By Ahmed Hashi "Dhimbiil", Ottawa, Canada

We have all witnessed so much monkey business in this country that sometimes I squirm whenever I read ‎news from Somaliland, psychologically, I have a radar beep that keeps buzzing in my head waiting to be ‎realized when I actually look at the instrument dial that is the news. I always feel that someone in that ‎government is going to do something stupid and is going to embarrass everybody out of their skin. It has ‎happened again, and no one ought to be shocked if the pundits this country say a word or two about it!‎

First of all the Minister is a friend of mine and this makes it worse because the next time we see each other I ‎do not know if we are going to be on speaking terms. As well, the Minister of Planning is really a very nice guy ‎I know him I can vouch for him since we lived in the same town. However, the business of this country is a ‎shared responsibility and as Somalis are wont to say nin xil qaaday eed qaad!.‎

Everyone though – including Haatuf which should not have published such cheap shots about writing, they ‎make the same mistakes in writing themselves – is wrong about the fundamentals of this issue. The Minister ‎was appointed by the big man himself, and no one should blame this Minister alone because the greater ‎criticism goes to President Rayale and the huge failure in governance which is where everything begins as far ‎the administration of this country is concerned. By the way, I am very surprised at Minister Awil, the Ministry ‎of Finance I am told his Ministry is really blooming under his watch – oh, oh, I am going to leave this point in ‎so that all those who love to read “reer hebel” discourses in what pundits write to make their own ‎conclusions. But that is to anticipate.‎

So Ahmed Haji Dahir they say cannot write well, and he cannot run the Ministry and they say he is – and this ‎point is the shameful one and journalists of this country ought to censure something about their writing – that ‎he has the ear of the President through the ear of the first lady. I will leave the rest to your political ‎imaginations and indeed maybe ask the fourth estate in this country to be a little sensitive to the wishes of ‎common decency. Issues please not personalities!‎

Now the thing I was going to say is this: the central and most fundamental issue about these recurring and ‎ridiculous and fatuous if not inane mistakes by our Ministers, is the concept of Governance in this ‎government!‎

This is a political issue that is screaming for change and the MAIN reason why Somaliland suffers from these ‎blunders. What has been the response from our man in government house Hargeisa? Well President Rayale ‎says that these Somali Landers are the most clannistic people around and they all want to be in the cabinet, ‎now, as a pundit and man of letters plenipotentiary J as well as a pamphleteer J of the political events in my ‎country I run to the bathroom belch out my lunch while painfully twisting at the hypocritical nature of this ‎statement. I refuse to explain why, because even my uncle deep in the heart of Sanaag who has not been to ‎school knows that he wants good governance and that’s why he voted for what was the 'coalition of willing - ‎UDUB, while he is at the other end of the country in my little ancestral village of Adeeyo! He feels betrayed ‎and so do we, and no political gymnast should be scandalized by this rhetoric because it is the truest thing in ‎the deep blue sky.‎

Now my dear Ahmed Haji Dahir, do me a favor, resign as matter pf political responsibly, you have really ‎bungled this issue and you will set precedent so that other cabinet Ministers have a role model on the quistion ‎of Ministerial responsibly. Not because of this man who maybe rightly should be expelled but because of the ‎way it was done. We are a government and we ought to talk, walk and look like a government! Many ‎Somalilanders who like you as a person, and who are plenty educated, plenty sophisticated, must all feel the ‎pinch when a nice guy like Ahmed is exposed as having failed the Ministry, that by all accounts is the ‎interphase between the world and us as far as development aid is concerned. As well Ahmed, I hear the ‎Ministry is awash with money, run, Ahmed run, because money more than power corrupts and I’d hate for ‎them to say my friend is also corrupt apart from being incompetent….‎

In the end, Ahmed is wrong about the process, he has no legal, constitutional and no cabinet right to remove ‎anyone without sending a memorandum to cabinet and - contrary to other pundits the Minister of National ‎Security as well does not have these powers - only the cabinet meeting in executive can then ask the Foreign ‎Minister to call in the person and then expel them after telling them of then governments displeasure. In fact, ‎the Nairobi rep for the EU should have been called first for "consultations" before this bizarre action. I actually ‎don't care very much for the EU rep in Somaliland the issue here is the process and the way we do our ‎business ..... we ought to stop this Monkey business!‎

dallo57us@yahoo.com