Does Puntland administration and its denizens live in an alternate reality

‘On what bases subjects obey their rulers’, the social contract theory by Thomas Hobbs et al (1588–1679)

Every era can be looked at as a repository of a particular kind of wisdom. This means we need to go back in time to rescue things which have been missing (The Phenomenology of Spirit; Hegel, 1807). One invokes Hegel’s philosophical understandings on mankind’s intuition to learn from their past cataclysmic blunders. In other words, its innate human intuition, that is, if that particular leading entity at that crucial juncture is equated upon wisdom, needs to go back in time to rescue things that have been missing. On that note, the leading entity of subsequent administrations of Puntland, in 22 years of existence, spectacularly failed to learn from their predecessor’s blunders or to rescue from the past those ideas that are most needed to compensate for the blind spots of the present. As a consequence, it’s indicative that the incumbent misconstrued the storm of dissent and disgruntlement almost all Puntland denizens felt towards the Puntland project/administration. The objection, for some considerable time, has been garnering impetus marked by the plebeians openly subscribing to the ‘confined to sole rhetoric’ of Farmajo’s nebulous nationalistic sentiment, who is having a swoon to replicate his erstwhile idol. As Roble (2021) candidly put it, ‘Farmajo has autocratic tendencies where he personalises the rule of Somalia.’ The uproar of the present incumbent is the culmination of what has been gaining ground since its, Puntland, inception, and, as aforementioned, he’s, just like his predecessors, as Hagel postulated, failing to comprehend and learn the ideas he dislikes (to steer clear of monotonously running into that small circle of using the office first to enrich oneself and, secondly, habit it as a stepping stone into the federal government top job). In addition, the president is on a slippery slope of not learning his intellectual enemy from the point of view they disagreed earlier. Because his predecessor holds a bit of a truth scattered even in an unappealing or peculiar place: not to give undue precedence to the matters unfolding in Mogadishu regarding the end of Farmajo’s term. Comparatively, Said Deni completely and utterly transfixed himself in the shenanigans of the FGS and the fruitless endeavor of formulating new yet another clan-based parliament and subsequently hopeless administration. Fruitless in the sense for the public not electing their legitimate political leaders. That has, in a reverse of fortune, elevated the status of his archrival in Mogadishu – farmajo – who, for the same reason, miserably failed to get the FGS off the ground. Rather, rehabilitate the defiled by his predecessors’ office of Puntland presidency and try to at least bring the people of Puntland, who lost any shred of confidence in it, around and gradually gain their trust by starting somewhere to attend to the needs, priorities and delivery of public services. This is where the president and his entourage, if they have a shred of acumen, have to exactly try to bring their heads

around to why and what happened that has driven their constituents, without any reservations, to subscribe to the ill-defined agenda of Farmajo. Given how things are unfolding, one tried to hear the motive behind the support Puntland population, almost all of them, strongly expressed to Farmajo and rejected Mr Deni’s adversarial locus. Fielding some questions on the matter, the people of Puntland, after over twenty years of predictably recycled administration, came to terms with the notion that one day the right person would feature to turn the ship around and bring the services they have been venturing from farther afield with a precipitously unaffordable cost, home. Furthermore, the people come into a cul-de- sac in bankrolling despotic-cum-inept administration, even to the point of the bailiffs, in an inhumane way, removing the front doors of those who failed to pay the alleged taxation. Thus, everyone interviewed, in asking them what drives one to express such fervent support for Farmajo, expresses unimaginable frustration and aghastness towards Puntland leadership. The mantra that bounces back in major colours is ‘We have had enough of, every five years, them (respectively, the president and his close-knit clique) coming, enriching themselves and stashing away the money supposed to advance the living standards of the public. One strived to ascertain that if the simmering anger against the modus vivendi in which Mohamud Saleeban is tacitly equated with the office of the president (Farah, 2019) since Puntland State’s inception is the root cause of the rejection of the Puntland administration, and the findings proved otherwise, as the majority of Farmajo supporters belonged to the three protagonists/sub-clans reserved for the top job. Consequently, it’s a strong manifestation that the loss of hope by Puntlanders for their administration vis-à-vis the president is beyond clan machinations. Therefore, the palpable question that comes into the argument is, given almost all dissent recounted to his predecessors, ‘once again, how does the president convince the citizens of Puntland to put their trust in his administration?’. Summing up, on the ubiquitous question: ‘What were your expectations for the subsequent administrations to fulfil and failed to deliver since their investiture?’ The overwhelming majority of the different age and gender groups answers revolved around the following: Respective Puntland administrations, since the installation rite, failed to seek legitimacy from the public by establishing the tools for democratisation, such as a constitutional court, the parties, the electoral register, holding local elections and finally enfranchising the denizens to elect their respective representatives of the parliaments and the president. As a matter of fact, all of the citizens of the state believe they, and subsequent administrations, wanted all along to hold Puntland inhabitants to ransom by thwarting any modality for the people to set themselves free of that vicious circle of every other five years a group of Godfather-like in-group members takes over the baton for yet another term to enrich themselves. Subsequent to that, year in, year out, the clique got emboldened, starting from the Deni’s predecessor, to the limit of selling the national strategic assets– the incumbent’s predecessor cashed in Bossaso port, while, as rumours had it, Deni is in the process of clandestinely transferring the two, Bossaso and Garowe, airports

into the hands of one more rogue entity. The burden of proof is on the president, beyond a reasonable doubt, to establish the otherwise. The bread and butter: jobs, healthcare, education, food, clean water, cheap energy, justice, agriculture and the environment upon which the livelihood of pastoral lives is reliant on and other basic facilities without which human beings couldn’t exist (Farah, 2019). It’s no secret the people of Puntland sought after these basic services farther afield at a precipitous cost. This made the denizens question the hefty and unaffordable taxation the administration levies upon them. Some of the services that are available in Puntland, such as electricity, primary and secondary education, food and water, are painfully and extremely unaffordable. Over 2000 graduates come out of the higher education institutions every year, and the prospect of getting jobs, from the public service or otherwise, is remote. This is mainly due to weak government institutions that lack the capacity to make contingencies to absorb such a comparatively large number of graduates. This is mainly due to the subsequent leaderships never having developed modalities to enhance the executive services capacity to its citizens and subsequently augment the workforce or develop policies to collaborate with the private sector. This is attributable to, just like the aforesaid other matters, the subsequent heads of state, for some ill-gotten reasons, selecting ministerial councils that are, almost all of them, inept and unfit for the task. Adding insult to injury, the technical inability of most director generals (DGs) of the current ministries is unfathomable and made their respective ministries mere small departments (Farah, 2019). This mellowed habit of staving off highly competent individuals for their cabinet and amassing unskilled/uneducated and psychophonetic obsequious fellows into the ministerial council fits the intimidatory leadership styles adopted by African leaders (Mazrui, 1970). This must change if the president wants to create Puntland that is a beacon of hope for those graduates and secondary leavers: there must be a light at the end of the tunnel. In conclusion, as things stand right now, the buck stops at the president until such time as the people of Puntland go to the polling stations and elect their parliamentarians as well as the head of state: almost three years from now. Therefore, President Deni has to prove to be a thoroughly honourable man with a lot of courage, thus reversing the above-mentioned catastrophic modus vivendi, in which his predecessors used the office to get rich here and now, proven to have caused disintegration and a great deal of predicaments for the majority of lower-tier Puntland citizens. And if that is the case, the president has to take the following crucial steps to reverse the trend and make some inroads on the living standards of Puntlanders: The executive branch, starting with the ministerial council and director generals (DGs), requires a thorough reorganisation rather than a negligible touch round the edges. Right now, due to the professional and technical incapability, with the exception of a few, of the sitting ministers, vice ministers and DGs for respective ministries, Puntland fails to make use of the endowments international donors equate to the state to attend the public services. The president should make across- the-board reform, a clean slate, in the existing civil service in general and sitting ministers, vice-ministers and DGs in particular. The president has to make use of the available pool of highly qualified and competent individuals for Puntland to benefit from the projects international donors are supposed to fulfil in the land.

Though the president showed a great deal of courage by appointing the electoral commission, people have their reservations and understandably that atavistic fear of fleecing them with yet another copper-bottom and false rhetorical mirage of his predecessors. Therefore, the president has to move forward quickly by appointing the constitutional court, formulating the electoral register and holding the local government elections. By engaging available competent and qualified entities, unlike the imposters surrounding him, for consultancy, he has to meticulously scrutinise the progress of the commission. As far as public services are concerned, the president has to prioritise electricity, water, stabilising the currency, agriculture, education (primary and higher education) and infrastructure roads. Obviously, they cannot be sustained with the meagre governmental budget, but competent individuals who are experts and able to prepare strategic projects and visibility studies for the respective institutions have to be appointed for the top jobs. This, in turn, enhancing governmental institutions’ capacity, creates massive jobs for the secondary and university graduates. A good example is, if the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment’s capacity is augmented, Puntland will have needed over ten thousand secondary and university graduates for the sector. Finally, the coronavirus pandemic is ravaging the land, and, for some unacceptable reasons, the individuals who are the gatekeepers of the Ministry of Health denied the WHO the opportunity to establish the intended functioning main isolation centre in Garowe to control the epidemic. Subsequently, some members in the council of ministers have died due to mere lack of ventilators. That is the state of affairs in Puntland government institutions.

References

• Roble (2021) Farmajo: Impending Somalia’s Transition. https://wardheernews.com/farmajo- impeding-somalias-transition/
• Hagel G W F (1807)The Phenomenology of Spirit. http://www.faculty.umb.edu/gary_zabel /Courses/Marxist_Philosophy/Hegel_and_Feuerbach_files/Hegel-Phenomenology-of- Spirit.pdf
• Farah AA (2019) Following the Campaign Trail of Puntland Presidential Hopefuls. Wardheernews. https://wardheernews.com/following-the-campaign-trail-of-puntland- presidential -hopefuls/