Clearly, the top-down, centralized approach to impose order On Somalia had failed. Good intentions and efforts aside, such methodology of piecing back together a nation fragmented in every level goes against common sense. There are principles at work in every thing and situation in life, which if not understood and correctly applied could not yield the desired result. Just as there were grounds for Somalia to disintegrate, undoubtedly there are ways to see it whole again if only we are to grasp and employ them appropriately.  

The key is in the respective fragments the lowest common denominator of what, in peacetime, used to make up a nation ( Somalia) among nations. It is the villages, towns, cities, regions and neighborhoods. It is them, these places and its long-life residents which must be persuaded to take full ownership of their localities. Un- dictated to them on how to run their affaires, from far away a place of Baidhabo or Mogadishu, they will in all likelihood be responsible for their own.

With few stringent stipulations, like not choosing religious extremists, the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) must allow these places to handpick their mayors, city councils, school boards and governors. The TFG must funnel the millions donated from the international community right down to villages. The support should be in the form of salaries to chosen local leaders, payments for basic projects and food aid for the larger residents. Conversely, local leaders and residents must be responsible for every aspect of their lives, like security, law and order what not.

This is not advocating or calling for the break-up, into bits and pieces, of Somalia. In good times and bad times, such as lately, Somalia is and should always be indivisible one nation under God. That said, there is, I am certain of it, a way to lead Somalia out of the intractable current situation. This way is for the TFG to humble itself in squatting down and leveling by handing back power to the people with the common folks at every small, little corner of Somalia.    

Somalis, except in big cities, live in clan or subclan clusters in villages and towns. To give an example, we know what clan or subclan lives in Beledwayne or, for that matter, Garowe. It is past time a different approach is implemented: An incentivizing tactic for each locality to look after its local interest. After all, indigenous people would know better what is best for them than an outsider from remote. They would know who comes in their villages and towns to disturb or help their way of life. The TFG should only partner up with them in that respect, and not impose its will on them!

This will be an experiment, a pilot project if you will, but it could produce dividends for peace and security. It also need not be some grandiose out of a conference, scheduled local and regional elections; at least not for right now. This big picture will come in due time, which will be on the road to final status of nationhood and its enduring form of government. What are needed now are the baby steps. To that end, the TFG parliament should pass an emergency law now to give each locality the right to pick their leaders at the local level and to send a list of their leaders to the federal government for processing and blessing. If a locality can organize a make-shift election, fine; if local elders decide on their leaders, under a tree, fine. The TFG President and the Prime minster should go on air and declare this policy of empowering people at the grassroots with full financial and otherwise backing!

Lastly, generally speaking, it is human nature for people to act in their best interest at its most basic that is if they are given the opportunity to do so. National aspirations usually follow when groups (at the few hutted village level) that makeup a nation each has a stake and ownership of their piece. A whole is a sum of its parts. Parts make up the whole, not the other way around just as trees make a forest. And so, we must see the forest for its trees! If each locality is encouraged and supported to do good by itself, in the interim, people of these localities will be inclined to fix their respective places. As a fragment (locality) becomes at peace and relatively a success, it will very likely connect with the next fragment over, and then they with the next over, until each—of national jigsaw puzzle falls into place to complete and reclaim the whole (Somalia), which will, God willing, produce a more firm and sounder national identity.   

A 4.5, on clan formulation, Transitional Federal Government (TFG) does not seem to be the voice of villages, towns and regions of Somalia. This is not a call to disband the TFG either; there will be a time for that too. But for the TFG to be relevant and useful, it must adopt new tactics to change the current situation in the country. It is always a good idea for politicians, rather those who are in power, to listen to the people to empower them in their homes and neighborhoods. This is even truer for a nation which self-devastated, like our Somalia.

Abdulaziz Mohammed

somam23@wideopenwest.com

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