The education system was okay until late eighties. What I am referring wasn’t about quality of the education which still produced good students, but the extend of the corruption of the elite to send their kids and others while knowing full well none of their people were up to the standards. Until the end , the quality of the Somali students and people in general were high caliber compared to today or later years. Imagine a BBC or Radio Mogadishu broadcaster reading an English text with Somali language on air before the Somali language was written. Today, most of the Somali journalists couldn’t even read Somali texts on the air properly. Thiose generations were proud and deep down they thought they could compete with anyone around the world. Still even today, the desire to learn and excel exists among Somali youth everywhere, but are hindered by corrupt officials who take bribes and keep out the bright ones from succeeding. Some people were thinking that the only dictatorship in the region was Siyad Barre. Military, communist and authoritarian regimes around the world take their time and disappear when things change either by events or history. Opposition is not allowed and talking the gun against them was impossible. Other than from inside, does anyone ever thought of changing the Soviet Union with an army or insurgency? No it was impossible. Mubaarak of Egypt came 1981 and left 30 years after the Arab spring, Daniel Moi of Kenya came1978 and left 25 years after elections and wind of change touched the country. The whole region was run by one man rule. No one have ever though of replacing Mubaarak , Qadaafi or Arab Moi with armed insurgency in the seventies or early eighties. Only a Somali “ Madax Faluuq” who never thinks about time and space would indulge those kind of thoughts. Replacing Siyad Barre or regime change in Somali in 1985 meant destroying all of Somalia from Zaylac to Kismaayo. Tthere were no other ways. The angry tribes put aside of everything and were hell bent of destroying the country for good and let the chips fall where they may. Reer miyigu warsabaha Marla at rabaan in ay qabtaan waxa ay dibeda ugu xidhaan Waxar yar gebtina ( trap) way ku xidhaan marku waxarta qaado yidhaahdana way ku soo dhacda. Mengistu, sida waxarta ayuu ku yidhi jabhadihii orda I Siyaadw soo qabta, Markay qabteena gurigii baa ku kor dumay. In those days, the system was designed as whole. In order to change the regime you must destroy all of Somalia, and despite the dire consequences, they went ahead. Sodon sano ayaa Kay soo wareegtay welina sidii diinkii dhaanka loo diray ee la sugayey in uu reerka soo waraabiyo, ee yidhi hadda ayaan albaaka ka sii baxaya.

Habartii docdii ay ku noolayd, daadku ugu so galay dadkii inu wada helay mooday, oo daad wararac bay tidhi... If you were in Mogadishu, that could have been true, because you were dining and wining and licking the icecream from your elbows. But if you were anywhere but Mogadishu, then that is absolutely a pipe-dream. I am sure you were happly welcoming Radio Banadir's famous broadcasting regarding regional football tournament between Hargeisa and Burco in 1988, when the facts on the ground were the stuff of nightmare. Both Burco and Hargeisa were smouldering like Nuclear hit with the air thick with decomposing bodies. On the contrary, Somalia of the 1980s was on its last legs. Everything that is wrong with Somalia/Somaliland can be traced right back to the dictatorial regime. From interclan wars, to border issues (clan borders), to corruption, to Qaad, Qabyaalad, Qudhun... everything.

The economic decline and inflation had started with IMF in 1982, and decimated the economy and brought huge corruption. I am not fan of those marches in the "Trabuunka" because , as one of those who marched there more than three or four times, it was always forced on the people. The Somalia of 1980 was proud and rising. A French anthropologist said in 1980 that Somalia would join the middle income developed nations in the year 2000, or it will disappear due to internal problems that could explode. Yet, with new technologies and know how, and after almost thirty years, the peaceful Somali administrations of today including Somaliland couldn't build one single major hospital, one major high school with hundreds of students or any significant life changing project. They couldn't build 25% of what the Kacaan did. Leaders are usually judged after time lapses of thirty or forty years. Both their misdeeds and national achievements take shape. The October revolution had touched Somalis socially, culturally and economically like no any other administration. We might never get back the prestige of the nation we destroyed. As a young teenage boy in the middle of eighties , I have never feared or ever thought of foreign military taking over Somalia. We were proud while others feared from us taking them over. I have never thought Somali clans taking the ownership of major centers like the national capital. Weligay kama fakirin Muqdishu cid baa kaa xigta, waxaan ahaa Muwaadin jooga caasimidiisi. The worst legacy of the late years of the Kacaan was the destruction of institutions, meritocracy and standards. I went for government scholarship in late eighties and only three of us among the twenty were able to sit in the class, the rest were unqualified students sent through nepotism, and today, that culture is alive and well throughout the Somali administered regions including Djibouti. More than half of the students sent for scholarship in Turkey had left for " Tahriib" to Europe because they couldn't get in to thre classes even though the Turkish state paid their four year tuitions.