Rayale’s Overseas Trip: A Mixed Bag

EDITORIAL

There was good news and bad news in President Rayale’s overseas trip. The most obvious bit of good news was that the president and his delegation traveled to important countries such as Ethiopia, Sweden and Norway, and they were able to see Ethiopia’s prime minister, Swedish and Norwegian ministers, parliamentarians and foreign aid agencies. In the case of Ethiopia, frequent contacts and consultations are necessary for improving the vital relations that exist in so many fields between the two countries. When it comes to Sweden and Norway, both countries are playing an increasing role in Somali affairs, with Norway being a member of the contact group for Somalia, therefore, meeting with them and ensuring that they understand Somaliland’s needs and perspective is very important. Another item of good news was that the president made time to meet with Somalilanders in the diaspora and got to hear some of their views and concerns.

The bad news is that the president’s trip got to a shaky start when security personnel in the Ethiopian airlines insisted that they search the luggage of some of the members of the delegation, which showed an embarrassing lack of coordination on security procedures that are acceptable to both Somaliland’s government and Ethiopian airlines. Another problem was that although the purpose of the trip was supposed to be official business, one of the members of the delegation was Osman Sh. Abdi who is not part of Somaliland’s government but is a close relative of the president’s wife. Mr. Osman Sh. Abdi’s shady activities and involvement in government affairs were highlighted in a series of articles on President Rayale’s corruption which were published in Haatuf newspaper and resulted in the jailing of three journalists from that newspaper for three months. A third problem was that the delegation included government officials who were not necessary for carrying out the mission. For example both the president’s personal secretary and his spokesman were part of the delegation, even though they basically duplicated each other’s work and one of them would have been enough.

All of these factors undercut the rationale that the president gave for the trip. Many Somalilanders were asking themselves if it is true that the government had difficulty even securing the delegation’s tickets, why then did the delegation include people like Osman Sh. Abdi who is not even a government official? Why did the delegation include both the president’s secretary and his spokesman when one of them would have been more than enough? And why didn’t the president tell his wife, “dear, I’m going on an official business, and our country is so poor, it is better for you, me, and the country, that you stay at home.”

Source: Somaliland Times

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