Genre: Opinion/Argumentation

It is the Time to Remember The unfulfilled Promises In the wake of a democratic hiatus of 32 years, on 14 April 2003, and the third time in as many years that Somaliland had been given the opportunity to express their preferences at the ballot box. These bold steps towards the democratisation set Somaliland apart from the rest of Somalia Republic -- which has become by word a collapsed State since the downfall of Major General Mohamed Siyad Barre's tyrannical regime in 1991. The outgoing President of Somaliland, Riyale, had previously been a deputy President in late President Egal's administration until latter's death on May 3, 2002 -- and was hand picked by late President of Somaliland, Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal to supersede his predecessor, Mr. Abdurrahman Aw Ali Farah, who has been one of the highly respected of SNM high ranking officials -- and who hails from Awdal region. The elections held in the country, Riyale became the Somaliland's first democratically elected head of State, and his democratic election has gone into the history books -- something which is rare commodity in Africa, let alone in the Arab world. These democratic polls that materialised throughout Somaliland have been welcomed by the international observers and described them as free and fair and were in line with the internationally recognised electoral norms. As per their view, nothing that could have altered the outcome of the election was found out, but generally it was free and fair and peaceful. On the eve of the Presidential polls, Riyale as UDUB's candidature for Presidency -- had made a host of pledges and made it clear to the people of Somaliland that his campaign speeches would be fulfilled in order to live up to the people's expectations. But on the contrary, Riyale administration failed to keep its words and none of its promises had been implemented. However, we will here zero in on some of Riyale's unfulfilled campaign promises and will be discussed in detail. Judicial reforms In mid -- 2002, Riyale declared judicial reforms as one of his top priorities, and ordered a bold shake-up of the justice system. The initiative was unpopular with the sitting judges, but was warmly welcomed by a public exasperated by the judiciary's deterioration to state of "an open market where justice is sold to the highest bidder." As part of reform, Riyale appointed a new Chief Justice Saeed Farah Ahmed and established an advisory Committee on Judiciary, which six judges described as unconstitutional and subsequently resigned, Riyale then sacked the four remaining members to the Apex bench.  Therefore, in April 2003 when Supreme Court was called to hand down judgment on the National Election Commission's decision, there were justices on the bench, all of them appointed by Riyale. A recent report by a local research organisation found the judiciary to "the most neglected and under-funded of the three orders of the government" and described its application of a law as "ad hoc, non -- uniform, and highly subjective." And the judiciary remained mired in stagnation and corruption and failed to meet to the people's expectations. Corruption is Rife in the Country Corruption in Somaliland is rampant and the State fund is willfully embezzled by the Riyale administration. The most corrupt officials in the government of the day are the ministries who are the remnant of Siyad Barre military regime and his uneducated kitchen cabinet -- who are said to be the Riyale's main advisers and the President himself. It is not everybody's guest that the outgoing President of Somaliland and his Faqash remnant ministries misappropriated tents and thousands of US bucks and have stashed away in a foreign accounts, while Somaliland people are in a state of poverty and unemployment coupled with the prevailing basic amenities in the country. The taxpayers do not fall behind with the government's tax but they pay instantaneously as they are law biding citizens of the country, and are well aware of that the government cannot function without the tax. But the main problem is that the Somalilanders failed the government of the day be held accountable to what the tax levied from them -- have been done with -- and this lack of accountability on the party of the taxpayers since there is not a watchdog institution -- has led taxpayers' money to end up in the pockets of those corrupt ministries and other unpatriotic officials in the Riyale administration. And this has compounded the prevailing difficulties in which the common man was living in. Diplomatic Relations with Djibouti Shortly after Riyale had been sworn in as the interim President of Somaliland, he visited Djibouti instead of Somaliland's friend -- Ethiopia, claiming that he wanted to mend fences with the neighbouring client State of Djibouti and in the wake of his return to the country he told at a press conference that he normalised the strained diplomatic relations with Djibouti. Surprisingly, Djibouti did not refrain from its decentralised hate campaign against the Somaliland's independence despite Riyale's close relations with the Djibouti, and it defiantly continued its lobby against the Somaliland's existence. The Djibouti's decentralised hate crusade has invited angry reactions from Somaliland's different quarters living in and outside of the country; they launched into diatribes against the Riyale's stand on the Djibouti's deliberate campaign against the sovereignty of Somaliland. Reconstruction of Berbera Cement factory President Riyale continued his unfulfilled pledges even in the aftermath of his successful election. And wherever he went he promised the earth -- something which he was not going to do. In the recent past, he paid a deluge of visits to the coastal town of Berbera, and the Berbera inhabitants who overwhelmingly voted his ruling party -- UDUB to power gave him and his visiting delegation a chilly reception on account of his unfulfilled promises in which President Riyale made earlier. While he has been visiting there he laid a foundation stone at the Berber's forsaken Cement factory -- and has undertaken that its reconstruction will soon be implemented by his administration in order to alleviate the unemployment that bedeviled not only the people of Berbera but also the entire community of Somaliland in which 80 per cent are in a state of joblessness. On hearing this undertaking made by the Riyale administration -- the general public did not give any importance to it -- because it was not for the first time Riyale administration made such promises, which are only for vote bank politics -- something the people rose above. The prevalent unemployment in the country The unemployment prevailing in Somaliland is very much widespread, and the number of the youth being churned out by the growing universities in the country is skyrocketing year by year; with large number of Somaliland youth graduating from the overseas universities returning to the country -- are compounding the unemployment that already haunting the domestic graduates in the Somaliland. Be it the educated youth graduated from the overseas or those graduated from the universities in the country -- have now realised that the Riyale administration does not have job creation strategy for them nor it is in his radar to address the prevalent unemployment that the educated youth are encountering today. The educated youth go to the Arab world in quest of an employment, while others resorted to migrate to the Western world by endangering their dear lives through the desert between Sudan and Libya, and then the dangerous Mediterranean Sea between Libya and Italy in order to get better living standard. The youth are the only national asset we have and yet the Riyale administration willfully neglected and failed to utilize them. In his speeches, he had never mentioned whether he had a deliberate strategy towards the youth of the country -- who completely lost their confidence in which they reposed in his outgoing administration. Despite his administration's underachievement and his failure on every front, and with the lack of basic amenities in the country, Riyale and his henchmen are intentionally embezzling the state funds by lavishly travelling every corner and cranny of the world, without explaining the objectives behind their fruitless constant travels to the elected legislative council of Somaliland. His failure and regular lies being told to the general public -- would do a great disservice to his desire for his re-election in the forthcoming presidential polls. Berbera Port Forsaken Given that Berbera port is Somaliland's economic nerve centre on which the economic of the country is largely depends on -- and yet Riyale deliberately transferred the Somaliland's livestock to the port of the neighbouring Djibouti to be exported there -- and the reason why Riyale has been sabotaging the economy of Somaliland was that he wanted to show his allegiance to his counterpart of Djibouti, who is ironically against the Somaliland's sovereignty. But this move has angered the livestock traders on which their livelihoods were depended upon the trade of Somaliland's livestock. Also, this move has consistently been criticized by the opposition parties as well as the intellectual people of the country who described it as an act of high treason and unpatriotic and that the Riyale administration will be held accountable when the right time comes. And the Berbera port is almost deserted by the Somaliland traders and shifted to the neighbouring port of Bosaaso, where they are given concession and warm welcome. The Capital City lacks basic amenities The eight years Riyale administration has been in office are proven in many respects failure, initially, the people of Somaliland hailed Riyale as the Somaliland's new messiah, who would bring about a far-reaching change -- a change that every single body expected more or less prior to his election. But unfortunately the people's hopes were dashed due to his inconsistency and lack of visionary; the people of Somaliland started to be sniffy about his unfulfilled promises, which are meant for political gains. Riyale administration has done no improvement in the capital to speak of, let alone the other parts of the country which remained neglected; the capital city of Hargeisa lacks all sorts of basic amenities as well as the other necessary public infrastructure. Given the size of the population estimated to be one million or so is mounting day by day due to the ruralites migrating to the city and the city dwellers are extremely bedeviled by the prevailing scarcity of water caused by the mismanagement on the part of the Hargeisa water agency -- which is a stone's throw or walkable distance, where our outgoing  President of Somaliland who is entrusted with the responsibility of the running the entire country lives and he is yet to be unaware of what is happening there. And the common man is sharply complaining about the growing shortage of water and common man's grievances on the scarcity of water are fallen on deaf ears, and the Riyale administration dragged its feet to address the people's suffering. The other basic needs which is worth mentioning here is the lack of healthcare in the city, which every single facility had to be made available so as to the people in the country make use of it. There is only one hospital to speak of in the entire city that is run by the government. Similarly, in the other towns, there is only one public hospital. And the medicines donated by the humanitarian agencies operating in the country to cure the people who cannot afford to buy are on the market and are sold to the private clinics in the city to make out of money, and our dear President with whom we entrusted the entire responsibility of the country was sitting absentmindedly while these episodes were unfolding under his watchful eye. Riyale failed to secure Recognition Riyale extensively travelled to the West and many countries in Africa in his eight years in office claming he has been in quest of diplomatic recognition for Somaliland. And he became the most travelled President Somaliland ever had during its independence, and whenever he returned to the country he would tell to the people of Somaliland that Somaliland is on the brink of recognition and be granted its much sought recognition sooner or later by the countries visited by him. Most importantly, he failed to use his good offices to secure a diplomatic recognition from the neighbouring client State of Djibouti, which Riyale consistently reiterated that it is the Somaliland's best and sincere friend in the region. The Djibouti government has never been Somaliland's friend in the region and it widely campaigned how to undermine the Somaliland's effort to obtain recognition from the regional grouping and the West. Riyale's extensive travels have been for personal and were nothing to do with the national interest -- and security blanket was thrown around his visits by his administration yet his political shenanigans were exposed in the Somaliland media, which acts as a watchdog to protect the national interest of the country. The eight years Riyale has been in power he is said to have been busy amassing the national wealth and stashing away in foreign accounts and he willfully neglected his responsibility with which he had been entrusted as President of Somaliland yet he is shamelessly seeking fresh mandate from the same people whose their expectations were not lived up to by his administration. And the people are now consumed by anger and are bent on to topple his failed regime at the ballot box because it is the time to remember the unfulfilled promises made by the failed outgoing Riyale administration and no more fairy tale entertainments.