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The Speaker of the Somali Parliament, Sharif Hassan, might have distinguished himself as a successful businessman making bags of money in the only way most unscrupulous traders of his sort do business in lawless Southern Somalia – get rich while the going is good with no holds barred. But as a Speaker of Parliament, he is a national disaster. That he was selected, notwithstanding his unfitness for the post, is the price we pay for dishing out government and parliamentarian posts among those who were present in Nairobi along clan basis, regardless of the unsuitability of candidates for posts. Now that he is in the post, Sharif Hassan is going around like loose cannon. Not only does he seem to be ignorant of the constitution in so far as it elates to his powers and those of his deputies, but he behaves as if there are no demarcation lines between his functions and those of the prime minister or the president. Indeed, judging by his behaviour and utterances, you will think he is everything. Each time he goes to Mogadishu , he makes pronouncements on important issues without ever mentioning the name of the government, its prime Minister or president. This self-seeking man is causing serious problems to the fledgling government- a fact not lost upon the warlords in Mogadishu . There is a mutuality of interest between the two. They see him as a handy, pliable man, unfettered by constitutional niceties, who would serve as their potent political instrument- a back-up to their own military might- who could destabilize the government and in time render it a dead duck just as they did to the previous government of Abdul Qasim Salaad Hassan. In return, the Speaker would want to be treated as a de facto president, or one in the waiting if anything should happen to President, either because he is impeached as some dissident M.Ps and warlords are contemplating, or should he pass away.
Taking maximum advantage of the absence of the government in Nairobi , the Mogadishu warlords and their allies, the BBC Somali Service, had spared no effort to pander to the egos of the Speaker each time he goes to Mogadishu, and feast him as if he was the president or prime Minister of Somalia . All this comes as music to his ears and the more of it he gets, the more it goes right into his head, coming to believe in the end what he likes to hear. As the French say, this is Déjà vu – and what we see from the Speaker's behaviour and actions bears all the hallmarks of a typically unpolished African dictator in the making The sooner he is stopped and put in his right place, the better for the government and Somalia . While basking in their comfortable environment in Nairobi , the government has lost the propaganda war to the warlords. It has done almost nothing to counter the mighty unholy alliance between the BBC Somali Service, the the well-funded warlords and the Speaker of Parliament. But where is the voice of the government?. It has yet to recover from the blunder it made when it appointed Dr. Sifir as the Minister of Information- a man who has been acting all along as the cheerleader for the warlords. Where is the initiative from the foreign Minister? Does he ever complain to the British government through it Ambassador in Nairobi about the flagrant bias of the BBC Somali Service? The government should initiate a counter public relations offensive once it relocates itself to the country. Mohamoud Oogle Email: Mohamoud_Oogle@yahoo.co.uk
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