Maybe finding a solution through dialogue and breakthrough solution with Somaliland first, could help changing the status quo in Mogadishu.

Somali people have been entertained with the notion of diplomatic talks between Somaliland and Somalia since 2012. It’s a dead end road, neither side is serieus on the talks, has actually anything to gain from it clearly and neither have a technical agenda of what they want to achieve with these talks, except entertaining the public.

Listen to this TEDx talk on lessons from dozens of civil wars studies throughout the world. Main extraction is that Leadership, Diplomacy and institutional design are the main pathways for Peace to ending conflict. And what happens in Somalia to end the conflict, its completely the opposite; -Leadership: Solution is sought in the same kind of ‘strong men’ that were the cause of the conflict in the first place, rather then reflecting what went wrong and what kind of leadership is needed that can pull the country of the conflict. -Diplomacy: Diplomacy is declared dead, with politicians consistently calling for more fighting and violence, language of diplomacy is nowhere to be seen by using blatantly harsh words that bring one another closer, rather then seeking unifying commonalities between larger groups, one mentions publicly divisive sub-clans and other actions that further widen the gap and polarize. -Institutional design: Instead of addressing the root causes of the Somali conflict (widening gap of social and economic inequality’s) through institutional design of the state and public goods, one center’s the whole conflict and institutional design around federalism and regionalism, as if the Regions of Somalia were in war with eachother. And rather then narrowing and addressing the distance between the leaders and the people, what do we do, the new ruling elite take seat in the same palace on top of the hill that is Villa Somalia, as if nothing happened in the 30 years of conflict. And then one is completely startled when they see how easily poor soldiers and poor villagers are being rallied to raid and attack Villa Somalia with AK’s and mortars by disenfranchised officers, politicians cq Warlords, Shababi’s, Foreign countries and whoever is willing to rally them to bring down the elite’s from their palace, as they are only witnessing another elite in power that is so self consumed with self enrichment, in their own little palace with their own little games, and have absolutely no impact or added value whatsoever for the people in the country. The little bit of NGO and donors aid reaching the people in the villages throughout the country, have and will provide a bit of aid and food support anyway, irrelevant of the elite’s in their palaces.

Interesting, wondering what your definition is of democracy?

Every self respecting autocrat has a ally who is obedient to him, and that he can move forward to occupy the big chair with him on the background as the puppet master. You are saying that Roble has a chance of getting elected with Farmajo’s support, then let him make way for Roble. Alternative is that he remains on collision course for disaster, even he realizes this by now with this excuse article of ‘don’t blame me for the upcoming disaster’.

This is a major and positive development for Somalia, let’s hope they utilize it for the good of the people.

Coastal town are not appropriate to be the seats of the government. Tanzania, Benin, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, all moved their capitals/Seats of government from Coastal cities to cities in the interior. Besides coastal cities tend to form fertile ground for extremist from Pempa(Mozambique), Mombasa (Kenya), Malindi, all the way to Basaweyne, Banadir and Bosasso. You don’t want to move from Mogadishu to Barawe, without actually analyzing the underlying factors here.

If Farmaajo’s is really sincere on his agenda and arguments here, then he should take a step back and support an ally to become President that continues his political agenda. And cut down on the narcissistic and ego driven belief that he is the chosen one and only he can fix the job. And that the choice is between him or anarchy. I don’t see any otherway for his political legacy to continue and leaving the job untarnished.

SYL as a political party may have underestimated the pluriformity of political voices in the country.

The thread subject is, An international body (IGAD) is hiring an external expert to support writing and develop the policies of the country and government? Hasn’t this been the rule rather then the exception?

The issue is not who is better than who, despite what earlier posters were trying to insinuate. The issue is that we seem to be in a vicious cycle of polarizing debates tainting analysis, and fueling misunderstanding of our own context and dynamics. Yes pastoral nomadic culture can be highly competitive with constant friction, due to scarcity and insecure access to water and pasture land that can turn to violent conflicts. But at the same time, they used to have traditional governance system with traditional leaders and customs that facilitated peace and reconciliation in pastoralist communities. Both pictures are highly contrasting, but it has worked for thousands of years and kept the balance. Was it not for that our traditional system being highly weakened, neglected and undermined, resulting to the Somali leadership one sidedly being populated with ‘waranles’(fighters and warmongers) without finding a place for ‘nabadoons’(peacemakers and mediators), significantly eliminating the capacity of the Somali people to manage and prevent conflict and criminality. Modern forms of governance and state authorities that we have adopted, has only exacerbated this problem, without providing a platform for the traditional mechanism and governance that Somali’s so direly need to resolve friction, disputes and conflicts. We have thrown away that what has worked for thousands of years for our people, without having an alternative to replace it bringing us to our current situation of never ending cycle of disputes and conflicts accumulating without any of them being actually resolved.

Aside from clan, please also take in to account that certain communities are largely agro‐pastoral whereas others are largely nomadic with distinctively different cultural, linguistic, social structures and political cultures. And fact is that Somali political culture might have been largely influenced by Nomadic communities where competition for hegemony is inherently part of the socio-cultural dynamics . Meaning that the ‘game’ of politics played in Mogadishu might be closer to the Nomadic game of ‘geel dhac’ of Mudug and than the agro-pastoral game of ‘istunka’ as played in Wanlaweyn and environments, despite the proximity of one another to Mogadishu.

Che, are you denying Somali kinship to the Rendille?

Kudos to the Professore!

Mogadishu is a great city, and the more reason you would want to keep it a Capital, but need try to regain it’s commercial and touristic significance on the Indian Ocean again. And remove the dirty politics and politicians from Mogadishu by moving the Seat of Government to a new location to be developed somewhere in the hinterland, somewhere on the border between the Nomadic Pastoralist and the more-Pastor-Agrarian communities, somewhere between the Maay and Mahaa Tidhi dialect speakers, somewhere in the middle of it all, somewhere where people are versed in clan and clan politics, in war and peace, somewhere between Hiiraan and Mudug regions.

The Capital doesn’t necessarily have to be also the Seat of Government. Many countries with less troubles have re-located their Seat of Governments. Funny thing is that African countries tend to move their Seat of Governments away from the coast to the hinterland. Coastal cities are much more suited for trade and tourism. I am sure Mogadishu residents must be fed up with politics dominating their daily lives, trade and traffics for that matter. Mogadishu could really flourish as a Capital with Commercial and Touristic centre, without politics polarising and paralyzing people’s daily lives. It’s common sense. And last point, one can also develop a new locality for the Seat of Government, it doesn’t have to be an existing City. And lastly, If small towns as Adado, Dhuusamareeb and Garowe, can be developed in to bustling towns, why not a new Town that becomes the seat of government, preferably in the hinterland and not on the coast. We don’t want the politicians and civil servants to enjoy themselves to much or pre-occupy themselves to much with coastal or ‘makhirian’ games. Could this work?

A Professor who is a US citizen based in the States, is accusing another US citizen, who also comes from the US and whose family is based there where he soon will returning to, of not being a Somali Patriot (Wadani). The irony.

Is it the same Rashid Abdi, who is on trial for treason?

Don’t think it will happen. PM Roble is to kind hearted and not power hungry. Parliament won’t remove him like they did with his power hungry predecessors.

It seems that the riverine states of South-West and Hirshabbele, are the dealbreakers. That’s a game changer, could this lead to the new President and PM coming from those corners?

Chairman Faisal is currently the second longest serving Somali politician. He has held a political office and position for the last 22 years, since 1999 straight without interruptions. Only President Ismail Omer Guelleh of Djibouti has been longer in a political position. Point being, don’t underestimate Faisal. So his many ‘turns’ or ‘twists’ has clearly kept him in the game, and outlive many others politically. p.s. this is not support for his comments, just stating that it clearly serves a purpose.

MMA, If the election process in Somalia was clear to everyone, there would be no fertile ground for creating “been abuur” as you are claiming. But fact remains election process is not clear, election date has not been set or clarified and many assume that it’s not a fair process either. Otherwise there would be no need to announce boycots by regions who have always so far enthusiastically participated in Somalia’s Political Election process. Could you react to that pls? And also pls explain to us why we are not seeing progression in terms of process clarity in 2021, compared to earlier processes. Shouldn’t one have learned, improved and showed progression from earlier times? What is the cause of this regression in political power play? Where is this heading to?

MMA, the topic is arbitrary arrest. Your personal dislike for Somaliland isn’t really relevant for the discussion. What is your take on this subject? And is this something only happening in Somaliland, or is it also common practice across the region in Somalia, Djibouti, Kenya or Ethiopia? And if so, what effects does it have on the people’s? On the other efforts to create a region based on adherence to law and order and who’s people and government are law abiding? What image of the region will arbitrarily arrests create to the rest of the world, will it portray and create a sense of confidence, sense of trust and sense of security?

To date It’s been 100 years since Sayid Cabdalle Hassan historic movement and legacy, and he entered the history pages. Even the westerns still remember him and mention him in publications and historic documentaries like this one here, why don’t we Somali’s do that?