By Rhoda A. Rageh, USA

The Unfortunate situation in Somaliland today is the destroying of the Constitution of the land. After may failed negotiations, it was not the year as the Guurti had extended but a year nonetheless. So Riyale had the last laugh. What does the outcome of this incident mean? Who was behind it? What has Riyale done for the country for the six years he was in office? What will be his focus now for this year? And finally, what will be the consequences?

The outcome of this incident is that of a dictator president who had his way like Mugabe. Riyale was even willing to sacrifice the whole country to Ethiopian troops to remain in office, but the Ethiopian government rejected his request. He wanted to be the Abdillahi Yusuf of Somaliland. Some are crying for two men recently sacrificed to Ethiopia, which is a sad incident but this whole country is bonded. Let those who wanted some of the opposition to take their argument elsewhere know that Ethiopian border is less than two hours away from Hargeysa.

Illiterate Guurti, Eunuch ministers, or degraded others whose short sightedness saved their little pay have sacrificed the country to the wolves. What these simple minded individuals don’t know is that if they have worked for a decent president and a decent government they could have earned much more money rightfully. If they were not so eager to sell for pennies, they could have built with the rest of the society a government that creates decent jobs; that brings its intellectuals home to serve, that gives its citizens not pennies for spying each other but for opportunities of hard work and decent wages. They could have become part of a government that builds roads, schools, good hospitals. A government that brings its depressed youth from the cold and builds recreational and learning centers for them, a government that uses its citizen’s tax to make average lives more endurable. This government has sold the land of public domain appropriated for school extensions. Alas! They could have acted as role models to the rest of the country. But a regressive mind cannot see progress.

One of my bosses when I worked for the World Bank in Mogadishu told me soon after he refused to extend his contract and decided to return to Washington that when he accepted the position of the Resident Representative in Somalia, it was at a time the country was enthusiastically moving forward. It was when the mass literacy campaign took off and he said he was very happy to be part of a progressive black society. Yes, he was a Blackman. But, he told me, after 4 years of working with the Siad Barre government at a close proximity (it was in the 80); he did not want to be a witness of a country on the brink of chaos. He left at the right time and soon after, I left too. He was a visionary, unlike ours. Riyale took over when the whole country and the society was propelling forward on a progressive foot. He put a damp cloth over that enthusiasm and shrunk that vibrant body into a shrivel afmiinshaar. The only entity that is fully functioning under his leadership is the Red Barrett army that is evident behind him and around him even as the 18th May celebrations took place. He has outsourced the country’s jobs to Djibouti and Ethiopia. He has not only sold our resources to the wolves but nothing escaped his eye – not even the industrial scrap tucked in the mountains around Berbera. He has degraded the quality of the people to spies who, like hungry goats, wait for him to shake his leftovers. He has and still is harassing people in different levels of society because either they released some of his dark deep secrets or they have courageously stood to his bullying. He has killed innocent citizens without remorse or explanation. He has smeared the laws and showed the people of Somaliland that he owes them nothing. He has reduced the political discourse to vulgar gimmick.

His focus for the blessed extension:

a) Build his USP alliance to realize the sandwich image.

b) Fortify his Red Barrett around him and up the street leading to his house

c) Amass much more to secure his long life ambition to live well. Remember Mbuto had gold bathrooms but still wanted more.

d) More harassment on the streets and into people’s houses

e) Increase of the number of degraded greedy individuals

f) Naming of more shanty villages into regions

g) Life Size posters of him everywhere in Hargeisa- not in Burao and beyond.

h) Curfew – slow to start but progressively intense.

i) and much more to put the country in the known path

Flee the country for freeing the self.