Taking a growing altercation between the government of Somaliland and the opposition parties on technical, election-related issues another step, UCID party leader, Faisal Ali Warabe, accuses President Bihi of intentionally reneging on agreements the previous government reached with the Khatumo faction led by Professor Ali Khalif Galaydh.
“We have put all of our effort to bring two divisive, costly differences to an end same as the rest of forward-looking Somaliland: the El Afwein clan clashes and the Khatumo insurgency. The latter would have bloomed to a full, final settlement if not for the intransigence of the President who, for reasons known only to himself, refused to lend the MOU between the two sides full support,” he stated.
Mr Faisal said the absence of Professor Galaydh from the country is partly because President Bihi so ‘calculatedly’ ignored the leader’s calls for a consummation of the tentative points reached to take the process to its final stage.
“Professor Galaydh is disappointed by how the agreement he had put so much effort in is treated in the hands of the incumbent President,” he said.
The opposition leader pointed an accusing finger at the President saying that President Bihi had a propensity ‘for senseless, ‘unpresident-like’ squabbles’ which went back all the way to the formation of the first Somaliland government in the early ’90s.
By way of example, he pointed out that there was no cause for the President to doubt his presidency by questioning, again, how the opposition parties, especially Waddani, conceded defeat in the elections. Faisal was referring to a media talk the president gave the media during which blamed the opposition parties for any delay that upcoming elections may suffer. The President, also, rehashed contentious moments in the 2017 presidential elections where he had the opportunity to heal festering wounds they left behind raising more questions than answered in his capacity to lead a united nation.
READ ALSO: President Bihi blames opposition on possible election delays
“He is the President and he should be confident in his presidency leading the nation towards unity rather than fragmenting it with thoughtless references to issues that are in the past and long settled,” he said.
“(President) Musa Bihi would rather start an argument than stop it,” he said. “The only tactic he knows to draw attention to himself is to start meaningless, petty squabbles,” he added
The UCID leader worked side by side with the former government of President Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud ‘Siilaanyo’ in the quest for a unified Somaliland that would rather compromise with opponents than fight them.
A three-year-long process which started in the latter half of 2015 which saw the two sides meet face to face at a number of venues including Addis Ababa, Djibouti, and Ainaba culminated in a strong commitment the two sides signed in Hargeisa in June 2017 (see below). It was expected that any government which replaced that of the outgoing Kulmiye one would take it up from there – even if it came from the opposition. That a government from the same ruling party would not honor what its predecessor from the same party committed remains an enigma most cannot decipher.
Faisal of the belief that if President Bihi does not promptly own up to his responsibilities in the implementation of the agreement with Khatumo leaders, the consequences to the nation may prove regrettable.
