Tuesday, March 19, 2024
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SOMALIA: WHAT IS THE OUTCOME OF THE GAROWE MEETING?

By Mohamed A. Hussein

Somali media have lately been interested in covering the outcome of the Garowe meeting where three state presidents and the Federal President of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, met to discuss what needs to be done before the 2016 election. A statement was released at the end of the meeting, but it became clear to everyone who listened to the press conference afterward that President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud had finally found a loophole in the constitution.

Culusow- Cabdiwali_Sharif_Madoobe
from left, Sharif, Madoobe, Culusow and Cabdiwali, Garoowe Meeting

President Hassan said that even though he recognizes it is unconstitutional to form one and a half districts into a state under the federal constitution, there is also another article in the constitution that allows him to form an interim administration before it is fully recognized as a state.

As a result, the president said he knows the Central State consists of Galgadud and half of Mudug now and his intention was just to create an administration in the Central State, which is much better than having no administration. Later, he added it is the responsibility of parliamentarians and the constituents of Mudug to decide whether they want to become part of Puntland or part of Central State.

Now, the question is why the president all of a sudden want to change the procedures of creating an interim regional administration based on the constitution. It was well documented that the president claimed at the onset of creating an interim administration in Jubba and the South West that they should be based on the constitution until they could be recognized as full states by the parliament.

The answer to that question is very simple: The president wants to create a Central State that consists of Mudug and Galgadud as he stated when he was in Galgadud and that creation is based on the constitution as were all the other ones.

If that were not the case, then why he didn’t suggest creating, for example, Galgadud, Hiiran and half of Mudug or any other variation that would have been based on the constitution, but for him to say all of a sudden when he is in Puntland that this Central State administration is just interim and its fate is to be decided later is totally unacceptable.

If President Hassan would have created Central State which consist of two or more states plus half of Mudug, then it would make sense to a lot of people if he says whether Mudug would be with Puntiland or Central State would be decided by its constituents and the parliament, but to create one district and half as an interim state that doesn’t suffice the requirement of the constitution is to look for a problem later on, when all of the other state creation are completed.

Many people finally realize that the president is trying to do whatever is necessary for him to extend his administration and he will use any loophole he can find to convince those who will listen.

Puntland leaders seemed to be satisfied with the president’s statement in the press conference; however, Puntland state leaders were expected by its people to reject the president’s statement and instead ask the president to respect and follow the constitution.

The president is used to telling every group what they would like to hear. When he was in the Central State, he mentioned that he was trying to create an administration based on the constitution for the Galgadud and Mudug region but when he was in Puntland it was a different story.

Puntland state was always at the forefront of safeguarding the constitution, which was created by all Somalis, and it should not allow the president Hassan to break the rules just because he said he will leave Puntland alone for the time being.

It can be predicted when the president completes creating all the other states based on the constitution, what is left would be the Central State which violates the constitution and the parliamentarians would have to decide its fate as the president has stated. Parliament is also expected at that time to follow the constitution, which does not allow one and a half districts to become a state.

Puntiland leaders should know better not to accept any agreement which is not based on the constitution specially when they are aware all the other agreements reached in Garowe were not implemented even though the president initially welcomed all those agreements. If they accept this agreement, it means they should also accept all the constitutional change they claimed made by the president and his team and should be ready to accept all the change in the constitution by the president himself in the future in order to extend his rule.

However, representatives of the Central State rightfully opposed the agreement reached in Garowe because it violates the constitution. It seems that they could not believe that the same president who told them a few weeks ago that he would create an administration consisting of Mudug and Galgadud is now changing his color just because he happens to be in Puntland.

They realized the president’s statement in Garowe, where he noted the Central administration will consist of Galgadud and half of Mudug to satisfy the Puntland administration demands temporarily. If that is the case, the Central State can never become one of the federal states of Somalia based on the constitution.

The leaders of the Central State also realized creating a state that is not based on the constitution would lead eventually to conflict between the constituents of Mudug district when they are forced to decide which state they want to be a part of. And to avoid that, they want the problem to be solved at the present time.

Others are questioning why the president wants to create an administration that he knows cannot become a functioning state when there are only 16 months left to the election in 2016.

The solution to this problem is very simple:

1. The Somali provisional constitution should be followed and respects by all segments of governments, regional administration and Somali public, until the final constitution is been drafted and agreed upon.

2. The president should be held accountable to the constitution and not allowed to change his statements based on which constituents he is addressing.

3. The Puntland administration should not allow the president to ignore the constitution just because he said his intention is not to move part of Puntland to the Central State.

4. Parliamentarians should get involved in this issue of forming states instead of allowing the president to find anything in the constitution that he thinks will allow him to move his agenda forward. 5. Finally, the Somali people should speak out against the president, who wants to use the provisional constitution as he pleases.

Mohamed A. Hussein
E-mail: [email protected]

 

 

 

E-mail: [email protected]


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