By AbdulRehman Hassand

The confusion surrounding the role of the Prime Minister versus the role of the President is rather old in the history of Somalia governance.

Adan Abdulle Osman VS AbdiRashid Ali Sharmarke:

Honorable Adan Abdulle Osman fired his Prime Minister of that time Honorable AbdiRahsid Ali Sharmarke after he made a huge political decision that the President didn’t approve. The President opted for secure, but slowly progressing nation building, whereas the PM aligned himself with more nationalistic and more robust , but risking younger generation of civilian and army officials. As I heard, the historic Mogadishu and Moscow military connection has initially been established during the presidency of Adan Abulle Osman, but ironically, the deal was negotiated without the knowledge of the President. Just to become legal, the contract was then signed by the Speaker of the House, Sheikh Mukhtar, while the President was out on vacation for Italy. It was done that way, because the President would oppose the deal and the affiliation with the eastern block in general. The treaty has been completed, and the military hardware consignment has been arrived later, but the PM lost his job as soon as the President returned.

AbdiRahsid Ali Sharmarke VS Mohamed Ibrahim Egal:

His Excellency the President elected AbiRashid Ali Sharmarke ran odds with his PM Mohamed Ibrahim Egal in number of critical issues, one of which was the issue of unifying the five Somalis under one banner. While the President was asking Britain and the rest of the world to convince Kenya to let go the Somali state to its main motherland, the PM declared that Somalia has no claim on the Somali state in Kenya.

AbiQasim Salad Hassan VS Dr. Ali Khalif Glair and Hassan Abshir Farah:

We all know that both Dr. Ali Khalif and Hassan Abshir openly refused to execute AbdiQasim’s course of action. Not only that they envisioned different government structures than his, but even Hassan Abshir challenged him within the parliament by aligning himself with the Speaker of House, Honorable Aballa Derow Isaq.

The only PM that I am not aware of having a head on collision with his boss is his excellence AbdiRisaq Haji Husein, who served half term with his Excellence President Adan Abdulle Osman. The question that comes into one’s mind is; why the Somali Presidents and PM’s are always in disagreement? Is it that, the constitution is not correct about the job definitions of the two officials and it needs to be fixed? Is it that the constitution is right about their job definitions, but not clear enough and is open for different interpretations? Or the constitution is perfect, but it’s the Somali leaders that are always lacking the discipline of acting according to the constitution?

To my understanding, the constitution is completely wrong and needs to be amended as quickly as possible. To run a nation, there are three types of powers needed. Executive Power, Pragmatic Power, and Judicial Power. The judicial power is outside the boundaries of our interest and we will not cover in this discussion. The Executive Power is the highest of all and is the real power. It’s reserved for the head of state. Legally, whoever challenges this power should be charged with high treason and be executed. The Pragmatic Power is always smaller than that. Let us see some examples of these powers and how they are practiced in the countries like Canada, Australia, and the United States.

In the Canadian government, the Executive Power is on the Governor General. The Governor General represents the Queen of England. Canadians elect only their Prime Minister. The Prime Minister gets Pragmatic Power when elected. He reports to the Governor General. The Governor General is his boss. The Governor General is not elected because Canada is Kingdom state, where the Executive Power is reserved for the Monarch. The Governor General can fire the Prime Minister if he/she wishes, because the government is his. The Governor General can say, “My government” when he is talking about the government of Canada, and can say, “My Prime Minister” when he is referring to the Prime Minister of Canada. However, the Prime Minister gets fired if he says, “My government”, because his power is Pragmatic Power. In Canada, no Governor General has ever fired a Prime Minister, but Australian Prime Minister got fired once by the Governor General of Australia. What we have learned in this example is that, the Executive Power is always stronger than the Pragmatic Power.

Of the United States of America, the President gets the Executive Power. That is because the Executive Power is not reserved for a King or a Queen. The Executive Power is up for grabs in every four years. The President elected is the highest in the government, and all the appointed powerful officials like the Secretary of State are all at his mercy. He the President is the only one, who can say, “My government”. He has the Executive Power.

In the Somalia case, the head of state is the elected President, but his government runs by an appointed Prime Minister. I don’t think having a Prime Minister running the day to day affairs of the government is problem at all, but it really takes a wrong turn when the Prime Minister appointed calls the government as his, and even utters the word, “My government.” To my understanding, that is another coup of its kind. Well, in this example, there is clear misunderstanding of powers and their roles in the government. First of all, why should the President name a Prime Minister? The President should directly run the government. My suggestion is that, the Prime Minister position be eliminated after five years, when the current term ends. In the meantime, the Prime Minister needs to cool down and work under the strategies and political guidelines of his boss. The Prime Minister should resign if he believes that the country can no longer sustain the policies of the President. General Colin Powell served President Bush for four years in his cabinet as the Secretary of State, but hardly believed that the president was right in his foreign policies. Yet again, he never criticized the president or openly stood his way. That is because the policy maker of the country should always be the elected president, and Somalia is not exception.

AbdulRehman Hassan
E-mail: [email protected]