Puntland is struggling to deal with mega corruption scandals involving the highest governmental officers, including the presidential house, the weak cabinet ministries and the legislative council in Garowe which are deemed as ‘puppets’ and ‘unkind . In this regard, while corruption remains concealed from the media and the recent attempt by the parliament members to oust the cabinet of ministers had attracted the concerns of the elites, intellectuals, academicians and a large scale of community. The Parliament members had voted to get rid of the cabinet ministers which put the state at risk of political chaos in order gain a larger share of the rotten corrupted cake shared by the institutions mentioned above. This shows that the parliament members intentionally and purposedly neglected the suffering of the vulnerable communities they supposed to serve.
Small and larger groups in the community are talking about how the parliament members, who hypothetically represent the interest of the societies, have committed a hypocritical crime against the will of the public. The public and ordinary citizens have raised concerns over the extent of the crisis where it is claimed that thousands and thousands of USD dollars are being illegally distributed among members of the Parliament in Puntland political brokers who have no interest the well-being of the state government and the community. These brokers shown common diaspora and are only interested in looting the public wealth and invest in foreign banks while ordinary citizens could hardly gain access to sufficient food and water.
There is an inherent level of corruption in Puntland state government. This can be observed from community perspective where people have very low purchasing power in lieu with the high inflation, furthermore, the state is plagued by the worst unemployment rate since the collapse of the military regime led by late Siyad Bare. The government seems to constantly urge the public to pay taxes, but they never provide adequate public infrastructure. This clearly specifies that Puntland requires a rescue plan and if not, the people who have interest for the state and for the communities will not take responsible measures to resist and against criminal and corrupt practices that will threaten the existence of Puntland’s values, norms, and the state will be controlled by external forces.
As one might recall, during the Puntland presidential campaign, Mr. Gaas had promised to fight against corruption but in reality, he is just adding fire to the fuel and the citizens of Puntland will not accept and tolerant to such status quo anymore . It is the time for the people of Puntland to distinguish their destiny from their anguish and people in power should be held accountable for the state’s future.
Recommendations
- Religious and tribe leaders should talk about these unacceptable corruption practices
- Political figures with corruption allegations should be listed and not given another chance to harm the state government and the society again
- Scholars, academicians, and writers should not underestimate the impact of corruption practices
- The federal government should have the information and the knowledge of what is happening all state government to align with the federal goals
- Youth members should not corrupted individuals and these individuals should be brought to justice
- To avoid this tragedy again, Parliament members should not be chosen solely by traditional tribe leaders.
by Mohamed Ahmed
moqor2@gmail.com
