I have read the article on the production sharing agreement signed illegally by the Petroleum Minister Abdirashid M. Ahmed. It is the absurdity of the 4.5 system that protects Abdirashid against prosecution for treason.
What is happening in Somalia is collective treason. No Somali clan will be ennobled for surrendering our natural resources to a foreign or national company. What sovereignty can we claim if decisions made in Mogadishu — the seat of the federal government — perpetuate the national humiliation caused by state collapse 31 years ago?
At the forefront of this betrayal is a class of religious opportunists (Damuljadiid and Aala Sheikh) who are united by a desire to make money by taking advantage of ineffectual institutions to defend a Minister who has damaged the national interest.
The production sharing agreement deprives future Somali generations of their right to enjoy proceeds from natural resources before energy transition to renewables takes effect. The stark difference between the 2009 maritime Memorandum of Understanding and the production sharing agreement lies in the fact that MoU was devised to make Somalia acquiesce to Kenya’s argument that the maritime delimitation of Somali territory is questionable. That was the national naiveté that Abdirahman Abdishakur was mysteriously unable to prevent. It was a less serious misjudgment compared to the production sharing agreement whose signatory — the Petroleum Minister — “is enjoying unwarranted protection against prosecution.”
Much depends on how the incoming administration of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud responds to the illegal production sharing agreement he criticised in 2021 for being a plot “to sign secret oil deals”, but decided to give the impression that he does not mind receiving a congratulatory message from the Petroleum Minister on 16 May 2022.
Ali D. Idaar
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