Somalia lost hope under Farmajo

Farmajo, a dual Somali and U.S. citizen who was a New York State bureaucrat, was elected in 2017 as president of Somalia, this will forever be etched in the minds of Mogadishu residents with a chronology of events that nearly destroyed their hops for a better future with a sense of frustration and hopelessness.

Ever since, Somalia continues to be in a state of limbo, between its aspirations and the reality it finds itself in, proclaiming several politically correct terminologies to describe the political state of the country, which differ from the actual situation on the ground.

The country’s current problems include economic collapse that the country has failed to recover from, systematic failing of the institutions and the state apparatus, and continued insecurity of foods and security.

Efforts made at the beginning of Farmajo's term brought hope that the country will overcome its dysfunction and disorder. But the efforts were not in good faith and were rather another attempt of a select group of people seeking power and self-enrichment.

There is also a lack of pointed addressing of the specific demands that contemporary Somalia has. These efforts didn’t yield any results but increased the drifting apart of member states and further division and confusion created by the many heads of states in the country.

Farmajo's policies took a toll on the country as a whole, and access to the most basic services such as healthcare and security are either nonexistent or outsourced. There’s no infrastructural development planned for roads and other necessary amenities.

This created the perfect excuse for foreign states and powers to permanently involve themselves and interfere with Somali affairs, and this remains the case today. In particular, Qatar and Turkey each with their specific agendas and viewpoints on Somali political and national matters.

This increasing involvement of foreign influence is creating further instability in the country and the region as a whole. Somali matters can only be dealt with by Somalis on their own and at their home domestically, without foreign influence.

In any functioning democracy, the law of the land is the constitution, the rules set by and for the people. However, in Somalia, the lack of reverence for the constitution under Farmajo means it cannot be a well-functioning democracy.

The elite of the society who are in the best mental constitution to change the adversities of the country have unknown targets on their backs, leading to a deficit of competent and capable qualified leadership. This vacuum is filled by the least competent individuals, who aim to garner influence and attention.