Mogadishu (Commentary) — At an event organised by the Somali community in Washington DC President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud delivered a speech that dashed the hope of citizens who thought he had mellowed ten years after he was first elected President of Somalia. His speech touched on several policy initiatives, offshore oil drilling contracts being the most salient and contentious one. “In Somalia if you want to do something good you have to wage a war to realise that goal. We shall take steps to start exploiting all resource opportunities in Somalia. No one begins any endeavour perfectly” President Mohamud said.
The new federal dispensation inherited an illegal production sharing agreement signed by the former Petroleum Minister Abdirashid Ahmed with Coastline Exploration Ltd. It is an agreement that exposed the unreliability of the bicameral legislature when it comes to protecting the national interest of Somalia. The previous parliament enacted the Somalia Petroleum Law signed into law by the former President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed. President Mohamud chose to turn a blind eye to an agreement that was signed illegally by a Minister who is now being protected under 4.5 power-sharing structure. The foreign company and its backers are the only beneficiary of the illegal production sharing agreement. President Mohamud said that objectons would be raised at “our policies throughout the country.”
He should have been reminded that he had not been elected by voters nor have civil war issues been fully resolved: Somalia does not have an inclusive national army; African Union peacekeepers protect the Mogadishu-based government.
The decision to end the transition ten years ago was based on trust and the hope that federal leaders will not stoop so low as to take advantage of the recognition the federal institutions enjoy to implement policies that push Somalia toward the second disintegration. President Mohamud seems to have forgotten that no leader is indispensable and that foreign interests may think twice about taking advantage of a leader who is unashamedly hell-bent on facilitating a plan to deprive future Somali generations of their natural resources.
President Mohamud spoke not a like a national leader on a key national priorities and recurrent predicaments. He spoke like a Chairman of Somali Young Abgal Association, a pre-independence and pro-Italian group who agitated against independence and opposed the Somali Youth League.
It is deplorable that the state-building initiatives in Somalia funded mainly by the West is turning into a project to lock Somalia in deceptive resource-related contracts to unlawfully exploit offshore oil before the transition to renewables gets underway. Neither IMF nor the World Bank should bless the divisive and morally repugnant initiative being promoted by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in Western capitals.
The new Somalia Federal Government should be prevented from implementing policies through which Damuljadid clique members extract kickbacks from buccaneering companies interested in buying Somalia’s natural resources for peanuts with the help of corrupt leaders.
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