Adding Insult to Injury: The Somaliland’s Recent Presidential Decree in Response to the Complaint Of Awdal/Salal Elders.

The wording of the presidential decree jeopardised any goodwill that would have been expected by the Awdal/Salal Constituency. This type of response seem to reinforce the negative perception that the government is neither concerned the seriousness of the situation nor prepared to understand the real grievances of the  Awdal/Salal communities. Elders will have difficulties to sell this  response to their constituency, Why? Because it seems the president was ill advised when he was considering possible options to address this important complaint. The president got it wrong in his attempt to address the grievances of the concerned constituency. Some will even go further and dismiss this response as a gimmick, because there is a potential conflict of interest. Ministers are part of the complaint and they got questions to answer, hence there is no logic of asking them to investigate the matter. To appoint a committee to investigate the nature of the complaint in it self is the righteous action, however, to include government ministers will significantly reduce the credibility of their findings and recommendations, if any. The other regrettable mistake is how the official decree summarised the Elders complaint: I quote” Complaint of administrative positions in Awdal Region”. According to the widely published elders reports were included but not limited to the following. i) Fundamental breaches of the Burao and Borama Agreements ii) Unacceptable situation of  current state of power and resource sharing in Somaliland.

It is fair to stress that it is the interest of the entire Somaliland that stakeholders of this nation should have faith in the system that they are part of it.What the president and other important members of Hargeisa constituency need to do, in order to prevent any further alienation of the concerned constituency, is to seriously listen the nature and seriousness of the case. Failure to understand the consequential of not adressing this case fairly and expeditiously will be very costly to Somalilanders as a whole. On the other hand Elders and Awdalite communities, who sacrificed alot for the advancement of this country should not allow few individuals (who are promoting their own political agendas) to hijack the genuine grievances of the constituency. The way foward; government should consult experts, intellectuals, and not rush to appoint a committee even if there was a pressure to respond. Any future committee should demonstrate some sort of integrity, acceptability in terms of their standing within the community, and there should be clarity of what is being investigated.

Adam Awale

(adamawaleh@gmail.com)