Jirdeh attributed Northern disaffection to MPs’ false claims and central distance

Evidence

Received Haji Jirde Hussein from Hargeisa, rich merchant, politically close to the NUF [National United Front]. He talked about the situation in the Northern Regions and said that during the last year and a half the prosperity acquired by the population is unprecedented. The discontent of the population is, therefore, a psychological fact connected with the falsity of the members of parliament who invent nonexisting misrule and the distance from the central government of the people who were accustomed to being close to the administration. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 638