Somalia’s new president Mohamed Abdullahi is unique in many ways. He’s probably the only African leader with US citizenship. He was working for the transportation department in the city of Buffalo in New York when he was asked to return to Somalia as prime minister in 2010. And while the usual political infighting led to his dismissal, he got what is considered a rarity in Africa: a second chance, this time becoming the country’s ninth president.
The voting in Somalia is also highly unusual. Having abandoned the idea of holding a one-man, one-vote contest years ago because it would have been impossible to organize, some 14,000 electors, picked on the basis of clans, voted in members of parliament. Then on Feb. 8, the MPs picked a president from among nearly two dozen candidates.
As unique as Abdullahi and the election process are, the voting itself looked very much African. Sources within the parliament confirmed that huge sums of money were paid by some of the candidates and rival presidential candidates accused each other of buying the loyalty of MPs. However, despite the fact that the process was flawed and far from perfect, one must only look at the big picture to appreciate how far Somalia has come. Years of war have resulted in the domination of society and politics by clans, sub-clans and sub-sub clans, and the differing loyalties and rivalries therein.
Abdullahi will have to deal with multiple challenges: the threat posed by the terrorist group Al-Shabab, a looming famine, weak institutions, feuding factions and rampant unemployment in a country where more than 70 percent of the population is under the age of 30.
Abdullahi’s main concern will be the security situation in the country. Although Al-Shabab has been driven out of the major population centers and controls less than 10 percent of the country’s territory, the group remains a potent threat, bombing hotels in Mogadishu and attacking military bases. The regional African Union intervention force, AMISOM, has kept Al-Shabab somewhat in check, but countries that contribute troops are setting deadlines to leave.
The situation is so dangerous that the election was moved to Mogadishu’s Aden Adde International Airport, one of the few secure places in the country, following threats from Al-Shabab and worries about security at the original venue, the Mogadishu police academy.
In fact, the threat from Al-Shabab forced the government to scrap the plan to give each adult a vote. Officials decided that the challenge of securing polling stations across the country of 11 million people was insurmountable.
Apart from security, following two seasons of weak rainfall, the country is experiencing severe drought and the UN has warned of the potential for a repeat of the 2011 famine that killed more than 250,000 people.
Somalis may share one ethnicity, language and religion but up until 25 years ago, Somalia was labeled a failed state, when warlords ousted Siad Barre, then plunged the nation into civil war. In the intervening years, militants took advantage of the political vacuum.
During his time in office, Abdullahi was credited with ensuring that government workers and soldiers were paid on time, cracking down on corruption and helping liberate territories from Al-Shabab. He says he will work to have his country removed from the list of nations whose citizens were - and may yet be - barred from entering the US.
Abdullahi would like to change Somalia’s image from the days of the movie Black Hawk Down and the dragging of the body of an American soldier through the streets of Mogadishu in 1994 as the crowds cheered. He brings hope to the country, which is predominantly Muslim, is a member of the Arab League and is trying to put together its first fully functioning central government in a quarter-century.
