Somaliland.Org

By Sagal Say Wallahi

Practically unknown prior to their rise to power and faced with simmering social discontent, Somaliland’s presidential NSS couple are so obtrusive in lavish spending and flamboyant lifestyle many people should not envy in the parlous state of our economy. A villa in Cairo next to their former faqaash masters, a fishing company, a hotel, a farm and the airport tower in Borama, to name just a few, are the new acquisitions snatched thanks to their mafia-like practices. Somalilanders have been through a whole heap of things together and cannot afford to relive the excess of post-independence ruling click. That’s why citizens must continually ponder on how the redistribution of wealth throughout the country is fettered by the first couple and by this administration damaged by massive government nepotism, corruption and despotism.

The best way to detect the culture of the rich-quick schemes, self-aggrandizements and dictatorship is to observe the attitude of ina Barkhat, the First Lady, who does nothing for our development but displays her flash cars, her flash official holidays, managing always, after a number of serious mishaps, to outdone herself in everyday political malapropism when delivering lofty perorating speeches in camera and in public like her jaahiil husband President whose political glib-talk is increasingly becoming filled with cant and utter nonsense. She never does anything with style or class consequently acquiring a reputation as this country’s premier fashion repellent toad. Between you and me and my caano geela on my table, her walk, with the fake bouffant hairdo, is not lithe and graceful either, still some are comparing her with Siyad’s Khadija and others are considering her the new ina Xayd but without the beauty and the charm.

No one knows why, in these trying times, ina Barkhat is so inclined in life’s little luxuries while the average Somalilander can barely make ends meet. Ina Barkhat’s latest moves are unprecedented – previous Somaliland’s First Ladies were practically unknown to the public - and should be seen as a flashback from the silent era, the time when Imelda Marcos was the leader in opulent lifestyle that she had trouble adjusting, after she was stripped from her powers, to the mundane realities of life. Our little Ina Barkhat, a conniving and greedy woman, clumsily grabs lands from ilma Sheik Ali Jowaher, poses herself as the new female Mahdi before reer Bali Gubadle, throws $50 000 at reer Gabilay, puts in jail journalists accusing them of insulting the “good name” of her husband.

It does not stop there obviously. To erode gradually Somalilanders’ rights, she delegates her Somaliland’s dirty tricks to her many minions and for her overseas haire-brained ideas to a horde of jesters who see democracy primarily as an unavoidable double-dealing cutthroat politicking and reer reer business. In the diaspora, the first person who comes to mind is Dr. Jaajale Tani of dirt-poor and dusty Dila whose only legitimacy is the time he spent in Syad’s Gulags, forgetting that his reer abti, beesha dheexda, Issaaq, lost over 70 000 lives for the liberation of Somaliland.

From a modest home of a family who lived off the land of others, here comes ina Barkhat, ready to eat the whole pie with a vengeance, a fiesta in which Somalilanders will have a mortifying experience at the dinner table when Somaliland dhulkeygo stops short and the nation is finally all for grabs. Luckily, Somalilanders are showing, in the best tradition of the SNM, more and more signs of discontent.

Sagal Say Wallahi

sagalainashi@hotmail.com