bOmar Moalim
Friday, April 08, 2011
Before discussing the current Nairobi conference and the arrogance of the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General Augustine P. Mahiga, it is important to understand that he is not the only one who benefits from the misfortunes of Somalia.
When Somalia’s central government collapsed in 1991, the core national assets, such as the air space, national borders, territorial waters, citizens and everything that Somalia owned became guard-less. Countries, organisations and individuals started exploiting those assets at will. These countries and organisations profiteer from the Statelessness in Somalia by creating projects that generate billions of dollars which cannot be earned if there is a strong government in Somalia.
These projects are countless but the $10billion a year global fight against piracy and “the peace and reconciliation projects” now run by Mr. Mahiga are good examples. Of course there are many countries and organisations that would like Somalia to become peaceful but they do not run the show.
Piracy is evil but the insurance and oil industries of some countries earn billions because of it. There is also probably group5 in the making – a new security firm that will escort the ships and charge the shipping lines and charterers high security fees- so these countries or organisations see a strong Somali government as the evil that should be fought. Similarly peace and reconciliation conferences are good but there are those who make it a business. They sow differences in leaders and groups so that the process and the projects of mediation do not stop.
The conference which is scheduled to take place in Nairobi allegedly aims to strengthen the relationship between the TFG and the regional administrations in Somalia.
There are two regional administrations in Somalia, namely Somaliland and Puntland. There are 10 to 15 others who proclaim to be regional administrations but none of them comes under the definition of a regional administration as per the transitional federal charter of the country and as such they do not represent a village in Somalia. The TFG sees the conference as a hindrance to the path of peace in Somalia while Somaliland does not agree to participate in the Nairobi conference. The only regional administration present in Mr. Mahiga’s conference will be Puntland!
Mr. Mahiga believes that the decisions and opinions of Somalia’s government, president, and majority of its parliament members, clan elders, civil society and religious leaders do not matter when it comes to what path their country should take. He says these are few people who are either misinformed or misunderstand what is at stake and presents himself as the only one who can decide what should be done when and where!
The UN’s colonial style policies towards poor Somalia are the root causes of the rifts between the TFG and Puntland. Puntland will only prosper and be strong if there is prosperous strong Somalia. All Somali leaders including those of Puntland do not accept Mr. Mahiga as a colonial governor who has authority over Somalia’s national leaders. The international community spends a lot of money in the name of creating stability in Somalia. These funds are misused by some to divide Somalia. If the purpose of an economic assistance is to have Somalia represented by a Tanzanian or a South Korean, all Somali leaders should reject it and condemn the donors in the strongest terms.
President Farole of Puntland will be a national hero if he goes to Mogadishu and resolves his differences with the national leaders or invites them to Garowe for that matter. He’ll be on the wrong side of history if he talks behind Mr. Mahiga or asks him to convey massages to the national leaders.
It is clear and crystal that the conference has been rejected by the overwhelming majority of Somalis. Instead of spending huge amounts of money on delegates who do not represent any one while millions in the country are suffering from severe droughts, Mr. Mahiga is urged for the sake of goodness to visit Garowe or Mogadishu and say it loudly that he is not a colonial governor and that he will never ever try to impose his will on the Somali people again.
If Mr. Mahiga wants to assist the Somali people, he should try to convince his country of Tanzania to treat the Somali emigrants humanely and respect their human rights. He should also resign from his current post as majority of Somalis now know that he is there to do divide the country.