The editorial’s charge: Said Abdullahi Deni treated Puntland as a launchpad for Villa Somalia, not a state to govern. Cabinet as a chain of command, parliament as an obstacle, regions (Mudugh, Bari, Nugaal, and the rest) run by Garowe instruction. The federal presidential bid exposed the model—allies bought with patronage did not stay when the math changed.

Signs of a softer second act (elder tours, calmer tone, more talk of the Puntland Defense Forces) are called insufficient. Security must serve the law, not the president; budgets and contracts must be public; schools, clinics, water, and jobs must outlast the motorcade.

The deeper vice, the piece says, is loyalty over competence—inexperienced aides who never say no, and an Islah/Hassan Sheikh habit of hierarchy that Puntland has outgrown. Choice: build a real cabinet, parliament, regions, and civil service—or confirm that Puntland was only a platform. It is not a route to Mogadishu or a private kingdom.

Said Abdullahi Deni did not come to Puntland’s presidency to make Puntland stronger. He came to make himself bigger.

For too long, that was the operating logic of his administration. Mogadishu shaped his political imagination and Mogadishu remained the measure of his ambition. Puntland gave him the office, the security structure, the public budget, the political platform and the parliamentary influence needed to pursue national power. Yet he often governed as if Garowe were a temporary headquarters for a future campaign in Villa Somalia.

Puntland was not treated as the mission. It was treated as the machinery.

That is why the first half of Deni’s presidency often felt politically busy but institutionally thin. The cabinet functioned less like a forum for serious collective government and more like an extension of the presidency. Ministers were expected to execute rather than deliberate. Independent judgment became risky. Policy coordination depended too heavily on the president’s immediate circle, while capable officials and experienced political figures were left outside the room.

That is not a cabinet. It is a chain of command.

Puntland’s parliament has too often been treated as an obstacle to manage rather than an institution to respect. A legislature exists to scrutinize budgets, question ministers, investigate failures and force the executive to explain itself. But a government that sees scrutiny as hostility will always prefer........

© Eurasia Review