EDITORIAL: How to solve Puntland-Villa Somalia tiff

EDITORIAL | Somalia’s oldest federal member state, Puntland, this week threw in more spanners in the works of the country’s federal structure showing a petty quarrel by claiming it will act independently from now on until everyone else gets back on track to formulate laws on the system.

The protest signal, first relayed by Puntland President Said Abdullahi Deni, maybe both be a subtle reminder that Somalia’s much-delayed federal constitution is needed now or a message to President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud that Somalia is indeed the sum of its parts. Or, it could be a personal political message from Deni to Mohamud about their unfulfilled political deals.

How did it begin? Deni, at a ceremony in Garowe to mark the fourth anniversary of his election as leader of Puntland, had told an audience that he feared President Mohamud was not willing to implement the federalization process.

“I expected a judicial system (for Somalia) that is sufficiently independent. But what we have received is something else,” he argued.

“We see that the proposed power-sharing arrangement between the federal government and federal states violates the Puntland constitution as well as the Provisional Constitution of Somalia.”

According to Deni’s January 8 speech, that proposal was beyond logic. His government would later issue a statement claiming Puntland will act independently until the Provisional Federal Constitution, backed by Puntland is completed and endorsed through a popular referendum, is established.

Puntland’s bone of contention was in a declaration document tabled by the National Consultative Forum, a loose caucus of the federal executive and representatives of the federal member states. Deni refused to sign the document, claiming they were usurping the powers of local courts in Puntland. The Forum also includes Presidents of Jubbaland, South West, Hirshabelle, Galmudug, and the Mayor of Mogadishu who all signed the final document.

This week, Mohamud rejected the independent stance from Puntland. He said Somalia, being a federal republic has many parts, none of which should walk away from the center.

“As a federal republic, any issue that concerns all the citizens is dealt with by the federal government.”

The dispute has expectedly raised a storm both locally and on social media with some accusing Puntland leaders of wrecking the federal government, while his side argues they have raised a genuine concern.

So who is right? From our standpoint, both levels of government are wrong on this. While Article 4 of Puntland’s Constitution says that Puntland may act as an independent state until a Federal Constitution, ratified by Puntland, and approved by popular referendum is in place; political bickering has derailed the drafting of the supreme laws.

Under Articles 133, and 134 of the Provisional Constitution of the Federal Republic, Somalia should already have walked the talk by setting up a team to review the constitution. But ten years after the promised drafting, Somalia still gropes in the dark, often running on gentlemen’s agreements as opposed to the law.

Puntland may be right to demand that the judicial systems for example be federalized. In some of the most established federal systems around the world, such as Australia, local courts handle most of the cases and federal courts only get to hear those cases in an escalating order. This means that federal units such as Puntland or Jubbaland can authentically run the court systems in the hierarchy of the federal structure.

Of course, Somalia’s problem is that the laws aren’t there yet. So why not begin drafting them? We reject the idea that the Forum’s declaration is made law. Instead, the federal government should have rallied levels of government to help formulate teams for review of the constitution. Those teams including the committee that could help begin the process have been dormant since the last regime of Mohamed Farmaajo. The ball is surely in the court of President Mohamud to re-begin the process.

Puntland’s decision to refuse active cooperation with Mogadishu, however, is problematic. As the most stable and oldest federal state, it holds a light to others who are new and do not even have stable institutions to hold on to. The Puntland Constitution says it is part of Somalia. That means it cannot choose when to be in Somalia today and suspend its obligations tomorrow.

Somalia’s federal constitution should have been reviewed many years ago to clarify what exactly the federal government does, its powers and what federal member states do. Those gaps have been blamed for the chaos we see today in our political space. But every politician in Somalia cannot escape the blame, especially since most have benefitted from the suspended constitutional process for gentlemen’s agreement.

And as one senior political leader told Garowe Online on Friday, the solution to the current tiff is not whether to sign the declaration of the Forum or not. It lies in establishing a constitutional review team.

“Disagreeing on illegalities doesn’t make one side right or wrong,” the official indicated.

“Certainly, if you have to draft a constitution, it doesn’t lie in the hands of the President and Prime Minister in Mogadishu having a deal with presidents of federal member states. It lies in the review commission. We should form that already.”

Puntland says it wants to negotiate with the federal government on issues related to state-building agreements, especially on the process of completing the constitution, political accords related to power sharing, building the security structure, and manners of sharing local and internationally provided resources.

This and future problems can be avoided with the terms of the power-sharing between the Central(FG) and Periphery (States) that will be sanctioned in the provisions of the Constitution as the law of the Somali Federal Republic, which needs now to be reviewed by the already established commissions: 1) the Independent Commission and 2) the Oversight Parliamentary Commission, where both Central and Periphery are represented.

GAROWE ONLINE