HornDiplomat: The President-elect of the Republic of Somaliland H.E. Muuse Biihi Abdi, who was elected in the Presidential Election that has taken place on the 13th of November, has had a series of meetings with the different segments of the society and leading experts in several professional fields. These meetings are happening after the President-elect has had meetings with members of Kulmiye’s different branches such as the campaign teams and diaspora. These meetings are also coming at an interesting time when the H.E. Mr. Biihi is busy on forming his first cabinet ahead of his inauguration which is set to happen in the next few weeks.
The in depth subject details of these meetings has not been released by any of the involved parties other than that they were successful, but it’s generally understood that they have followed to road map on the areas the current leaving government ‘come up short’ and the President-elect used as a platform of campaigning, they include: Healthcare, Education and Justice and rule of law.
The President-elect has met with HealthCare professionals and experts at a time when HealthCare of the country is in a really poor condition. Hospitals, Clinics and other HealthCare facilities are compacted in only the big cities, and even most of those in the capital Hargeisa, and completely unavailable in the rest of the country. The HealthCare is also largely privatized, and thus unaffordable to the poor and most of the middle class citizens which makes up the largest portion of the country’s population. Improving the HealthCare system was a major area of campaign in the produced Kulmiye Party Manifesto and with the consultation of these Professionals, the people of Somaliland expect the President-elect to deliver on his promises.
The education system is also an area of concern for many Somalilanders. Even though, the incumbent President and his government has made efforts in improving the education system, most notably being the making of ‘Primary and Intermediate Public schools free’ to make education available and affordable for Somalilanders of all economic classes, the quality of education remains very low. The President-elect has met with Professionals from the Education Sector and some of the owners and presidents of the privately owned universities to discuss the challenges facing the education system of the country and how could solutions be found for the.
A sector in destitute need of reforms is the Justice System of the country. In the campaign, you could see a big posters of the now President-elect photo with the caption of ‘Justice and equality’. The rule of law, equality among the citizens and justice are areas of inproportionate failure of the leaving administration and the challenge of fixing a broken justice system is major challenge for the President-elect and how he carries it out has already has the attention of the people. And to start execute his plans of reforms he has met with Lawyers and legal experts for consultation and other legal experts.
H.E. Mr.Biihi has also met with some of the Traditional elders to discuss on uniting a country divided along clan lines and other important traditional matters.
The people of Somaliland have looked positively at these series meetings the President-elect has been having. They are reassured and remain hopeful that the new administration is going on to make some real positive change.
By: Khadar Mariano, Deputy-Editor-In-Chief of HornDiplomat @Apuntite
Source: HornDiplomat