President Riyale Is A Clear& Present Danger

President Riyale’s willingness to use all political routes to guarantee his survivability is a clear  a nd present danger to the peace and harmony that Somalilanders have toiled nearly two decades for. In the past, President Riyale and his consortium of Yes-men in his inner-circle have too  eas ily descended to lowest common denominator by fear mongering, highlighting and inflaming at  tr ibal tensions for a mere political gains. With the elections only days away and consensus on the ground indicating UDUB party as distant third, this president, and his coterie of Yes-man in his inner-circle will only ratchet up their poisoning of Somaliland’s political ambiance by creating  divi sions and fostering hatred among the citizenries.

Riyale’s uncompromising and indomitable political posturing is a clear and present danger to  So maliland is leading it into a dark road. Whenever presidential elections are mentioned Riyale  ma kes it clear to Somalilander’s just how fragile their peace and security is. President Riyale’s  willi ngness to do anything and his zero- sum mentality of self-preservation of remaining president will damage the unity of Somaliland. President Riyale’s habitual vilification and demonizing of the opposition has reached an unmistakable juncture, a juncture sadly all too familiar to the African psyche that has bared witness to massacres and genocides sparked by such vilifying and  demo nizing spewing from state owned radios and TV stations. Just as president Riyale has done, wh en he chose to espouse emotions of anger and rage within the public against Kulmiye party  lea ders. The state owned Radio Hargeisa the only fm radio station in the country disseminated  ou trageous propaganda that equated several Kulmiye leaders as terrorist linked to the most  des picable and gruesome terrorist organizations. Politically charged baseless accusations leveled at Abdiasizz Samaale, Mohamed Hashi Elmi and Dr. Mohamed Gaboose surmises Riyale’s  desperati on, and moral delinquency. President Riyale’s desire to remain in power has taken precedence over everything including the welfare and wellbeing of the opposition leaders.

President Riyale blatantly poisoned Somaliland’s political ambiance by inciting hate in the pure  f orm of malfeasance and instigating communal hatred against the leaders of Kulmiye. Riyale has brutally tried to misguide an uninformed Somaliland public to resort to violence against these  Ku lmiye leaders by labelling them as terrorist. Riyale’s outer disregard for human life in the vain hope of obstructing the message of the opposition was demonstrated In Erigavo. When youths and thugs indoctrinated to intimidate and disperse Kulmiye supporters that gathered to  welco me Dr Gaboose, were swept by the vortex of the mob like behavior, and descended onto  unsus pecting Kulmiye supporters in Erigavo pummeling them with rocks. An ugly and unfortunate  incid ent that resulted in death of a college student and left dozens injured.

President Riyale’s nefarious tricks will only worsen as Election Day nears. Sad to fathom how the injuring and horrific death of innocent citizen in Erigavo that cumulated from the heinous acts of intimidation and violence of the president through his Yes-men in UDUB party can get worse, But we know Riyale and he is not deterred to use any means as gratuitous and Apprehensive as it may be as long as his grip on power is threatened. September 2009 president Riyale’s orders  le ft several people dead and many more injured because the parliament considered an  impeachm ent motion against him. Now with only few days in to campaigning we have already seen vice  pr esidential candidate of Kulmiye party Abdirahman Ismaaciil Saylici’s house in Borama needing  po lice protection from mobs associated with UDUB party on top of the several workers taken from their offices and arrested for no apparent reason. President Riyale is unwavering and not  fainth earted to commence any tactic that will ensure his clutch on power. The president’s survivability hinges on the brute dictatorial tactics that will only succeed under unjust and chaotic political sphere in Somaliland and he is expecting his close inner-circles of ministers, party members, and Yes-men to create just that. The same scheme Riyale deployed to avoid impeachment of  padloc king doors of the Parliament, which were afforded him by an MP member of his ruling party UDUB, who pulled out a firearm in the parliament that gave Riyale the needed pretext to close down parliament for security reasons and thus averting his impeachment.

That is the same type of schemes and gimmicks he will rely on, as otherwise UDUB party has no fighting chance in free and fair elections. In the last couple of months, Riyale relied on Osman  Hi ndi and Ali Gurey for his fear mongering and his tribal baiting, and as his desperation increases so will their schemes and gimmicks. Osman Hindi and Ali Gurey, the new comers to the presidents ruling party have been trying to inflame tribal tension. Osman Hindi and Cali Gurey are new to  UDUB party, but the egregiously hateful propaganda that they are mere lip services to is  sonoro us with president Riyale. Puppets they might be, but they have personified the potency of  Riya le’s danger to Somaliland’s cohesion.

These zealously frothing individuals waged an endangering geo-tribal politics. Ali Gurey went as far as to threaten the safety of the chairman of Kulmiye, on the pretence that his tribe is not  d omiciled in the capital city of Somaliland and that makes him a fair play, as he is mere guest  with out protection. Osman Hindi accused Kulmiye Party on government run TV of physically attacking him, an absurd and baseless allegation that could not have been further from the truth. Osman Hindi’s heinous lie to lure peaceful people to his defense and to entice them to avenge on his behalf runs afoul of ideals of the inhabitants of Hargeisa.

These vociferous Yes-men have coalesced around Riyale’s divisive politics. They will ratchet it up a notch since UDUB party is not doing so well, regardless of how sordid and harmful Riyale’s  mes sage is to Somaliland. The danger of President Riyale’s politics are exacerbated by consortium of Hype-men, Yes-men, and inept ministers that boldly carry out the wishes of president with no bearing to reason or truth, worse their actions are a detriment to Somaliland’s cause. As the  fl agrantly fallible accusation leveled at Donald Payne as an enemy of Somaliland, by a deputy  mini ster of the foreign affairs Ahmed Ismail, and Jama Yassin Farah of UDUB party. Donald Payne the co-founder of the congressional black caucus and chairman of the subcommittee on Africa and global health was derided throughout Somaliland’s the state controlled media because of his  cor dial meeting with The Chairman of Kulim Party, Ahmed Mohamud Sillanyo.

These Yes-men and Hype-men in the upper-echelon of the ruling party are a colossal threat to Somaliland’s system and society. They have chosen to remain passive to abusive power, and  so cial injustice and worse have fueled the transgressions of president Riyale. They are in Riyal’s close circles because of their divisiveness and political slandering, and surely not for their  abiliti es of moral suasion of the public through debate and compromise. Their False-moralizing and  pol arizing issues have robbed somalilanders of the middle ground and the chance to reason  toget her. In their gloat of appeasing Riyale, they have obscured the motives of Kulmiye and sadly  bra nded them as traitors and terrorist. They are not men of reason, and are simply towing that line of fear mongering, and hate that they have been the mouthpieces to.

Riyale’s seizure of UDUB party has allowed these rash individuals to fill up the void created by  t he mass exodus of pragmatic politicians, intellectuals, technocrats, and seasoned party  membe rs out of UBUD party. A void that has a far worse ramification for Somaliland, as the men of  sta ture, and political acumen that can counsel Riyale on issues of great importance to Somaliland have deserted UDUB party and left President Riyale a room full of these Yes-men and hype-men. Men like Jama Yassin Farah the Secretary General of UDUB party, who is bold enough to put a  po sitive spin on Riyale’s trampling of the constitution that had put the country in political deadlock for the last couple of years. Mr. Jama Yassin Farah could not offer a reason as to why the Guurti gave Riyale extension other than it was the right thing to do. At which later chairman of UCID party Faisal Ali Waraabe remarked that Jama Yassin Farah is sent here “just for the sake of  arg uing”.

Riyale avails from the boldness and shrewd tactics of these Yes-men, as they will find any  pret ext to attack and marginalize the adversaries of president Riyale in face of the contrary news. if these men were so incensed on contrived and trivial matter by calling for the chairman of  Kulm iye’s head, and requesting that he be not allowed back in Somaliland because he met with  Don ald Payne, one can only imagine what they will able to dream up and fabricate in order to reelect president Riyale. These men are dangerous for they will go any length to appease Riyale and the throwing Donald Payne under the bus and risking the goodwill created by the Somaliland  Diaspo ra was just the beginning.

Everything Somaliland holds dear is at mercy of one man that has at his disposal the great man-power of government employees with government owned vehicles, and the country’s national television station, and the only FM radio in the country, radio Hargeysa. The president’s  surviv ability hinges on the brute dictatorial tactics that will only succeed under unjust and chaotic  poli tical sphere in Somaliland and Riyale will not hesitate to take it there and Yes-men in his inner  ci rcle will remain indifferent to it. His unrelenting grip on power has already taken down  Somalilan d’s premier vice-chairman of Parliament, Abdaziz Samaale as terrorist, and Donald Payne as an enemy of the state for meeting with chairman of Kulmiye. Riyale will do what it takes to remain in power even if that means taking Somaliland down with him.