Former Minister Says He And Somaliland’s Government Habitually Lied To The Public

Former Minister Says He And Somaliland's Government Habitually Lied To The Public

London, UK, December 26, 2009 (SL Times) – The former minister of industry, Muhammad Suleiman Weyne said to a gathering of Somalilanders in Bristol, UK, that when they laid a cornerstone for a new cement factory in Berbera they were play acting, and that they were deliberately misleading the public and had no intention of building such a factory. He described it as all part of the lies that they were telling the public for the last twenty years.

When someone says they lied before, it always raises the question well, if he lied before, is he lying now too, or is he telling the truth. But from circumstantial evidence, there is good reason to believe that Muhammad Suleiman Weyne was indeed lying when he was a minister, as many people suspected, and is telling the truth now, which is a damning indictment of President Dahir Rayale and his government.

To make the situation worse, Muhammad Suleiman Weyne's did not make his confessions because his conscience bothered him or anything like that but in order to ingratiate himself with UCID party. Obviously, it is in UCID's interest to distance itself from such a self-confessed and unrepentant liar. This episode confirms the corruption and deep cynicism that pervades the highest levels of Somaliland's government and provides good reason for why Somalilanders are correct in not accepting at face-value the claims and pronouncements of President Dahir Rayale Kahin and his ministers.

Somaliland Times