One of the main differences between Somaliland and Somalia on the eve of the 1960 independence was that Somaliland had a much better civil service than Somalia. This did not happen by accident but was the result of the British approach toward civil service which treats civil service as the key in governing a society. According to this British approach, a non-politicized, merit-based civil service system leads to efficiency and progress whereas corruption and politicization of the civil service leads to stagnation and crisis. The Italian system which was used in the south, however, did not draw a clear line between employment in civil service and engaging in politics. These two very different approaches toward civil service had serious consequences. One of those consequences was that most of the southern Somalis who worked in the civil service had very little education or training. Moreover, because of the lack of separation between civil service work and engaging in politics many of the ill-trained and office-boys southerners who worked for the Italian administration became the leading southern politicians. A good example of people who fall in this category are Somalia’s first President Aden Abdulle Osman and Somalia’s former Prime Minister, Abdirizaq Haji Hussein, both of whom hardly had any education and both of whom rose to the top of Somalia’s political ladders. A comparable situation would have been if the office-boys and messengers in Somaliland’s colonial British administration became Somaliland’s political heavyweights.
To illustrate the contrast between British Somaliland and Italian Somalia, all one has to do is bring to mind the career of the late Mohammed Haji Ibrahim Egal and how one of the reasons he became the leader of the Somaliland National League (SNL) was because he was not a government employee (he was the son of a well-to-do man and did not need to work for the colonial government to make a living) and therefore the ban of civil servants from being involved in politics did not apply to him (Mohammed Haji Ibrahim Egal did not need the British to pay for his college education either for his own father paid for it).
Why are we talking about the civil service and its importance? Because Somaliland has a problem with building an efficient and non-political civil service. This problem, like many other problems in Somaliland, started on the day Somaliland united with Somalia. Instead of the south adopting the superior civil service system of British Somaliland in reality and not just in theory, what actually happened was that the Italian influenced corrupt southern system was imposed on Somaliland. That problem has not gone away with Somaliland’s restoration of its independence. Successive Somaliland governments have used the civil service as part of the spoil system with which they reward their political supporters and punish their adversaries.
Kulmiye had made good governance and fighting corruption as one of its election issues. But even though the current administration reduced the number of ministers, it sacked almost all the previous director generals and put in their place individuals who are clearly political appointees, which means that it is only perpetuating the problem. Somaliland must start digging itself out of this hole and begin the arduous task of re-establishing a merit-based, non-political civil service which will give the country institutional continuity and the necessary expertise for running the ship of state even when one administration replaces another. If Somaliland could do it under colonial rule, there is no reason why it cannot do it as an independent country.
 

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