In January 2022, many Somalis will have reflected on the thirty-first anniversary of the state collapse of 1991. The piecemeal governance transformation that Somalia has undergone since 2000, when the first transitional administration was formed after a Djibouti-sponsored reconciliation conference, continues to be a Sisyphean task, argues Abukar Arman in an article in BIldhaan, a journal of Somali Studies published by Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Arman has proposed trusteeship. He sees as a panacea for Somalia’s prolonged political turmoil. Turkey is the country that Arman views as the most capable of all nations to help Somalia exercise full sovereignty. The solution to the dysfunctional governance in Somalia lies in total overhaul of structural advantages that contribute to self-perpetuation of the post-1991 elites’ fiefdoms, Beelstans, a coinage of Arman’s made up of beel (community) and the politically incorrect suffix stan. National elites, powerful conglomerates and foreign countries form a troika that prevents Somalia from transitioning into a viable state. Transition is word that Arman dislikes due to the dual meaning of its Somali equivalent kala-guur.
The article, in my view, will generate heated discussions not only because of the issues Arman discusses concisely but also his determination to stand back from factional politics and see the whole picture as far as the reconstitution of the Somali state is concerned.
“A country is not sovereign if it fails to fulfill its obligation to protect its citizens and all others living in the geographical territory that is within its domain of authority from domestic and foreign threats” writes Arman. If one uses this formulation as a yardstick to determine whether Somalia is a sovereign nation state or not, the result will disappoint Somali nationalists. Neither the Somali Federal Government not its predecessor has been able to protect its citizens from terrorist attacks or forced displacement. Kenya has used Somalia’s state powerlessness to justify its invasion of 2011 and 2012. When a national government cannot maintain a control over all its territories, the country is susceptible to invasions framed in self-defence language.
