GOOFKA CULTURE IS ENTRENCHED HERE

Garowe is increasingly becoming a clan fox-hole or Goofka as the term is known in Somalia. The City is far from resembling the Seat of Puntland State, especially whenever there is a political debate or tension. In times of perils, wars, and threats to Puntland peace and security, Garowe residents take sole ownership of the town and mobilize armed rebellion and violence against the government of the day. Such continual or periodical behavior isn’t conducive to an operating environment for stable public institutions, and law and order needed for peaceful Puntland.

Therefore, one may contemplate relocating portions of government offices and international organizations to more peaceful cities. I had warned earlier that Garowe wasn’t ready to host this Parliament Session. People are now realizing this fundamental assessment of Garowe precarious security situation, and generally, obvious fragility here in maintaining a concentration of public institutions.

Unfortunately, Somalis never learn from history. Garowe historically has been an extreme clan fiefdom and a source of clan tension, initially between its own residents and between inhabitants of surrounding regions, but becoming lately politically tribalistic, land grabber and greedy.

We may recall that the city of Qardho was projected to become the Capital City of the future state of Puntland, until that town’s political and traditional establishments too messed up things and lost that historic opportunity. This clearly demonstrates the underdevelopment nature of a primitive clan society like ours.

Fortunately, there are towns in Puntland where such extreme nature of clannish contradictions could be managed and mitigated successfully. Let us think of alternative venues for building-up unhindered public institutions in the State.

2 thoughts on “GOOFKA CULTURE IS ENTRENCHED HERE

  1. Somali nomadic culture that everyone relies on himself and on his clan makes us far from building a modern state. The inability of current state administrators and public institutions to provide necessary basic services that ccould relied upon to ordinary citizens has added to the lack of trusting public sector as a whole.
    Clans provide some sort of social insurance that states and public administrations failed to offer. The social link to the clan system can only be over to offer alternative system that citzens could upon. Before the state administration could provide alternative insurance system, most of the society will remain faithful to the ckan system with its imperfections.

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  2. Somali nomadic culture that everyone relies on himself and on his clan makes us far from building a modern state. The inability of current state administration and public institutions to provide necessary basic services that ccould be relied upon by ordinary citizens has added to the lack of trusting public sector as a whole.
    Clans provide some sort of social insurance that states and public administrations failed to offer. The social link to the clan system can only be over to offer alternative system that citzens could rely upon. Therefore, before the state administrations could provide alternative insurance system, most of the society will remain faithful to the current ckan system with its imperfections.

    Liked by 1 person

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