THE FOLLY OF THE SOMALI GRAND CLAN CONVENTIONS

[Deeq A.]

Mogadishu — The Grand Convention recently concluded in Mogadishu for a Somali clan was more interesting for more reasons than the statement of the Former Interim President Ali Mahdi Muhammad, who stole the show with his sabre-rattling. He said that his gun “is still loaded” and he would not hesitate to use it if his call for a good government is ignored.

The one-time ruler of North Mogadishu sees parallels between 2020 and 1990, when he was an influential businessman and a fierce critic of the military dictatorship. It is not only Ali Mahdi’s unguarded remarks that threw a spanner in the works during the Convention.

Two former Somali Presidents, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Sharif Sheikh whose political parties drive the Forum for National Parties agenda, attended and delivered speeches at the Convention. Have they given up on the votes of other Somali clans when the two former Presidents throw their weight behind a return to 1990s warlordism-based politics? They have shed any commitment to a multiparty system where ideas matter more than clan identity.

Ali Mahdi Muhammed: My gun is still loaded

Participants were supportive of a return to indirect elections based on 4.5 twenty years after it was introduced in Djibouti, where a reconciliation confrence for Somalis was held. It was a power-sharing formula cooked up in Mogadishu to assign more political power to clans with armed militias on the one hand and to institutionalise a warlord’s way of ruling a fiefdom.

The 4.5 formula was the basis for five elections held since 2000. It stands for the marginalisation of Somali clans whose lack of involvement in the civil war is the justification for the continued political and economic subordination that Fifth Clans suffer. What Ali Mahdi Muhammad said at the Grand Clan Convention in Mogadishu is a reminder that one person can hijack the agenda to make incendiary remarks for publicity reasons.

The Somali pastoral democracy is not all that it is cracked up to be. Political aspirants may be put under pressure to seek support from or show solidarity with their clansmen and clanswomen when forming a coalition based on ideas and the national interest could be the right strategy.

Equality of opportunity, appointment based on merit, accountability at all levels — central and federal states — are core ideas that can underpin any political programme. If those themes dominate a clan’s confrence politicians will be able to make the impression that they are doing their bit to nurture and further develop political processes for a country still grappling with the impact of state collapse and predatory politics.

By Issa Sheikh Dayib

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