A NATION IN SEARCH OF VISIONARY LEADERS

The international community, having spent millions of dollars on Somali refugees and national peace efforts, is unable to understand what the best solution to Somalia’s volatile situation is. Likewise, Somalis, whether in Somalia or in the Diaspora have no hint as to why their politicians have exhausted all their energies and failed to stabilize their nation that is in such a sorry state. Anyway, Somalia is not the only country to have experienced devastation of such magnitude. Furthermore, peace is always preceded by war and destruction. The world experienced two major world wars; the Vietnam and Korea wars had debilitating effects on life and property; the Cold War took its toll stealthily for fifty years; the fight against colonialism in Africa took the lives of millions; the Balkan wars of the 90s decimated populations that once lived in peace and harmony under strongman Broz Tito; the Rwanda genocide of 1994 has gone down in history books as one of the worst mass slaughter since WWII; Cubans endured fifty years of one-man rule under Fidel Castro in an Island that is only 90 miles off the coast of Florida and millions of poor people die daily due to lack of adequate food while affluent nations dump millions of tons of edible foods. Dictatorship is strife in many parts of the world; refugees remain vulnerable in Asia and Africa; human rights violations, rampant corruption, ethnocentrisms, and disparities in education remain commonplace even in the most powerful democratic nations.

So, when will Somalia settle and pick up the pieces? The answer to that lies with the so-Somali called leaders who continue to hold this tiny nation of nomads, ransom. Somalia is a poor country with abundant unexploited agricultural and mineral resources. Peace, education, the right technology and expertise are the requirements for rebuilding ramshackle Somalia. The suffering and destitution we currently see in the eyes of the dying millions can be overcome only when the hypocrites who are holding Somalia ransom either concede defeat or find the middle ground for the good of the war-wary peace loving citizens. Somalia’s cold-blooded leaders have assured security detail manned by ruthless underpaid trigger happy youth driven by vague orders and mind altering drugs. These bogus leaders have kept their children out of harms way and enrolled them in first-rate educational institutions. These children are the most fortunate of all the kids of Somalia as they live hassle-free lives in the Middle East, North America, and Asia as far as Oceania.

Somalia lacks effective and visionary leaders with the credentials of a director, facilitator, producer, mentor, and even broker. These are the roles required of modern leaders. The men who hold the reins of power in Somalia are first and foremost semi-literate colonels trained in the former Soviet Union and member states of the former Warsaw Pact. Thus, their communistic receptiveness coupled with fascistic mentalities are out rightly irrelevant or inapplicable to a nation that experienced only nine years of democracy and civil administration. It is a requirement for a leader to have strong will and total commitment to piece together a fractured nation like Somalia. Tribal worship, failure to abide by the constitution, and total disregard for law and order are the major causes of the political instability destabilizing Africa’s only homogeneous race. The President failed to broker peace during his tenure of office; he failed to unite his bloated parliament; he failed to facilitate the day to day running of the highest office of the land; above all he has not produced any tangible results nor partaken in serious deliberations aimed at pacifying the crippled state. Instead, he has become famous for hiring and firing Prime Ministers at will without parliamentary consultations or without following the formalities established by law.

The office of the Prime Minister has been rendered worthless and reduced to a one-time-use personal dispensation of the President. Though Abdullahi Yusuf is not the first President to thrust his nose into the office of the Prime Minister, past interim Presidents also applied similar tactics and other overly draconian modalities. Surprising as it may seem, as I write this article, Somalia has two Prime Ministers. As dark clouds shroud Somalia’s political landscape, out of the ordinary compelling issues in need of immediate interventions continue to erode the nation’s social fabric. There is a humanitarian disaster lurking in the internally displaced camps and refugee centers in neighboring countries; piracy along Somalia’s coastlines has left the world in utter shock; the heavily armed Al-Shabaab faction is emerging unrestrained; assassinations, premeditated murders, and rape of young girls and women is a thorn in the eye and seemingly hard to contain without a functioning central government.

Putting an end to Somalia’s protracted civil war lies not in the hands of the current Transitional Federal Government but is one that calls for the concerted efforts of the United Nations, the incoming President of the United States, the Arab Union, IGAD member states, the African Union, and donor nations. Leaving Somalia’s problems to Somalis is like leaving vultures wrestle over the decaying and disgusting flesh of a dead animal. In reality, Somalia is a failed state begging to be salvaged through compromise and reconciliation by those vested with authority. Applying unreserved judiciousness will help avert another decade of killings, maiming, rape, piracy, plunder, and highway robbery.

Who is to blame for Somalia's destruction?

Let's explore Somalia's past to expunge deeply and deduce some hints as to the cause of the 17 years of indiscriminate killings, displacements, failed reconciliation conferences, deliberately imposed imperialism and occupation, warlordism, plunder, and exodus of our people from their land.


It is common for humans to point fingers at others for their predicaments and failures. Was Somalia's failure as a state engineered by foreign powers and malodorously cantankerous Somali individuals whose aim was to impose hegemony and create discord for selfish gains? If that is what you believe, then, it is my strongest conviction that you are wrong beyond reasonable doubt.


When a nation disobeys Almighty Allah by employing immorality to speed up its immaterial selfish aims and objectives, then, the resultant expectations as admonished in the Glorious Qur'an and scriptures that preceeded it, is divine destruction that does not differentiate the pious from the sinner.


"If ALLAH were to hasten to people the evil they defy Him to pronounce upon them, as they hasten in asking for good, their doom would have been determined already. But we leave those in rebellion, who do not look to the encounter with Us, in their insolence, wandering blindly on". Qur'an. Surat Yunus: 11


Somalis have acrimoniously copied the evil doings of the people of Ad, Thamud, Iram, Aikat etc. to an extent sermons from mosque pulpits fell on deaf ears as majority became engrossed in UnIslamic acts and Satanical contracts that continuously pilfered through all sectors of society.


How often have you reflected the negative practices of our nomads selling milk in the streets of our major towns and villages? One thing I've noted is that the steatopygous pastoral Somali girl or woman whose day started at dawn to venture out to the milk selling business strolls backbreaking kilometers loaded with heavy milk containers with one thing in mind: to lure and cheat town dwelling customers with contaminated milk diluted with water or powdered milk. The deceits they applied were so intricately rehearsed to the detriment of the unsuspecting customer and herself. With two milk containers by her sides, the unsuspecting customer is given pure milk from a container reserved for tasting while the ultimate transaction implies a separate container with diluted milk. These loquacious milk sellers were known to swear until they exhausted their energies. Unfumigated Bibitos and unhygeinic restaurants played a great role selling diluted milk.


The most destructive business ventures that brought Somalia to her heals could be found among shops and butcheries that manipulated the scale and the balance. Butchers sold meat with tremendous speed and drive because lack of refrigeration meant disaster for their business undertakings as meat is known to perish within hours without preservation. Deceitfully selling ligaments, tendons, glands, and bones instead of steak left customers utterly disgusted and outrageous. The speed at how they dislodged the weight before it came to the right position and the removal of some vital parts from the balance meant customers were getting leap service. Another debilitating anecdote was how produce farmers sold their products.


Sesame sellers splashed water on to sesame seeds so they could generate more weight and cash money for their products when sold in the market in retail or wholesale. Sesame seeds are visibly lighter and absorp water profusely. Grains sellers employed scoops with bulging bases for purchases whereas when selling the scoops had upward punched bottoms.


The proliferation of prostitution conglomerates in the city of Mogadishu saw sprouting of brothels flourish in all suburbs with girls as young as fifteen becoming targets for officials and business magnates stashed with cash meant to lure them. Government officials emptied state coffers through malpractices; military officers hoarded provisions meant for their juniors, promotions were not based on merit but on favoritisms and tribal affiliations; foreigners played seek and hide games in attempts to fulfill their sexual desires; qaad sessions bloomed with middle-aged women known as xusul baruur acting as go-betweens or playing the pimping mistress roles; the consumption of marijuana and alcohol became unregulated and uninterrupted; for women to attract men they resorted to outfits known as iga-dhex-arag or see-me-through while others went about their businesses in western styles including skirts, trousers, T-shirts and shorts, they wore make ups, heads were uncovered; barbers welcomed all sexes in their evil haircut adventures; cinema-goers watched explicit movies while video dens played pornographic contents even for school children and lastly but not least smaller tribes felt the excruciating pain of stratification and marginalization.


Mosques became abandoned leaving religious leaders speechless. The dice had been cast and Somalia's predominantly Muslim nation was headed for destruction with the formation of guerilla movements up north where its leaders were devising ways of overthrowing the corrupt government.

Despite trouncing the junta that ruled Somalia for twenty-one years, leaders of the guerilla movements who were themselves driven by revenge further plunged the already morally corrupt nation in to tribal divisions leading to the genocide of defenseless civilians including women and children. The strong stuck to their guns, academia left the country enmasse, and the leaders of Ethiopia jostled for influence and occupation.


In conclusion, having unearthed some of Somalia's past wrongdoings, I beseech the reader to dissuade pointing fingers at others and kindly reflect the propensity of immorality that was Somalia before its initial collapse.