Devolution of power in Somaliland.

Devolution of Power In S/land. By: Abdo (Pseudonym)

Somaliland constitution stipulates clearly that the structure of the country comprises of regions and districts, to which some state powers are moved. Accordingly, Somaliland parliament passed some legislation that clearly delineate how state powers are shared between central government and districts. In this regard, enacted laws say clearly the mandate and sources of revenue for Local governments as well as for central government.

That is, Somaliland adopts devolution system which means decentralization of power down vertical from central government to local governments in the regions and districts. The power of the state is also horizontally divided between cabinet, judiciary and parliament. In this context, Somaliland democracy looks consummate comprehensive and mature, since we all know that democracy is not merely holding elections—electioneering--  but much broader and deeper as it entails principles and pillars such as rule of law, good governance, accountability&trasparency among others, without which it would end up in vain.

However, Somaliland reality does not reflect the beautiful devolution system that the constitution guarantees. For example, when you read the mandate that was assigned to local governments and the revenue allocated to them to do the job, you can easily realize that it is not viable or practical. All Somaliland local governments share only 5% of the state budget while the rest-- 95% goes to the central government except for some fraction that is assigned to parliament and judiciary.

In this context, devolving or decentralizing the state power down vertical to regions and districts by assigning for them a huge mandate of social services –sanitation, city roads, security and land management among others, without giving them the necessary means and funds to do the job would never work.  It would sound, in my view,  a joke and perhaps useless to hold local government elections believing ostensibly that we would get local councils that would address the challenges that Somalilanders face at district and regional levels. Democracy is not something decorative or ornamental that you would show off. It is not an end by itself. It is for mitigating and alleviating poverty, diseases and ignorance with the aim to eventually achieve development and prosperity for the society.

Having said that, we cannot expect much from local governments given the fact that they are short of funds. It is the central government that we hope to shoulder the responsibility and deliver the services in lieu of local councils since the central government have taken almost the whole cake .

Lastly but not least, in order to get effective local governments that can fulfill the mandate given to them, they may need to get at least 30% of the state budget-- I guess. If not, we would not be able to uphold the guidelines of the constitution which,  unequivocally,  defines republic of Somaliland as a country whose political power is devolved.

 Source: www.profabdiali.blogspot.com

Pof. Abdi Ali Jama or Abdo(pseudonym)