On 6th April 2009, the then TFG cabinet discussed the issue of continental shelves of Somalia at the request of Minister for fisheries and marine resources Prof. Abdirahman Ibbi. The cabinet listened reports by experts from the United Nation and Norwegian government and afterwards decided to sign the MoU, then passed the issue to the President who met with the experts and endorsed the cabinet’s decision.
It is worth noting that all cabinet ministers were alive at that time and it was before the Shamo blast and the assassination of Minister Omar Hashi.
I am not sure whether all the 39 cabinet ministers attended the session, because I myself was in Nairobi, back from a conference I attended in Botswana.
After the decision by the TFG cabinet and minister, I was called by the then Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid who told me to sign the MoU with Kenya adding that there was a deadline to beat (07.04.2009) which if Somalia misses, it can lose the continental shelf.
The Premier explained for me how they decision was made and when I asked him whether they consulted any legal experts on the issue, he mentioned to me Abdikawi Yussuf- a Somali judge at the International Court in Hague, whom he said was consulted and recommended the signing of the MoU.
I requested the Premier to make a formally written document on the job he wants me to do on behalf of the TFG, in which he agreed