This week, a people’s revolution is building up in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital city and beyond. Demonstrations have so far taken place in many parts of the country. The Somali Diaspora in Europe, North America, Africa and other parts of world have also or are planning to join the protest against the resignation of Prime Minister (P.M.) Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed aka Farmajo as required by the June 9, Kampala accord signed, to end the political disagreement, between President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan, the speaker of the parliament.
Also, going viral are a growing number of songs, lyrics, poems, and homemade videos mocking the President and the Speaker. These literature carry messages intended to express outrage against the forced resignation of the popular premier. Users of social networking sites like Facebook are forming groups such as One Million Supporters for P.M. Mohamed Abdullahi, and We Support Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo-the Prime Minister of Somalia, which now has nearly ten thousands members. Others are signing online petitions to shore up support for Farmajo. This, to be happening in Somali politics, must be unique, a real novelty indeed.
Forty years ago, another Mohamed walked onto the corridors of power, in the same city, through a bloodless coup on Nov. 9, 1969. His name was Mohamed Siyad Barre. He promised sweeping political, economic and social progress. Mohamed delivered on many of his pledges on the first few years of his administration including writing of the Somali script, improving public infrastructure, creation of light manufacturing industries and standing up to Ethiopia, a neighboring bully and one of the last colonial powers in Africa.
However, ten years of remarkable social and economic development, lasting between 1969 and 1979, was offset by another decade of retrogressive policies characterized by nationalization of privately owned businesses, intolerance to dissent, arbitrary arrests, torture, extrajudicial killings, corruption and nepotism which ultimately led to the ouster of the military regime in 1991.
Both Mohameds were born in parts of Somalia, hail from the same sub-clan of the Darod clan family, both rose to positions of executive power and did so when each had lived almost five decades of their lives, and both were bespectacled.
The contrast can, nonetheless, be any sharper. Barre was a military man by training with no formal academic background and seized power by illegitimate means, suspended the constitution and ruled the country by decree. He almost ruled the horn of Africa nation for life, until a popular rebellion against his reign removed him from power by the bullet, a very unceremonious way to leave office.
On the other hand, premier Mohamed, a civilian with diplomatic experience, was appointed by an incumbent Somali president and approved by the legislature. He then formed a cabinet of meritorious technocrats whose professionalism and integrity was unprecedented and set benchmarks to measure the progress he wanted them to achieve. He instituted accountability and transparency frameworks in his administration, instruments essential to the success of a legitimate authority. He visited not only the frontlines of the current battlefields his administration is engaged in against the rival Al Shabab militia but also Martini Hospital on Feb. 23, where some of the veterans of 1977 war live and he began to pay a monthly pension to those who served their country with honor and were disabled three decades ago, scoring another first for a months-old administration. He became the first premier in ten years to pay active servicemen their well-deserved dues regularly and on time.
Further, Mohamed has called upon the U.N Political Office for Somalia to account, asked U.N. agencies in Kenya to operate out of Mogadishu and the U.N. Security Council to step up support for the African Union Mission in Somalia. Additionally, Mohamed checked on the excesses of the parliament and rejected unnecessary foreign interference intended to micromanage Somalia’s political affairs as exemplified by the boycott of the Nairobi consultative meeting organized, in April 12-13, 2011, by Ambassador Augustine Mahiga, the U.N.’s Special Representative for Somalia.
The quality of Mohamed’s education shows in his work. He has a master’s degree in Political Science from the State University of New York at Buffalo and he called highly educated Somalis to return to help rebuild their country while Barre sent then Somali elites into exile with the fear that they will take over the reins of power if he allowed them to reside in the country.
Mohamed was born in Mogadishu in 1962, seven years before Barre assumed the presidency and had refrained from participating in Somalia’s bloody civil war. While Mogadishu residents chased Barre 20 years ago, they are now protesting to keep Mohamed lead their nation, with two supporters already losing their lives, a demonstration that Somali people need competent, visionary leaders and that clan division is not inbred in the main street’s blood but instigated by politicians who want to cling to power.
Finally, the message the recent protests and the example of these two Mohameds send to Somali politicians, if anything, is that the people reject clan divisions, nepotism, incompetence and corruption. Rather, the Somali people will judge their leaders on sound character, good governance, institution building and the provision of public services. As it appears, premier Mohamed has passed this test. He has demonstrated an exemplary leadership, something that has become a rarity in today’s Somalia and has thus initiated a legacy of fortitude, excellence and heroism against which future Somali premiers will be measured. He, therefore, deserves to lead the nation to a better future for all.
