The most reliable and truthful artist was not so wrong, and the day he predicted had come thick and fast. With the help of regional powers, the most relatively able and successful post-collapse Somali prime minister by a mile has been shown the door, not because he was incompetent or got things messed up, or even impeached by Sharif Hassan’s parliament (sorry to say this but Somali parliament is owned by Sharif Hassan), but because he was too successful to the likings of the two Sharifs and their regional backers, including this time round, Yoweri Museveni, the Ugandan president who seems to be firing all shots in this hapless and hopeless country.
Sheikh Sharif and his name sake, Sharif Hassan aka Sakeen, the speaker of parliament, have a complete stranglehold on Somalis in south and central Somalia, and they want to keep things that way i.e. maintain the status quo. This is why regardless of who comes after PM Farmajo Somalis will continue suffering at the hands of these inept and selfish scheming Sharifs so long as they have the support of not Somalis, but our regional enemies, which have now added Museveni in their ranks. Not only did this unholy alliance sack an effective prime minster, but they had drafted whole rafts of proposals and restrictions that will make sure that no future prime minister will work effectively and independently without the big say of his quasi trusteeship.
Among the most notable point in the Kampala Accord and signed rather unfortunately by the two Sharifs and their UN boss, Mr. Augustine Mahiga of Tanzania alongside Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, is this: “The international partners and the Regional Bureau reserve the right to evoke appropriate measures with consequences to ensure compliance with the benchmarks and timelines by the TFIs including the application of appropriate sanctions against spoilers”. Spoilers being Somali politicians who try to lessen the severity of the noose that is being tightened around Somali necks since the collapse of the last Somali government led by late Mohamed Siyad Barre, a man many Somalis would love to see him reincarnated in Mogadishu. This point is also meant to be a forewarning to the future Farmajos that, should they take wrong steps, they will face the sack. A government that is not capable of generating revenue from its home soil due to lack of security is bound to face such inhumane treatment from the so-called international community. This is the fate awaiting every Somali administration that comes after Farmajo so long as the capital remains a war zone, its people killing each other along vicious clannish lines and the President and his companions restricted to Villa Somali and few blocks in Mogadishu.
For the past six months we kept hearing that the two Sharifs were at each other’s throat as their bickering and disputes over every single issue had surfaced in the open throughout the short reign of Mohamed Abdillahi Farmajo’s administration. Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, the president, seemed to be on the side of the Premier, or so we led to believe. The two were seen side by side in a military uniform in the front against the menace of Al Shabaab, where they made remarkable gains in some parts of Mogadishu that no other government in the past had managed to set foot in. What we don’t know was the fact that the two Sharifs, while appeared to be hostile to each other on the outset, were menacingly scheming against Prime Minister Farmjo, who was totally oblivious to the treachery of Sheikh Sharif the president. The two Sharifs may appear to be poles apart but they have one thing in common: cling on to power at any cost. The fact that Premier Farmjo is trying to hang on to power and put his political fortunes on Sharif Sakeen’s men, Somali parliamentarians, is just another futile exercise and a stay of execution just for a short period of time. His fate was already sealed in Kampala and consequently Somalis were denied to see a nationalist government in office for the first time in generations.
A few months back in Dubai hotel, I attended a conference where the subject of discussion was, inter alia, how to save Somalia from its current mess and impasse. The speaker of this meeting was none other than the famous pan Somali nationalist, Dr. Omar Osman Raabi from Djibouti, who predicted more than twenty eight years ago with precision that Somali state will collapse as a result of clan warfare and Ethiopia will seize this opportunity and have a complete hegemony on it. In his speech, with the support of graphical evidence and other relevant data, Dr. Raabi has predicted, once again, that Somalia has less than a few short months to save itself from a total irrelevance and oblivion, referring to the upcoming August deadline for TFG Institutions. He continued and said once the August deadline is reached, the anti-Somali coalition disguised as Somali saviors will take over from there and introduce a form of trusteeship that will give no say to the Somalis in the running of their affairs. Of course one or two tokens will always be handpicked to feature in any future government to give it a Somali face, but shots will be fired by foreigners, mainly by our archenemies Ethiopia and Kenya, both fearing the prospects of any revival in proper Somalia will have on the Somalis living within their country as second class citizens. The honorable doctor was spot on in his predictions twenty eight years ago and I believe he is not of the mark today.
Somalia is on its way into a total irrelevance. Nevertheless, there was also a note of optimism from Dr. Raabi that every time Somalis found themselves in the most difficult situations, saviors emerged from within the community, citing Ahmed Gurey and Sayid Mohamed Abdulla Hassan, among others, as an example. That saviors Dr. Raabi had referred to in his speech may come from the folks demonstrating right now in Mogadishu and elsewhere in the country, but the future for Somalis is as bleak as ever.
Mohamed F Yabarag
Terror Free Somalia and WardheerNews Contributor
E-Mail:myabarag@yahoo.co.uk
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