Will the New Somalian Prime Minister Lead?

Abdi Sheikh Ahmed has been appointed as the prime minister of the western-backed federal government in Somalia. The country is occupied by over 20,000 U.S.-EU backed troops., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Somalia: Will the new Prime Minister Abdiwali Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed lead?

Posted on December 29, 2013
Mohamed A. Hussein
Mohabdhus@aol.com
December 29th 2013

OPINION

Somali president nominated new prime minister Abdiwali Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed after the previous prime minister Abdi Farah Shirdon Sacid was ousted by the parliament over what they considered lack of performance and corruption, but it was widely known the real reason behind the impeachment of the prime minister Sacid was conflict between him and the president.

It was reported that the disagreement between the president and the prime Minster was based on over the selection of the new ministers after one year of corruption and mismanagement and lack of accomplishing the goal set for the begging of the year.

Somali people were very disappointed because the conflict between the top leaders of the government continued after the Somali government was finally recognized by international community and after the president himself declared that the days of the president and prime Minister fighting is over soon after he was elected.

New prime Minister was approved overwhelmingly by the parliament and so far most of the political analysts and Somali people in general are waiting the government Prime Minister Abdiwali will form before they conclude whether he will lead or not. The answer to that question depends on whether he will nominate some of the previous ministers whom everyone knows are the president’s close friend who were basically responsible for the failure of the previous government.

If this government is about to succeed, the consensus is that new Prime Minister Abdiwali is expected to nominate capable ministers, show leadership and implement constitution; all three activities were what previous government accused to be lacking.

First Prime Minister Abdiwali should nominate capable ministers independently. These ministers should not be included any of the previous ministers who were responsible of the failure of the previous government. It was reported that most of those ministers were selected by the president and list of their names was handed to the previous Prime Minister Sacid to work with.

As result, after one year later, ex-prime minister Sacid realized that most of ministers were loyal to president instead of him. It was reported the day when the conflict between president and prime minister came to light, only three ministers showed in the weekly meeting held by the prime minister while the rest of the ministers were in villa Somalia with the president planning how to oust their boss.

Some analyst already pointed out that president is determined to include some of his friends from previous list into the new cabinets and that is why some critics already pointed out, instead of working on selecting capable ministers for time being, new prime minister is busy working on with previous ministers by visiting Mogadishu seaports and attending event for opening high school in Mogadishu while president is preparing the list of the ministers.

If some of those ministers return to the scene, then the perception would be that this new Prime Minister Abdiwali Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed was given the list of the ministers he should work with by the president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and he may end up in the same situation ex-prime minister Sacid found himself a year later.

Second, new prime minister must show a leadership as soon as his government is approved by the parliament. The previous government was accused that the president was doing the prime minister’s task while the prime minister was acting like a mayor of Mogadishu. There was one time when even the mayor of Mogadishu and the president were attending London conference with international community to discuss how Somalia would move forward while the prime minister stayed behind to attend ceremony held in Mogadishu where it suited by the mayor to attend.

It is all known that the president and prime minister’s task is declared in the constitution and there is no confusion. People who know the new prime minister so far stated that he is a man who has quality of leadership, but like ex-prime minister Ali Gedi said in an interview that he has not deal with Abdiwali as being prime minister yet, but as far as he knows he get that leadership quality. This meaning that knowing the president who likes to act like prime minister, it is doubt full that Abdiwali Ahmed Mohamed will be free to act independently.

Third, the new prime minister should implement the constitution as agreed upon year ago when the transitional government was ended. As soon as transition government was ended, it was reported that the constitution was changed by the president’s group and the words were exchange via media by Somali government and other states which accused that government is trying to centralize the power into Mogadishu.

Right now the whole constitution is in confusion for example, the provisional constitution declares that any two states or more can form a state being part of the federal government. The previous governments with the leadership of the president wasted over one year breaking up jubaland administration, then agreeing to an interim administration consist of three states while the speaker of the parliament urged his home land Baydhabo to form regional administration consist of six states including the three already the government recognized as interim administration of Jubba.

In order to avoid Such a confusion, the government should hold reconciliation meeting where all the stakeholders attend to discuss how to proceed forming emerging states in order to building states from the bottom up. Somali people cannot afford wasting another three years of confusion where everyone interpret the constitution the way suits them.

Somali people have seen the leadership of the president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud for the one year he was running the government as he was the prime minister and the failure as result of that leadership. The only hope of this government to Success depends on the new prime minister, Abdiwali Ahmed Mohamed how he select capable ministers, show leadership skill those who know him said he bosses and clarify constitution and implement it as agreed upon. Within few weeks, Somali people would know whether they are moving forward or returning to the square one.

The Opinion expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Raxanreeb Online editorial policy