OP-Ed:Mr. President, Congratulations and Well Done......But

[Coeus]

By Somalilandpress

Dear Mr. President,
Seven days ago this Sunday, I posted a petition in which I requested you to stay firm and punish anyone who comes against the general interest. I had also requested you, among other things, to do everything you can to re-establish peace within the communities of Dilla and Gabiley and among any others who may need it including those of Kalshale. The reason is because without peace, any country is bound to fail.

Amazingly, just within days, your administration succeeded to realize that. And that was what the Rayale administration failed to do for eight years. I do, therefore, honestly congratulate you for being that decisive and that effective. However, I do still hope that you will likewise, apprehend and give the punishment they deserve, to all those criminals who killed innocent citizens without any justification. And doing that will certainly make your administration a credible one …an administration that deserves the praise and trust of the public and that will re-establish trust within its communities.

Secondly, Mr. President, today, as I always do every morning, I opened Somaliland community websites, and one news, especially caught my attention. It read: “….Somaliland President Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud, welcomes a large Saudi Business delegation to the country…”. That is good news. For one thing, it opens the outside door of business for Somaliland and for the other, it indicates that the international community sees Somaliland as a place where one may trust and accordingly invest. This is the area where Somaliland must spend its energy and resources and recognition does not need to be where your administration puts all its resources.

Mr. President, according to that news, the business delegation is visiting to study areas where it will invest presumably in areas such as: agriculture, livestock and light industries. And one area that I would you to consider as the backbone of all should be agriculture because without bread, no nation can move forward. Somaliland should not beg for bread because it has the land, the know-how and the muscle.

And assuming you see that eye to eye with me, Mr. President, you need to petition to world community business leaders such as the Saudis to invest in wheat production and a traditionally government utilized area for the purpose since the sixties, is the plains of Tog Wajale. But again, like ceelbardale, those Plains are another highly contested hot spot between the same communities of Dilla and Gabiley since man knows.

So, before granting the government to do anything, the two sisterly communities must be made to accept to finalize their long standing feuds over that land too. And fortunately, since both have just realized the futility of slaughtering its kin and kith, they should do so easily. And assuming they do that, the government must give them a land lease offer in which the two communities become big beneficiaries of the projects because your administration cannot afford to fall into Rayale’s déjà vu! On the contrary, it should stand for real, ready to right the past wrongs!

How?

One of the saddest yet most stupid stories the two sisterly communities of Dilla and Gabiley inherited, naively accepted and practiced for decades was to keep killing one another. And sadly, out of that misery certain others benefited. For instance, successive governments stationed armies between the often feuding communities on the pretext that the army kept peace. On the contrary, often times, that army there sold agricultural, grass and other land produce to others reaping the profits ….(waxay iibsan jireen dalag iyo daaq wixii ka baxaba) and at the same times, abused both communities. And both communities accepted that!

Furthermore, rumor has it that should the hungry livestock of either community stray into the project farms, owners would be put in jail and stay there till they paid dues owed. Or often times, the livestock itself was shot dead by the army. In fact, an incident similar to that was posted in the websites back in 2003.

In addition, again rumor also has it that the plains of Tog Wajale, utilized by the successive governments, had recently been divided into three zones and each zone given to the one branch of Somaliland forces…. the police force, the army forces and the custodians of prisons. And each unceremoniously today sells anything that grows out of it for its beneficial uses.

Assuming that story is also true, keeping it under present status quo, will be an insult to the Silanyo administration whose goal I suppose is to right the wrong. So, those plains must be chosen to become wheat farms that are similar to the prairies of Canada where all the nation’s wheat is gown for domestic use. Otherwise, it must be given back to the legitimate communities of Dilla and Gabiley.

If however, the Silanyo administration decides to invest in farming and chooses those plains for its wheat project site, then it is morally bound to let Dilla and Gabiley communities get employment and other services priorities for one thing because they suffered for long and for the other, the land is theirs.

In addition, the management committee of the project should comprise a total of 30 individuals; 10 each from Dilla and Gabiley and 10 from the government. And since both communities are traditionally civil, I bet they will abide by government rules and regulations including of course government taxation for the services given.

And finally, Mr. President, true there are countless problems facing you on hourly basis many of which require immediate solutions; true many of them you had only inherited from earlier administrations and true, you deserve to be given a chance to take one step at a time, but dismantling government imposed injunctions on the Dilla and Gabiley communities’ Tog Wajale Plains is long overdue.…the area known as Tog Wajale projects. And your administration cannot afford to place the solution of that issue on its back burner especially now that the sisterly communities are ready for forgetting the past and forgiving.

And last but not least, we know that the road ahead is rough considering the many problems facing you nationwide, and we know that your resources are meager; but with your strong will and determination, you can certainly move mountains within your tenure and leave behind a lasting legacy!