By Bashir
Goth
It was
always my belief that if Africa were to change its bad reputation as the citadel
of corrupt politicians and a haven for mismanaged foreign aid; it would have to
be the continent’s women that lead the way.
And this is
exactly what happened over the last month when two women of character, Yussur
Abrar of Somalia and Thuli Madonsela of South Africa, have stunned the male-dominated
corruption infested political systems of the two countries with their fearless
actions.
Yusur Adan
Abrar, an international banker with three decades of experience in banking,
insurance, telecommunications and finance consultancy, was appointed as
Somalia’s first female governor of the Central Bank in September 2013, a time
when the international community pledged $2.4 billion to fund Somali's
infrastructural and fiscal reconstruction.
As a
professional banker, Abrar knew very well the task ahead of her. To put simply
it was the establishment of a comprehensive regulatory framework for the
country’s financial system and to make the Somali Central Bank accountable for
every dollar that reaches its coffers.
However, what
she did not anticipate was that the government had appointed her as a ploy to use
her stellar record to hoodwink the donor community by using her signature to
legitimize shady financial dealings.
Abrar’s goal
of cleaning the system had become an affront to the Somali politicians’ old
norm of stealing and enriching themselves on foreign aid and the country’s tax
revenues.
Soon after
she stepped into the building of the bank she was given orders and threats to
sanction dubious deals. She was not given enough time to even review the
demands and explore if she could find any legal loopholes that could allow her
to find a legitimate compromise. All her
attempts to win the President’s support and to enlighten him about the irreparable
damage that sanctioning such deals could cause to the government’s credibility fell
on deaf ears.
But instead
of being enlightened by Abrar’s relentless efforts to highlight the need to
follow sound financial regulations, the acolytes at the government’s corruption
alter tried to convert her to the Somali way of doing business and to wean her
from what they saw as her unflinching adherence to ‘western values’. As she
bluntly put it in her letter of resignation to the President, she said: “The
message that I have received from multiple parties is that I have to be
flexible, that I don't understand the Somali way that I cannot go against your
wishes, and that my own personal security would be at risk as a result.”
According
to the information I received, even President Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud himself had
at one point accused Abrar of acting like an American: “Ma Maraykan baad iskaga
kaaya dhigaysaa.. Are you trying to act like an American to us?” As the Somali
proverb says: Madax meel meel la taabto oo sarreeyaa ma jiro… There is no place
higher than the head to reach…” Instead of showing leadership and supporting
Abrar in her honest efforts to restore badly needed accountability to the
country’s financial system and safeguarding the resources of the Somali people,
the President was in a crusade to re-educate her to the African culture of
corruption, the Somali way of Qaataye –Qaado ( I rob and you have your
share)
NGO
CULTURE VS CORPORATE CULTURE
Ironically,
there is an element of truth in the President’s unbecoming expression. Yes,
there was a clash of culture and goals between Abrar and President Mahmoud’s administration.
Abrar, with her extensive experience in western corporations, her goal was to
apply these standards to make the country’s banking system acceptable to donor
nations and to enable the country achieve economic recovery.
“When I accepted this role, I did so
with the interests of the Somali people in mind. Having worked at senior levels
at some of the largest financial institutions in the world, I was looking
forward to the opportunity to lend my skill sets to rebuild the Central Bank
and improve the lives of our people, as the Central Bank is key to the
development of the economy. Undoubtedly, economic recovery is critical to this
recovery from both a fiscal and security perspective,” She wrote in her letter
of resignation.
However, Abrar’s corporate culture, professional perspective and
patriotic goals seemed so alien to President Mahmoud and his underlings who
were trained in the NGOs culture of trickle-down economy, albeit in African
context, to which the late eminent American economist John Kenneth Galbraith
had explained as an approach that emerged during the depression and was also
called “the horse- and-sparrow theory” which
meant: “If you feed the horse enough oats, some will pass through to the
road for the sparrows.” And this is exactly the culture and mentality of the
African politicians and particularly the Somali political elite who practice
the principle of “me first, crumbs for
the rest.”
Strangely enough, even those western educated Diaspora returnees who
serve for the President as ministers and advisors fall into this category.
Writing to me from New York, a friend of mine Dr. Nimo Bokore, had correctly put
this in perspective: “Lately,” she said, “I began to worry about the current
scramble for Somali blood money. Will the elite, the well educated Diaspora men
and their counterparts going back to politics to pay off their mortgages
lead us to nationhood? Or they are just engaged in their own temporary
gain ‘Geel Dhac’?”
It is indeed this Geel Dhac “looting camels” culture of the
Somali political elite that clashed with Abrar’s financial ethics that she learned
in the upper echelons of grand institutions.
This was not
lost on Abrar as she so clearly expressed in her carefully written letter that she
was not worried about the threats she received more than she was worried and
frustrated by the President’s lack of support: “I am the least concerned about
the security threat, but I am truly disappointed that I have not received your
support and leadership on this matter so that I could objectively perform my
duties.”
EXPOSING BUSINESS
OF POVERTY
Since
Abrar’s resignation, the Somali people and indeed the international community
have yet to hear a plausible explanation from President Mahmoud’s government on
the damaging information that came in Abrar’s resignation letter other than pitiful
denials that carry no facts to clear their position.
After many
missed opportunities which led Somalia to become a dangerous place for world
trade and security, the international community decided to give President
Mahmoud and his government a chance regardless of the corrupt and illegitimate
way that he had come to power. With his baby face, ever-present smile, and soft-spoken
style, President Mahmoud has won a certain degree of trust. And due to our
strong longing for a functioning and recognized Somali government, we all ignored
the early voices such as that of the satirical Somali poet and academician Mahmoud
Togane, who warned us against the wolf hiding in Mahmoud’s sheep’s clothing in
an interview he gave a short time after Mahmoud’s election. We also understandably dismissed the sharp criticisms
that Professors, Samatar and Glaydh, leveled against Mahmoud, due to their known
political inclinations.
But
thankfully it took an honest woman like Abrar with no political ambitions of
her own to expose that the president’s pose was not more than a façade aimed at
buying trust.
Whether the
international community heeds Abrar’s wakeup call is yet to be seen. But it is
reassuring to know that Abrar’s resignation had already rattled the donors’
trust. Reuters quoted one senior European
diplomat saying: “What [Abrar's resignation] has done is woken up a lot of
people,” said one senior European diplomat. “The notion that there is a blank
check for Somalia, that's over. There's got to be results for money.”
Well said,
but the Somali people need more than rhetoric and the best thing that could result
from this fiasco is to deposit international aid to Somalia in an escrow
account and to appoint Abrar or a person of her caliber as a financial czar to
oversee the fair distribution of donor funds for the development of the Somali
people.
However, if
the track record of the relations between donor nations and corrupt African
leaders could be taken as an indication, President Mahmoud’s administration
would receive no more than a friendly censure for its behavior. And this
explains why the government doesn’t look shaken by what would have been a
damaging incident to any decent administration.
Nevertheless,
Abrar should have no regrets even if donor nations decide to continue dealing
with Mogadishu government. It will only show once more how much the
international community works hand in glove with corrupt African leaders in
entrenching “the horse- and-sparrow theory”. No wonder that it is often said
poverty is big business.
MISS MANDOSELA:
PRESIDENT ZUMA’S NEMESIS
Elsewhere,
Thulisile Madonsela, a human rights lawyer, equality expert, and South Africa’s Public Protector, is
facing stiff resistance from ministers close to President Jacob Zuma not to
publish her findings in an investigation of renovating the president’s
retirement homewith $30 million.
Miss Madonsela
who has in her record as one of 11 technical experts
who participated in drafting of the final constitution of South Africa in
1994-5, insists that she would go ahead to make the report public regardless.
The
multi-resident estate,
known as Zumaville, which is reported to have underground rooms, medical
facilities, football fields, a theatre, and a helipad, is located in an
impoverished neighborhood. And President
Zuma just like President Mahmoud had the audacity to speak: “passionately
of his inability to sleep peacefully knowing that there are people still living
in shacks in his wealthy nation.”
Now, we can
understand when Abrar laments what she could have done if she was allowed to
capitalize on the momentum she started in gaining the trust of international
financial institutions by saying: “I can only imagine what could have been
achieved provided I had your support to perform my duties objectively. Your
excellency, while I am disappointed by this lack of support, I am more
disappointed for the Somali people who would have benefited the most from these
and future contributions.”
We can
equally understand, if President Mahmoud curses Abrar for not allowing him to
have his own Damujadidville; a clash of two irreconcilable cultures, indeed.
Being the
people’s mules for so long who carried loads on their back and children in
their bosom and belly, while at the same time tilling the land, African women
have come of age and have another burden to carry today; to cleanse the
continent of its corrupt male leaders.
It is reported
that Dr. Kuwama Nakrumah, Ghanian Independence leader and an admired African
hero, once said that the “black man is capable of managing his own affairs”? I
beg to differ with him by saying: “Yes indeed, Mr Nakrumah, the blackman is
capable of managing his own affairs; but his own personal affairs only in
fattening himself, but it is the black woman who is capable of managing the
affairs of the continent and rectifying the historical mistakes that men have
committed against the poor people of Africa.” Viva Yussur, Viva Miss Madonsela,
and viva all conscientious women of Africa.