Federalism Starts to Pay Off in Somalia

[Deeq A.]

In his speech yesterday, Juha abandoned the confederal system he has tweeted about several times this year.

Garowe (PP Editorial) — The planned local government elections in Mogadishu are a testament that the federal system is working, despite setbacks and a fractious political class. In Garowe yesterday, the Interior Minister of Puntland State of Somalia Abdi Farah Saeed (Juha) indirectly contrasted the local elections held in Puntland in 2023 with the local elections due to take place in Mogadishu in June 2025, which he described as “imitations out of rivalry.” Politics is as much about rivalry as it is about learning from one another.

His unguarded remark should not overshadow his political position on the federal system in Somalia. Without attribution, Juha quoted the late Mohamed Abshir Waldo, who in 2010 wrote that the federal system offers “a middle solution between an autocratic, centralized system of governance and outright secession” because “decentralisation empowers district and regional communities and offered more balanced and more productive socio-economic development opportunities.”

Waldo did not have a romantic view of the federal system in Somalia, nor did he see it as a system to exploit people’s base political instincts (i.e., clannism). “The people of Puntland are still learning that it takes more than wishful thinking to mobilize the potential of the people and fully exploit the resources of a country, and that it requires qualified and competent leadership to achieve those goals,” Waldo argued in his commemorative essay on the 12th anniversary of Puntland State of Somalia.

Mohamed Abshir Waldo: “The people of Puntland are still learning that it takes more than wishful thinking to mobilize the potential of the people and fully exploit the resources of a country, and that it requires qualified and competent leadership to achieve those goals.”

What Waldo was promoting before his passing in 2016 was the argument that Puntland has an obligation to set a good example of governance. Juha claimed that Puntland State has introduced the federal system of Somalia. While this is a far-fetched claim, he unwittingly highlights failures in Puntland State governance. Puntland is the most centralised federal member state, whose auditing standards fall below those demanded by the Financial Governance Committee. Receipts from fishing licences issued in the name of the Puntland State to foreign fishing companies remain unaccounted for, as the Puntland State Parliament MPs disclosed in 2022.

In his speech yesterday, Juha abandoned the confederal system he has tweeted about several times this year. Puntland will not be able to make meaningful contributions to state-building initiatives in Somalia if its actions contradict its pronouncements about good governance. Political leaders are judged more by what they do than by what they say.

© Puntland Post, 2025

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