countries, cultures, religious and languages. Somali was led by democratic and humble leaders including H.E. Adan Osman and H.E. Abdirashid Sharmake since they were elected as a head of state in democratic way which is the process of free and fair election (One man one vote). Somalia has many resources including uncountable fishes since Somalia has the largest coast in Africa, mineral resources but lack of human resources.
Somalia has many challenges including:
Devastated war: Since the collapse of Somali government led by H.E. Gen. Mohamed Siyad Barre in 1991, the Somali government itself and its people had met many confronts such as displacement, killing of civilians, Religious leaders, elite, educators and intellectuals including political experts, skilled diplomacies, Military experts, National Heroes, Lawyers, Medical and Surgery Doctors, distraction of physical capitals especially the basic infrastructure such as roads, historical buildings, hospitals, Military and Police Camps and hospital, the international law and international human rights law had not respected, according to The Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of August 12, 1949, Art, 13 and 32 says Civilians are to be protected from murder, torture or brutality, and from discrimination on the basis of race, nationality, religion or political opinion; but this war was has not respected none of this and this war was led by warlords whose most of them had none of the idea of respecting the above mentioned words meanwhile some of them were political spoilers and Gen. Barre’s regime gave them political exile.
Destruction of religious and culture: Every nation on the earth has its own culture and religious which deserves to respect and protect any misuse and damage from anyone since it is the backbone of the nation but Somalia had missed these two main important points and according to my view I’m obviously believe these two destruction are the main causes of this unending war
Illegal immigration and refugees: Somali nationals especially the young generations including the university students are fleeing from their country through illegal immigration and thousands of them are dying every day in desert, Mediterranean Sea and other continues incidents, the rest of these people who survived from these harmful things when they reached in Europe most of them had never and will never come back to their homeland because of so many things including disappoint caused by jobless and hopeless of their homeland. However, this we call national tragedy or national disaster.
Lack of good leader: Somalia had met lots of different presidents since 1993 most of them were elected outside Somali soil apart from the current president H.E. Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud who is the only leader elected in Mogadishu Somalia after the democratic elected President H.E. Dr. Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke in June, 10,1967 without direct intervention, all of these leaders in this chaos time including the current president H.E. Mohamoud were not really get a solution or even mitigate the ongoing problem and had lost the moral and hopefulness of the Somali people meanwhile they had political struggle between them especially the two higher position leaders such as president and his prime minster which is unfortunately in a country’s leaders to be interest orient in a such country where there is no functional administration, social services including security, education, health, clean water and other basic needs expecting from the government.
Lack of human resources: Somalis have called one of the most open minder people in the world in terms of hardworking, honesty, quick understand and adaptation of work and also ability of long time working but now all of these are nonsense because they have not utilize their resources they fled from their country and went to other country where its population or citizens have developed.
Apart from these entire why Somalia has not yet stabilized?
The stabilization process has never come true and successful until the following has stopped:
Foreign interventions: Somalia got its independence while most of African states did not get their independence but after lost the Somali central government in 1991 Somalia has faced many different interventions politically, economically, socially, legally, culturally and many more because of Somalia was one of the greatest country in Africa but now it’s nothing no military to defend, no educator nationalist leaders to defend and other countries did not respect the Somali sovereignty.
For instance, during the last elections after the collapse of Somali central government Somalis did not get a time to elect who they want and even the elected president cannot nominate his cabinets unless the neighborhood states will accept and later approve, anyone they don’t want will not be part of the cabinet which is unacceptable and tragedy to Somali as a sovereign state, in other incidents whenever it comes a political misunderstanding between the central government such as president and the prime minister the neighbor countries intervene the issue which is not their role to do such actions to independent and sovereign country and also they are not intervene mediating in a good way but they are looking for their interest and they call the two big persons to their countries as they are their ambassadors they are recalling as to consult instead of coming together as a sovereign Somali leaders in a table to negotiate and make a compromise to their civilians. .
Bad leader: Somalia has lost their chance to rebuild and take through in the process of reconciliation because of bad leader, for example when there is a will in Somali political context immediately the political between the higher positions will come soon and hinder the government’s vision and mission and also disappoint the Somali communities, international communities, AMISOM and other sate and non actors and who supports directly or indirectly to Somalia want to see Somalia get back to its dignity in international arena.
In most cases the world leaders look for and defend the national interest of their country and protect anything facing their country as weaken which is one of the characteristics of quality leader but Somalia has lost such leader who sympathetic and kindly to his country and his citizens which shows the Somali leaders do not have the quality of leaders and they don’t deserve to lead such as country in civil war, fragile and underdeveloped.
Corruption: this is the evil of government institution that may finally collapse totally the government institutions and make the state failure state. As seen before and now Somalia has many different types of corruption which has negative impact we recognize including:
• Political corruption which is the use of powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain.
• Corruption in public administration that results in the inefficient provision of services. It violates a basic principle of democracy regarding the centrality of civic virtue.
• Economic corruption that’s why Somalia remains the most corrupted state in the world
• Somali leader’s corruption undermines democracy and good governance by flouting or even subverting formal processes in Somalia.
• Corruption in elections and in the legislature reduces accountability and distorts representation in policymaking; corruption in the judiciary compromises the rule of law.
Suggestions:
Implementation of Federalism system: This word of federalism describes a system of government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and constituent political units (such as states or provinces). Federalism is a system based upon democratic rules and institutions in which the power to govern is shared between national and provincial/state governments, creating what is often called a federation. So far Somalia almost has some of autonomy states those are members of federal government but it needs to implement in the way it is written in interim Somali constitution.
• Promotion of good governance: The concept of good governance shows the responsibility of governments and governing bodies to meet the needs of the masses as opposed to select groups in society and also it moving parts to compare ineffective economies or political bodies with viable economies and political bodies, also could allow people to take part in decision making process by elite people through representation of the rest of the society since the Somali leaders and their colleagues take decisions in a locked house without asking and consulting anyone outside their group and it is one of the major challenges to Somali politics to forward. This idea of good governance can imply many different things in many different contexts such as:
• Respecting of Somali sovereignty: All the Somali interveners shall respect the sovereignty of Somalia as mentioned Article 78 of UN Charter which says the trusteeship system shall not apply to territories which have become Members of the United Nations, relationship among which shall be based on respect for the principle of sovereign equality.
• Tribalism: especially the idea of 4.5, this idea of 4.5 based on clan authorities and numbers which represent some of Somali clans are less power (Minority) while others are powerful (Majority) although Somalis are Muslims 100% believing the Holly Qu’ran and in Holly Qur’an People are same but they are different in terms of their faith, 4.5 is one of the issues that escalating the Somali destabilizing and even increases the creation of Islamic Militants.
• Consensus Oriented and Participatory
• Following the Rule of Law
• Effective and Efficient
• Accountable and Transparent
• Responsive, Equitable and InclusiveRespecting and protecting of religious and historical and traditional Somali culture: The culture of Somalia is a combination of traditions in Somalia that were developed independently and through interaction with neighboring and far away civilizations, including other parts of Northeast Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, India, and Southeast Asia. The culture of Somalia is based on Islamic perspectives which are all about brotherhood and sharing everything. However, the Somali culture and their religious identity are go together in terms of respecting, integrity, honest, fairness, mercifulness, respecting of personal dignity and values as human being created by Allah as same yours but all of these seems to be lost and they need to re-build and protect not to eliminateCreating employment opportunities to young Somalis who are running their country to Europe and dying every day in that way. As to protect this disaster Somalia needs to:
• Respecting of personal strength and knowledge instead of respecting what he was and where he is from, this always happen when it comes Somali general elections and it based on 4.5 which is a Somali tragedy, not only my view but the most of Somali community believes that if the president, Speaker and the Prime Minister comes to his position in process of qualify leader in condition of his experience, commitment, compromise, knowledge and understanding of the current socioeconomic and political dynamics of Somalia. However, this will help Somalia to get solutions to repeated challenges always comes from the side of the Somali leaders.
• Promotion of Democracy: Many of Somali population believe that Somali will hard to implement the idea of democracy and many more believe it could be very easily to implement by taking examples of what Somalia had met before the military coup which was the first African country elected their leaders in most free and fair general elections in Somalia which was very rare and hard to take such actions in young state which took their independence not a long time ago. Therefore, Somalia need to go back their past events and history as democratic state and promote their country’s democracy.
• Coordinate and coherent policies to generate inclusive job opportunities.
• Develop capacity building and skills development policies to increase the employability of workers, the competitiveness of enterprises and the inclusiveness of growth.
• Establish policies and programmes to promote sustainable enterprises and entrepreneurship.
The Author of this article is Abdirahman Dage Abdirahman Ahmed Farah also known as Dage, is a Somali educator, He has Master degree of International Relations at Kampala international University in Uganda.
Abdirahman is currently working at Somali Red Crescent Society (SRCS) as a project officer for integrated community resilience. He is also lecturer of East Africa University Garowe campus.
Email: cdage50@gmail.com
Skype: Abdirahman.farah62
Facebook: Abdirahman Farah