WardheerNews is to be warmly congratulated for its excellent editorial exposing the demise of the Somali Service under Yussuf Garaad. The fellow has been very adept at winning the heart of the former head of the BBC African Service, Ms. Blackburn. She appointed him for the post and gave him almost carte blanche to run the Service as he pleased.

Yusuf Garaad

The current head of the BBC African and Middle East Regions appears to care less about the complaints of listeners. But the increasing chorus of disenchanment with the Service from all corners of the world cannot be for ever brushed aside by the BBC. Sooner or later, it will have to give serious attention to what is wrong with the Somali Service and to recognize that the malaise can simply be put down to Mr. Yussuf Garaad and the way he has run the Service since he was appointed as editor. For too long, the BBC has fallen for his plea that all complains come from haters of
his clan. This mantra would not wash anymore. No body hates his clan. Admittedly, honest people are bound to detest evil- doers, no matter what clan or what group they belong to.

The fact that Yussuf Garaad and most of the warlords belong to the same clan is neither here nor there. It is not the clan which is under scrutiny but the evil- doers who will continue to appeal to clan chauvinism for their own selfish reasons every time they feel threatened or under attack by outsiders. We all know that they do not care about the plight of their clan, but only themselves and their ill-gotten gains. The fact that these detested warlords - who had been holding Somalia to ransom for 15 years and denying it to establish a national government in Mogadishu- happen to belong to one dominant clan, should not in itself inhibit us to speak out against them. In doing so, we would have committed no offence against the clan but simply targeting the evil-doers, who happen to be our common enemy. After all, they are the main victim in Mogadishu and Banadir and they will be the first to benefit from the restoration of a national government.

The TFG, currently based in Jowhar, should give more attention to reaching out to the oppressed Somalis under the tyranny of the warlords in Mog, Banadir and elsewhere and convince them that it cares about their welfare and liberation- a task it can only be able to address once the main impediment - the warlords- are removed. If the government can win the hearts and minds of the oppressed in these areas, that will surely bring the downfall of the detested warlords and Somalia can come back to life. But the government has to reckon with the odds it is facing : not only the local media in Mog under the tutelage of the warlords but also the mighty support that the BBC Somali Service is giving to the warlords and to the ramshackle of dissidents grouped under the renegade speaker of Parliament, Sharif Hassan.

Here is a man who was supposed to be a servant of the Somali people but has turned out to be a tool of the warlords. If these devils succeed to defeat this fledgling government as they did to the previous one of AbdulQasim Salaad Hassan, it is mainly thanks to the damned role Sharif Hassan has played to defy the government and campaigning against it both at home and abroad. History and the Somali people will never forgive him for that. Unfortunately, he seems not to care a damn about history or the welfare of his people - only what he reckons to be his personal gain at any particular time, a typical calculation of a trader steeped in the unprincipled world of Qat trade.

Mohamoud Oogle
E-Mail: mohamoud_oogle@yahoo.co.uk

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