TFG Gets Serious and Hands Pink Slip to Slick Sifir
WardheerNews Editorial
May 16, 2005
Mohamud Abdillahi Jama (Sifir)
In an official memo released on Saturday 14, 2005, and approved by the president, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, the Prime Minister of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia (TFG), relieved Mohamud Abdullahi Sifir, Minister of Information, of his official duty. This action, which in our view was overdue, must be welcomed by all peace loving Somalis and the world community at large.
It is worth mentioning that Sifir has constantly shown derelict of his duties as the minister of information since the inception of the TFG in Kenya on November, 2004. By governmental protocol, the minister of information, Mr. Sifir in this case, was the official spokesperson of the government, the offices of the president and the prime minister so as to disiminate and convey the policies and objectives of the TFG. However, that is not what Mr. Sifir has been practicing. Instead, he has been in a totally unacceptable opposition to his bosses and created confusion and chaos in the body politic of the fledgling TFG.
In a surprising move, Mr. Sifir ashamedly created an unholy coalition with those who vehemently opposed the president's and prime minister's policies on many issues from the get go. The leadership of this counter-productive opposition is two Mogadishu based warlords, Mahamed Qanyare Afrah and Muse Sudi Yalaxow, whose destructive politics is beyond redemption.
Initially the president and his prime minister had reportedly a lot of confidence in Mr. Sifir's ability to do a good job and play a crucial role in the future talks between the TFG and the authorities of Somaliland, owing to his affiliation with that region. However, contrary to this expectation, Mr. Sifir became an elusive character and emerged an unbearable quantity to the prime minister and the president for he took decisions independent of his boss's whims.
Things, however, fell apart, when the prime minister, himself a moderate man with a sense of clear mission to resuscitate the defunct Somalia state, called all his cabinet back to Nairobi, the temporary headquarter of the TFG, for consultation on several urgent and important issues. Uncharacteristic of a cabinet member, Mr. Sifir refused to yield to his boss's call and failed to return back to Nairobi . In most of the civilized world, such an action by a subordinate constitutes an AW (absent without pay). According to normal labor laws, a seven-days AW must lead to an automatic dismissal.
Moreover, in a surprising move, Mr. Sifir again opposed the official position of the government regarding the African Union (AU) and Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) organizations to deploy peacekeeping missions to Mogadishu to help the TFG stand on its own feet. As a former employee of international organizations, Mr. Sifir knows well and could appreciate the hard work that goes into securing such a unified action by Regional and world bodies. This is especially so in the case of Somalia where fatigued donors, coupled with a view that Somalia is a cold war relic, would make another round of effort to help Somalia all the more impossible.
Why, therefore, one asks, would Mr. Sifir pursue such a pedestrian political position and keep derailing the mission sought by his prime minister and the president?
Muse Sudi Yalaxow M. Qanyare Afrah Sharif Hassan
Despite several calls by the prime minister that Sifir report back to his office and stand by his boss, the later refused to listen. Contrary to said calls, Sifir chose to side with Mogadishu based warlords (Qanyare and Yalaxow) and the confused, overwhelmed and unsuspecting Speaker of the Parliament, Mr. Shariif, and seems to be enjoying his new role as the shadow advisor to this new destructive and reactionary coalition. It is not, therefore, surprising that Mr. Sifir was very visibe and present at Mogadishu stadium where a coalition of Mogadishu based warlords and Islamic fundamentalists showcased their military hardware. Well, no one can have his cake and eat it. Neither can Mr. Sifir do so.
Mr. Sifir has proved to be a typical case of Africa 's intellectual opportunism and chicanery. Mr. Sifir was the campaign manager of Ahmed Siilaanyo's presidential bid in Somaliland's presidential elections of 2003. Soon after that initiative failed Mr. Sifir moved to Nairobi and surprisingly joined Embgathi reconciliation conference with a position that endorses the territorial integrity of the Somali Democratic Republic. In a recent interview with the BBC Somali service, he surprised everyone when he denounced secession, and further made claims that most of the leadership of Kulmiye, Siilaanyo's opposition party, is also pro-unity. Given his current visible role along Yalaxow, Qanyare and the Islamic fundamentalist, Indha Cade and Hassan Daahir Aways, Sifir is not trustworthy. He is not fit neither for the position he has vacated nor the other office (deputy prime minister) he is currently holding.
The president and his prime minister have so far been overly cautious and have unnecessarily shown to be risk averse. WardheerNews has early on carried an editorial piece that gauged the magnitude of the damage that a house divided – ministers opposing their prime minister and the president who was elected by 2/3 majority of a transitional parliament that reflects a cross section of the Somali clans - can have. President Abdullahi Yusuf's mandate must be respected, irrespective of one's liking or disliking the president or the prime minister as individuals.
WardheerNews welcomes the prime minister's bold, albeit overdue, action of firing Mr. Sifir. We further encourage the prime minister to take bold and well-deliberated actions to fire recalcitrant warlords-become-ministers if they continue on their destructive course. As the prime minister alluded in his May 14, 2005 BBC interview, someone determined to refuse would never run short of an alibi. Sifir's alibi has been identified and dealt with and the same should be done to future cabinet members who come against the TFG's policies toward bringing peace and stablity to war torn Somalia.
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