Puntland president, Abdirahman Mohamud Farole , is facing security challenges that his predecessors did not face.
President Farole was in Kenya and having a photo-op with American Embassy officials in Nairobi when a judge and a member of Punltand people’s assembly were murdered in Bosaso and Garowe respectively.
A hand grenade was thrown into Punt land’s local government offices in Galka’yo in the same day. Almost two weeks ago the Puntland president asked people in Puntland to trust in the ability of his government’s security forces to deal with mounting insecurity and violence in Puntland. Without having solid evidence president of Puntland implied that people coming from other parts of Somalia and Somali populated territories in Ethiopia endanger Puntland security.
Puntland’s security related problems partly lie in the misuse of resources for political and personal purposes. Puntland mistakenly believes that it has a Secret Service known as Puntland Intelligence Service (PSI). Since Puntland is an administration based on a clan consensus, why its political leaders have chosen to mislead people into believing PIS is as adept at “ counter-terrorism” as Ethiopia’s or Kenya’s or Djibouti’s secret services is not known.
Puntland may collapse if president Farole does not avoid pinning blame on external forces. Candid discussion of Puntland’s problems can start from figuring out what is the direct and indirect role of Puntland government in security and economic woes.
If the assassins targeting government officials are linked to ‘extremist groups’, who created conditions in which one can carry out targeted killings and bombing? Puntland has moved from honesty and self-criticism based positive clan consensus that gave the Puntlanders the relative peace they enjoyed for ten years. If Puntlanders see that public resources are being misused, Puntland government will be gradually paving the way for the break up of Puntland into clan fiefdoms, each using a system of self-rule —traditional or religion based –to try to coexist with each other peacefully.
Liban Ahmad
Libahm@gmail.com
In your case, if Somaliland doesn't hold elections soon, it will be fair to say that Somaliland is drifting towards collapse. No pun intended.
