Hiiraan Online

President Hassan Sheikh’s first months in office were a time of vaulting grandiose, laden with high hopes that he might heal the country as he captured the hearts and minds of the rest of the world with his wide smile. They were soon dashed, however, with the debacle of mishandling the affairs of the Jubaland state, where the President squandered much needed political capital to rebuild and reunite the country. In his first year, President Hassan Sheikh made two inept blunders vis-à-vis of forming his new government. Despite of choosing the most experienced man for the Prime Minister position - a critical job in a country suffering from all sorts of malaise, the President instead selected the least likely experienced candidate for the job from a pool of over-qualified Somali professionals from all over the world. Apparently, he made this choice in his scheme to undermine the Prime Ministerial position so that he could run the country willy-nilly, without any interference from neither his prime minister nor from the parliament. Second, the President squandered his political capital by forming a ministerial government based on the notorious 4.5 system, a complete disregard to a rigorous meritocratic system.

Ever since Prime Minister Said Shirdon was nominated by President Hassan Sheikh, things have not gone right for him and his role seemed suspicious, not to mention few accomplishments. Having afforded little leverage to deal with the myriad of problems facing his new federal government, he comfortably took a backseat and peaked the chips fall where they may from the reading glasses anchored on the bridge of his nose. Nonetheless, the Prime Minister should have taken the opportunity to get all the leverage the constitution allowed him to serve in his capacity to move the country in the right direction, instead of kowtowing to every whim of the President, as though he was his secretary. In an effort to quell a swelling tide of alarming pessimism, Prime Minister Said last week commented on his disagreement with the President was not a “political” one but rather a “constitutional” one. As if that weren’t enough, the media revealed that both these heads of government were competing to court as many MPs as possible to side with either one of them in the hope that things will eventually be settled in front of the parliament.

Most Somalis have long worried that this new administration might end up like its predecessors and soon enough become dominated by personal disagreements, resentments and political paralysis among its top leaders, which might ruin the chances for the country to put its house in order. Nonetheless, the parliament has a huge role to play in this latest disagreement between the government’s two highest states and not wait until things get out of hand that might imperil the sheer existence of this government. Apparently, the Constitution has not clearly delineated when it comes to crisis-management of this type for who has the last-say of sacking the government. In my opinion, it only makes sense that if the Constitution in the first place empowered the President to freely elect the Prime Minister, he should have the supreme power to dismiss him, at will.

Going forward

In truth, the President might have felt compelled to replace his Prime Minister only after one year in the job, but in the first place he should have given him a free reign to run his administration, instead of overshadowing him and acting as the “One-Man” government like most African dictators. And then he could have had legitimately blamed him for insufficient performance that warranted his removal. Apart from allowing him to pay visit to some of the inconsequential posts as though he was his vice-President because all along the Prime Minister looked like the odd man out. Maybe, the coupling of these two heads of state was doomed from the get go because it was based on assumed friendship and mutual backing of each other against all calamities.  This is because the President seemed to relish the job of the Prime Minster and vice versa. But, the shocking reaction to their political disagreement by all sides should give the President an impetus to bring about a speedy resolution without risking any remaining political capital, if any is left.

In the short run, the President faces two stark choices, he could either make a deal with the current Prime Minister in which he gives him a face-saving limited time to improve his performance to regain of his confidence, otherwise resign, or insist on his first decision that the Prime Minister resigns immediately and submit his new candidate to the parliament pending to form a new government. In fact, the first choice would be unappealing to the President because of the possibility of coming out as a weak leader who couldn’t stand on his ground when it came to house cleaning, while the second choice would be as well a risky one by selecting another Prime Minister who could stir things up for the President and might not remain as docile as the current one, which at the end could back fire.

History’s verdict is quite often hard to predict when it comes to those who dropped the ball and failed the nation in its most critical moment. The most fundamental is that President Hassan Sheikh and Prime Minister Said must put their differences aside and put the country’s welfare first and foremost. However, if these leaders fail to resolve their differences for the sake of saving the nation, history will judge them both harshly and will never forgive them for botching the best opportunity the nation received for the last two decades. In other words, both critics of President Hassan Sheikh and many of his admirers would like to see greater political engagement and resolve in handling this latest rift between him and his Prime Minister in order to save the country from the perils of political chaos. Finally, there are duties, often stemming from promises the President made when he initially came to the office a year ago, including smooth governing, fighting corruption to the bone and enduring peace. These have been shirked until now.