Leaders of the world and of any country particular play crucial role to achieve real happiness of its people. Educated and capable leader leads his/her people and country to a peace and prosperity, while the cruel, erratic and incapable leader brings people to the world of sufferings and ultimately ruins a country. Leader must not only be educated and experienced but it is important to be an intelligent and sensible to the problems faced by his/her people. Leaders of the government should win the trust of people by being strategically friendly avoiding any kind of provocation or war with allies and must also allow a degree of transparency in the day to day working and the governance of the country.
Somalia's president said Sunday he has dismissed his prime minister for failing to do his job, a move that could threaten peace efforts in the the violence-ravaged African nation.Almost a year ago after President Yusuf fired ex-Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi who resigned after a long feud with the president, it does seem that the Somalis are back to squire one again. Just last week, Somalia's president dismissed his prime minister for failing to do his job, a move that could threaten peace efforts in our violence-ravaged nation; and the following day, nominated new prime minister. With all these erratic leadership behaviors and other behaviors that preceded Mr. Yusuf (like Siyad Bare, Ali Nafto, and Abdiqasim etc). One must wonder and seek the root cause of all these unstable marriages between Somali president, parliament and prime ministers. The following paragraphs, I will try to make sense or at least explore some of the issues that could be attributed some of the rifts between Somali leaders.
Somalia's president said Sunday he has dismissed his prime minister for failing to do his job, a move that could threaten peace efforts in the the violence-ravaged African nation.Somalia's president said Sunday he has dismissed his prime minister for failing to do his job, a move that could threaten peace efforts in the the violence-ravaged African nation.Somalia's president said Sunday he has dismissed his prime minister for failing to do his job, a move that could threaten peace efforts in the the violence-ravaged African nation.Somalia's president said Sunday he has dismissed his prime minister for failing to do his job, a move that could threaten peace efforts in the the violence-ravaged African nation.
Before and after the Italian colonialism, the Somali nation repeatedly failed to produce a strong leadership in each and every level of its government. Somalis have yet to experience a sincere leader that can rise up and lift its people from ground, like Gandhi, Washington, Dr. King and many others did for their people and nations. The Somali people have been unfortunate to have the opportunity to select their leaders, and no one ever gave them the chance to know the qualities that a good leader should have. Throughout the years, the tragedies that the Somali people have endured, no nation in the world have ever experienced; their problems are known in every corner of the globe. The causes of these problems are also well known in our modern world, which are simply problems associated with leadership. People ask all sorts of questions such as why there is not functioning government for 18 years? Why is there civil war? Who is the president of Somalia? Who can fire whom? Well, all of these questions are real questions that need real answers, and its answers lies between leadership and education.
Throughout the history and the biographies of the world leaders, one can not avoid, but notice that every leader in our history had some form of education, whether elected or selected, and before one becomes a leader one must prepared for it, whether thorough schooling or acquiring leadership skills. Before our prophet Muhammad (PUH) was selected to become a messenger of Allah and to carry out the message of all (the Quran), Allah prepared our prophet and thought him how read and write. The very first ayah in the Quran was called iqra, which simply means read. These indicate the importance of acquiring knowledge before one can act as a leader, if Allah decided to teach the prophet before he is allowed to lead the Muslim umah; what Somali people must do before choosing a leader? One must also be prepared before he allows himself to assume any leadership position. Apparently, Somali leaders fail this critical step, instead of educating or preparing themselves, they devote most of their time building tribal/clan loyalties; which in turn produces leadership conflicts that we are witnessing today. It was Mr. Yusuf who chose Gedi and Nur Adde among other qualified Somalis. Why is the president having difficulty finding right or qualified companion? I would suggest that his tribal loyalties and his own decision making skill’s deficit.
It was couple centuries ago, when the 55 delegates who attended the United States Constitutional Convention were a distinguished body of men who represented a cross section of 18th-century American leadership. They were called the Founding Fathers of the USA, all of these men were not from same tribes or clans, but they all had strong educational background, thirty-five of the Founding Fathers were lawyers or had benefited from legal training, and some had also become judges. They all had a true education and knowledge (an education or a knowledge which freed the minds out of tribalism). Again, this shows how important it is that leaders must posses some form of true education, before or if that leadership is intended to succeed. Specially, very critical stage of forming leadership and constitution for a fertile and fragile nation like Somalia. Obviously, Mr. Yusuf fails to possess this true real education. He is still trapped by the ignorance of tribal loyalties, personal hatred, dishonesties and poor judgments.
I think it is a time that the Somali people to think something different. The Somali public deserve better leadership same as the rest of the world, a well-educated and honest leader who puts his/her individual and tribal interest behind the interest of the nation. Not like dictator, illiterate, militarily oriented, tribally minded or/and uneducated leader like those who created and put the Somali people the continuous suffering and the anarchy. Somalis need a real chance of having knowledgeable leader and parliamentarian; it is unfortunate to see that the Somali public to be represented by a bunch hypocrites with no college education, a bunch that can not knowledgably and civilly hold productive discussions.
Nowhere in the world, there is a selected ex-commerce minister that does not know the meaning of trade, balance sheet, fiscal & monetary polices, and there is no speaker of parliament who has no legal training or background. It is a great tragic that the Somali public and the world leaders are relying on such leaders to build and lead a nation. Such individuals, who could not afford to develop or improve their own brains, could not be expected to lift the Somali nation from the current situation. The importance of education in leadership should not be ignored and before all of these individuals should be elected, Somali public must question leader’s qualifications and their abilities to carry leadership duties, not their tribal affiliations. Remember this quote “Good leaders develop through a never-ending process of self-study, education, training, and experience”.
Sakawdin Mohamed
Public Policy Fellow
Sakawdin_00@hotmail.com
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