“Somaliland waa dalkeygii, Soomaaliyana waa dalkeygii, labaduba waa dadkeygii oo waan ka dhexeeyaa”: Fowzia Yusuf Haji Aden, Wasiirka Arrimaha Dibadda.
In translation: “Somaliland is my country, Somalia is my country, both are my countries and I am for both” Fowzia Yusuf Haji Aden, the new Foreign Minister.
Surely one cannot have both ways. Premier Shirdon has selected a secessionist politician for the position of Foreign Minister in his cabinet. With the appointment of this new minister, the integrity as well as the unity of Somalia were hugely undermined and could be in grave danger. Only a few weeks ago Fowzia Yusuf Haji Aden, the new Foreign Minister, was fiercely campaigning to become the president of the secessionist enclave of “Somaliland” before her friend, President Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud from the New Blood sect (Dam Al-jadeed), catapulted her to the second highest office in Premier Shirdon’s cabinet without making any proper checks on her integrity as well as her commitment to the unity of Somalia.
Any diligent government with proper checking mechanisms could have easily conducted the minimum vetting required for such a high office, especially when the person in question was until very recently conspiring against the very thing (Somali unity) that she is supposed to save guard. What guarantee is there that she will not screw up the Somali unity when the crunch meeting between the secessionists and the government she represents comes up in the near future? Only in President Mahmoud’s new Somalia can these strange things happen.
If the new government of Somalia has the courage, something they lack currently in abundance, the newly-appointed deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign affairs of Federal state of Somalia should have been sacked forthwith the minute she uttered the above-mentioned fatal words in an interview with the BBC Somali section two days ago. In a similar earlier interview with the VOA on the same subject, she was very evasive, non-committal and clearly showed where her loyalty lies. She was not even mincing her words as far as her loyalty toward “Somaliland” is concerned. Fowzia’s statement in both aforementioned interviews is a clear and unambiguous admission that the secessionist enclave of “Somaliland” is, indeed, a distinct entity separate from the rest of Somalia. By default, this could also be construed as the official line of President Mahmoud’s government since the Foreign Minister involved in this terrible political disaster was not reprimanded for her statements. This is more than an oversight; it is a deliberate and sinister ploy by Somali enemies within the President’s setup and elsewhere to undermine the unity of Somalia at the expense of an entity hell bent to dismember Somalia into clan-based fiefdoms. No other description befits this madness.
It was only a few weeks ago when the United Nations Security Council has sealed the fate of the secessionist enclave of “Somaliland” by declaring its unilateral secession nil and void, when it reaffirmed the sovereignty, integrity and the unity of Somalia in no uncertain terms. Perhaps the new Foreign Minister of Somalia is a mole in the cabinet secretly recruited to pass top secret polices to her trusted enclave of “Somaliland”? Unbeknown to her cabinet colleagues, she could easily be on a clandestine mission to destroy the Somali unity from within.
The Somali people, including this author, who celebrated and rejoiced the arrival of President Hassan Sheik Mahmoud with high hopes and great expectations, owe an apology. His government is stumbling from one terrible disaster to another. At first, he selected a Prime Minister who has no previous experience for such an important office after a long period of dithering on his appointment, while candidates of a high stature who can see through thick walls were totally overlooked. Secondly, the Somali President has arm-twisted Premier Saacid to literally handpick his favored men for almost all the more important cabinet posts, according to sources close to Villa Somalia.
And finally, he recruited his NGO co-worker from Hargeisa to give her one of the most coveted portfolio in the cabinet, the foreign ministry, when a pool of Somali experts in this very significant area who are fully committed to the unity of Somalia were available for selection, both in and outside the country. If President Mahmoud and his new Premier are to redeem themselves and gain the confidence of Somali people who poured out their hearts for them, they should replace the Foreign Minister, Fowzia Yusuf Haji Aden, as her position is untenable. At this critical stage where Somalia is expected to stand on its own feet with minimum intervention, we cannot avoid to entrust a committed secessionist with one of the most important cabinet portfolio; President Hassan should sack the new Foreign Minister and replace her with a known nationalist committed to the Somali unity, even if that person is to be selected from her own clan.
Mohamed F Yabarag
WardheerNews Contributor
E-Mail: myabarag@gmail.com
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