By:-Ismail Warsame.
A nation reeling from prolonged civil war, extremism and runaway corruption, combined with lack of clarity of political objectives and nation-building plan is now in a state of abyss with little hope for a potential recovery. At moment, there is no national cohesion mainly due to the fact that the only institution that once brought most Somalis together after the Civil War: The Provisional Provisional Constitution, has been repeatedly violated by the same elected leaders who were entrusted to safeguard it. Believe it or not, now there is nothing else left to unite Somali Federal System once that Constitution has been infringed and corrupted. Even same religion and tribal allegiance can no longer hold them together.
Amidst this confusion and lack of direction throughout Somalia’s landscape, what is the way forward for the oldest Federal Member State of Puntland? It too has lost its clarity of purpose and political direction. To revive the State in a condition of despair in all regions of Somalia, we have to point our finger to the core issues at hand now. They are issues of democratization where 33 elected District Councils urgently need capacity-building; where the State’s next general election on One Person One Vote basis must be organized sooner than later; where extremists in some pockets of the State must be eliminated before they are able to linkup with the Houthis in Yemen, potentially futher endangering international marine transport in the Red Sea, and where the modest Puntland Government Budget is required to be efficiently utilized to cover at least operating expenditure. These, among long list of important imperatives and socio-economic objectives, have to be published in a government white paper as a program of action now. There will be people, among the international community, who would listen to Puntland Government credible proposals for help on these critical issues.
As to the interactions with Villa Somalia and where we go from current constitutional and political paralysis in the country, immediate multi-party regional talks are needed to be held to do away all the constitutional illegalities done in Mogadishu under the auspices of Villa Somalia recently, and charge new course – for Puntland Government that would be the starting point for meaningful negotiations. If that isn’t done, we see no other magic formula that would keep Somalia together. In a federal arrangement, states make collective decisions on consensus. A Federal Member State has veto rights over important issue such as the national constitution. There could be no dictation from the Federal Government or a group of Federal Member States. It is: seek consensus or fail.
On the issue of secessionists in Nothern Somalia, Somaliland is nothing more than an illegally breakaway region of Somalia. Negotiations with Northwest Somalia Region must be based on giving them the opportunity to fold into the federal arrangement as another Member State – but categorically not on the basis of North-South fashion. People of Puntland State will never accept other than this arrangement. By the way, Somaliland is now benefiting tremendously from the federal arrangement without being a Member State.