By: Yusuf M Hasan
GAROWE (Somalilandsun) – A big reception was conducted for Ahmed Abdi Habsade in Garowe by Government officials.
Habsade who was until today the Somaliland presidential advisor on Elections decamped to the Somalia regional Administration of Puntland where he is reported to have been promised a ministerial post.
Departing from Jigjiga the Ethiopian zone five administration Ahmed Habsade was initially received by the Mudug regional governor Mohamed Yusuf Jama Tigey in the regional capital Goldogob before proceeding to Garowe.
Habsade who held the position of minister in the current administration of Somaliland initially at the information docket later transferred to the ministry of public works from where he was fired and appointed presidential advisor on elections, is said to have become disillusioned about not being involved in decisions made pertaining to his Sool region by the administration.
The disenchantment begun while the then Sool Sanaag and Cayn (Ain)-SSC militia commander and now heath minister in Hargeisa Suleiman Isse Haglatosie signed the Buhodle peace accord with president Silanyo in 2012, thus making him, Haglatosie, the new kid on the Block, as pertained to Sool regional issues, a position enjoyed by Habsade, and a very lucrative and influential as well considering the rebellious nature of the Dulbahante clans resident there.
While rumours have been rife for some time about Habsade recanting his support to the sovereignty of Somaliland the first salvo of his intentions were fired after Dalool his maternal brother and a commander of clan militia seconded to the army in Sool region went AWOL with his whole unit, reportedly to join forces with Khatumoists in Saahdheer area in the same region.
Though it was originally assumed that Habsade is intent on assuming the leadership of the Khatumo secessionist movement which is geared towards curving a Khatumo state out of areas under the territorial jurisdiction of Somaliland, the move to Garowe and a ministerial position is baffling.
The conundrum of the elderly politician’s decision to move to Garowe was undoubtedly very difficult in lieu of the fact that he used to be a thorn in the flesh of the former president of Puntland Abdirahman Farole who blames, Habsade for supporting the excision of a Puntland administration from the Sool regional capital Las Anod during the reign of Rayale as president of Somaliland.
While sources within Garowe reveal that president Abdiweli is happy to have Habsade in his cabinet which he intends to reshuffle thence accommodate the elderly Somalilander in his second return to the Majerteen cabinet he served from 1997 to the early 2000’s.
Habsade though a very experienced and elderly politician is a power hungry person and as can be ascertained by his current change of allegiance, he decamped to Puntland in 1997 after failure to be re-elected as the speaker of Somaliland parliament, a position he held from 1993 to 1996.
Though he is a man of stature in his home region of Sool his move to Puntland is irrelevant to the politics of the rambunctious region and Somaliland at large since the Hargeisa government has managed to establish peaceful reconciliation with a majority of residents and the army is currently besieging remnants of the Khatumo militias led by Ali Khalif Galayd in Saahdheer.
Meanwhile as the Puntland administration is basking in seducing Habsade to Garowe sources within the government of Somaliland say the ever allegiance changing citizen is a washout politician whose current or future whereabouts is of no consequences at all.
