Farmaajo, worst president of Somalia

On the brink of loosing Mogadishu to opposition, Somalia's president Muhmmad Abdullahi Farmajo is running out of options and could exit as one of the worst presidents in the history of Somalia.

Somalia’s capital Mogadishu is once again on the brink of cataclysm caused by recent violent clashes between security forces loyal to the incumbent President and forces loyal to the opposition since the Lower House of Parliament’s decision to extend the president’s term by two years on April 12th, 2021.

Critical players in the current crisis have added pressure on the government, urging it to protect the country’s democratic transition by asking parties to embrace dialogue and implement the election agreement of September 17th, 2020.

While the proximate causes of the current conflagration in Somalia are the failures by the government to effectively prepare and hold democratic elections, and the decision by the Lower House to extend the government’s mandate, Farmaajo’s role in engineering this crisis cannot be overstated.

Amid a plethora of proximate triggers, the role of President Farmaajo in instigating the current crisis for political expediency has been notable. The desire to overcome the “one term presidency curse”, which befell his predecessors, made him turn towards authoritarianism, ultimately pushing Somalia to the tipping point.

Aware of his declining popularity and the uncertainty of Somalia politics, Farmaajo’s first insurance policy was to undertake authoritarian capture of state institutions and political processes as soon as he was sworn into office.

First, he appointed his campaign Chief, Fahad Yassin, as the Head of Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) and made him his political hitman. He politicized the security sector and used it against political opposition and federal member states opposed to his ‘recentralization’ agenda, exposing the country to increased insurgency from the al-Shabaab militant group.

Second, it was parliamentary control, which was initiated by a “parliamentary coup” against the former Speaker of the Lower House, Mohamed Osman Jawari, who was forced to resign in April 2018, to pave the way for the pro-Farmaajo parliamentary faction to control the House.

Farmajo’s attempt to extend his term is the proximate cause for the current crisis, and it builds on years of attempts at power consolidation that ultimately weakened centre-periphery relations and undermined institutional building