WAPMEN EDITORIAL
There is a quiet but corrosive confusion eating away at Puntland society — not a military threat, not a fiscal collapse, but a mental fracture. Many residents have reached a breaking point where they can no longer hold two ideas at once: Puntland and Somalia.
One thinker once asked: “Who can keep two opposing ideas in his head without losing his mind?”
The tragedy in Puntland today is that these ideas are not opposing at all — yet they are treated as mortal enemies.
On one side are those chanting “Puntland! Puntland!” as if Puntland were a besieged secessionist republic. On the other are those chanting “Somalia! Somalia!” as if Puntland were an illegal deviation from a unitary past that no longer exists. Each camp believes the other is committing political heresy. Each is trapped in illusion. And between them lies a society caught in intellectual paralysis.
This is not an ideological debate. It is a failure of civic education.
Puntland Is Not Anti-Somalia — And Somalia Is Not Anti-Puntland
Let us state this plainly, because too many leaders have failed to do so:
Puntland was created to save Somalia, not to escape it.
Federalism — imperfect, messy, and often abused — was designed to reconcile local self-rule with national unity. Puntland is not a substitute for Somalia, nor is Somalia a threat to Puntland’s existence. One is a federal member state, the other a federal republic. This is not rocket science. Yet decades after Puntland’s formation, large segments of the population still do not grasp this basic constitutional reality.
Why?
Because no successive Puntland administration invested seriously in civic education. No sustained effort was made to teach citizens what federalism means, what Puntland’s legal status is, where its powers begin and end, and how Somali unity actually functions in a post-1991 political order.
The result is a vacuum — and vacuums are always filled by slogans, rumors, clan narratives, and emotional politics.
A Civic Brainstorming That Exposed a Deeper Deficit
Appraising yesterday’s civic brainstorming at the Puntland State Presidency — and observing the general political mood expressed in individual remarks and group discussions — one thing stood out with unsettling clarity: the central role of government and the education sector in producing this confusion.
The questions raised, the anxieties voiced, and the contradictions openly displayed were not signs of public apathy. They were symptoms of institutional neglect. People were not confused because they are incapable of understanding federalism; they were confused because no one systematically taught it to them.
When citizens debate the very existence of Puntland versus Somalia inside a federal system, the problem is not the audience — it is the curriculum, the messaging, and the silence of those entrusted with public instruction.
Civic awareness does not emerge spontaneously. It must be cultivated — in schools, universities, civil-service training, public media, and official discourse. Puntland’s government and education authorities abdicated this responsibility for years, and yesterday’s brainstorming merely held up a mirror.
Confusion Produces Flight, Not Loyalty
This mental split has real consequences. When people feel forced to choose between Puntland and Somalia — instead of understanding how the two coexist — they disengage. Some retreat into cynicism. Others relocate physically, politically, or psychologically. You see it in migration patterns, in political apathy, and in how easily external actors exploit internal uncertainty.
A society unsure of its political identity is easy to manipulate.
And manipulation thrives where education is absent.
Leadership Failure, Not Public Ignorance
Let us be clear: this is not the fault of ordinary citizens. It is a leadership failure — collective, prolonged, and unforgivable.
Puntland’s administrations governed budgets, ports, and security forces, but neglected the most critical infrastructure of all: the civic mind. They assumed people would “just understand” federalism by osmosis. They were wrong.
You cannot build a stable polity on assumptions. You must teach it, explain it, debate it, and reinforce it — relentlessly.
Until the Confusion Is Addressed, Instability Will Persist
As long as Puntlanders are trapped in a false binary — Puntland versus Somalia — the region will continue to bleed cohesion. Unity will remain rhetorical. Federalism will remain misunderstood. And politics will remain emotional rather than institutional.
The cure is not louder slogans.
It is serious civic education, honest leadership, and institutional courage.
Puntland and Somalia are not mutually exclusive ideas.
They are incomplete without each other.
Until Puntland’s leaders finally grasp — and teach — that simple fact, this confusion will remain not just a debate, but a danger.
Warsame Policy & Media Network (WAPMEN) 