Hassan Sheikh Mohamud : A President in Search of An Elusive Country

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President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud 


In my life time I have witnessed a country come into being in 1960 with the most hopeful beginning and arguably the best prospects in Africa. Then unravel in a fashion rarely matched in speed, ferocity, destructive impact, and ruinous legacy. 


Of The nine presidents Somalia had since independence, only two presided over a fairly coherent and relatively democratic country. They were the first and second President of the first Republic (1960-1969): Aden Abdulahi Osman and Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke. They were the “First Democrats” in Africa. 


The third President, General Mohamed Siad Barre, seized power by the sword, military coup, in 1969, and left power by the sword two decades later. The General fled abroad, leaving behind a people mired in messy and bloody civil war and a country in ruin. That pretty much sums up the fate and legacy of the Second Republic. 


The last six presidents were in search of a country, the Third Republic. A few thought they had a country when they had only its shadow. And one barely understood the difference between a nation-state and a sovereign void.  It has been a long and treacherous journey. It  has passed its 31st anniversary and no one really knows when or where this peculiar mission ends. 


No one knows this painful history more than the current President, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, the only one elected twice. His second term just began in a situation far worse and immeasurably and invariably messier than where he left off at the end of his first term.   


And he has just four years, a mere blip in the history of statecraft & nation building in the best of times. In the case of Somalia, 4 years are even shorter than a blip. Business as usual is therefore not an option. New and bold ways of thinking and doing business are needed to have a chance to successfully crack this peculiar and long-tailed conundrum of state failure. 


May God bless the new President with the miracle he needs to find, unite and heal his country.


Hassan Keynan


 

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