financing rascal politicians — should have jolted the national government led by President Farmajo and Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khayre into a counteraction that should have nipped Abu Dhabi’s aggression in the bud.
If Mr. Farmajo and Mr. Khayre are doing something about the UAE’s open assault on our nationhood, they’re not saying so. But then again, doesn’t this silence itself encourage other enemies to meddle in our affairs?
We remind President Farmajo and the entire national leadership that the nation is at a crossroads, and that the UAE’s interference is eating into the fabric of the nation.
If our national leaders – from the president down — fail to rise to the occasion, Somalis will never forgive them. It is a time like this that the country needs a strong, sagacious leader.
The Blue House’s first order of business should be cutting ties with the Emirates, taming shrewdly Hargeisa’s rebellion, protesting unwaveringly against foreign meddlers and coming clean on claims that it’s in talks with Nairobi on the maritime dispute now before the International Court of Justice, perhaps to entertain an out-of-court settlement.
The national government should also get a clear, unambiguous, unequivocal and written explanation from the Ethiopian government on the share it took in the port of Berbera. How on earth can a country with which we fought two major wars to reclaim from it our occupied land dare do such a damn thing under the watch of a Somali government worth its name. It beats logic. Lawmakers should table motions on the UAE interference, regional administrators’ disregard for the sovereignty of the nation and foreign nations abetting secession-minded politicians.
The national government should impose appropriate sanctions on the scoundrels in the northwestern and northeastern regions for violating the country’s sovereignty by unilaterally inviting foreigners to the Somali soil and entering into illegal deals with other countries. Mogadishu has to write protest letters to nations that are propping up the Hargeisa administration, most notably the countries that are playing a double game.
The culture of political impunity should come to an end in this country. Politicians working for foreign countries should be punished and ostracized. A Somali politician should be unswerving in his devotion to this country.
At The Star, we’re not calling for any armed conflict to resolve these problems – far from it. There are many ways a poor, recovering nation, like ours, can tame refractory politicians and their foreign backers without firing a bullet – We’re not worse off than South Sudan that expels wayward foreigners. The world is based on principles and laws. We should use them to stop the meddling from foreign countries whose aim is to quietly tear the country apart through a dubious and distorted application of the foreign-backed federal system.
On this score, Qatar and Turkey, the main backers of the national government, should boldly line up diplomatically and financially behind Mogadishu in its push to tame scampish administrators.
The national government can’t squander more time on softly-softly approach. It has to come down hard on the rowdy regional administrators and meddlesome foreigners.
It is now or never, Mr. President. Forget the faux alarm to be expressed by foreign nations, whose actual, if concealed, wish is to thwart a cohesive and peaceful Somalia where order is maintained and rule of law is respected. Mr. President, the public fully endorses any move that gives them a sense of pride in their motherland.
Inhabitants of the five regional administrations in the country are themselves victims of these greedy politicians who have no desire to even manage properly the areas under their control.
Somalis didn’t celebrate your win, Mr. President, so as you reward them with a silent and malleable regime that condones the subjugation of Somalis or connives with foreign countries and their local stooges in their scheme to destroy Somalia.
Late President Mohamed Siyad Barre left behind a poor Somalia. But under his rule, Somalia belonged to Somalis. It’s now your duty to follow suit and entrench in the minds of the citizens the sense of ownership and patriotism that Somalia is only for Somalis. Together with lawmakers, you have — Mr. President and Mr. Prime Minister – to seal the loopholes, including ersatz investments, through which foreigners can exploit to try and loot our resources or rip apart our nation.
When you were in the trenches, Mr. President, you pilloried other leaders for not doing enough to address the country’s core problems. Now that you’re at the wheel, do just the nice things you always talked of. Mr. President, now it’s time to get serious and protect Somalia from foreign vultures and their local agents. Address the nation and tell it what you and Khayre are doing to shield the country from its local and international enemies.
Somalis are too smart and much too alert and perspicacious to be deceived by foreign conspiracies. But they need your guidance and leadership. Don’t just lead them down the garden path. Somalia shouldn’t be torn apart under your watch, Mr. President. See the real, bigger picture of the Somalia you’re leading and solve its problems in a practical way.
Have you got the message, Mr. President?