Since the independence in 1960 and even later during the military rule in Somalia, the political elites were seen as a national figure with responsibility and legitimacy to some extent in the public views. As the politicians and their views was all about pan-Somalism and the idea of Greate Somalia, self-sufficiency, sovereignty as well as unifying all Somali people and their missing territories under one flag and one big state in the horn of Africa.
However, following the collapse of Barre’s military regime in 1991, Somalia’s political leaders lost that national vision of unity and pan-Somalism. Current politicians became more centrifugal; clannish and self-serving. Due to the political landscape after the civil war, the political situation of the country decentralized dramatically. As ideas of clan politics, clan territories and clan government and clan president emerged. The political system of Somalia in this era transitioned from being controlled by clan traditional elders to armed factional warlords, Islamism and eventually to the so-called 4.5 federalism where politicians are selected on bases of clan power sharing formula of 4.5 system both politicians and technocrats must come to the public office in this way. Today, the threat of secessionism and foreign interventions on Somali’s internal affairs are threatening state co-existence and its territorial integrity.
Key characteristics of political leadership in post-collapse Somalia include Clan-Centric Factionalism:
After the fall of the central military government, political power fragmented along clan lines. Leaders primarily emerged as warlords who controlled territories using armed militias. The political system eventually institutionalized this fragmentation through the “4.5 formula,” a power-sharing mechanism that divides representation among the major clan families.
Emergence of centrifugal regions and successionist: The loss of a strong central state forced a shift toward localized governance. This ranges from the establishment of de facto independent states like’ Somaliland’, ‘Puntland’ and others who hold their own elections and have their own army alongside with the Federal Government of Somalia in Mogadishu which relies on a more centralized but highly contested federal model.
Weak legitimacy and lack of accountability to the public due to a widespread corruption in the system: Early post-collapse leaders and warlords frequently lacked broad popular legitimacy. The power vacuum and public demand for law and order allowed religious entities, such as the former Islamic Courts Union (ICU) and subsequently Al-Shabaab, to rise by promising stability through Sharia law.
Under the current federal system, the issue of legitimacy is questioned by the people and scholars as the Somali people don’t vote for their public officials and surely, they are not accountable to them. Politicians buy political position from the traditional leaders who often select the legislatives who will select the executive in their turn. So. in another words politics in Somalia is commercialized. Consequently, those who come to the power have no loyalty to the nation as people have no chance to ask questions to these politicians.
Dependents and servants of foreign interests than the Somali national interests: The current Somali political leadership relies heavily on ‘international community’ support, Arab league, EU, US, UN, the Turkish government and the African Union as well. Many of these state and non-state actors have a contradictory interest over future of Somalia and many of them don’t contribute ideas of united, peaceful and prosperous Somalia. They are there merely for their own narrow interests as Somalia locates strategic position in Africa and got a lot of natural resources like oil and gas and livestock and fish.
in addition to that, many of the contemporary Somali leaders be they are in the federal regions or in the central federal government in Mogadishu come from the Somali diaspora or civil society, many of them don’t have experience in post-conflict state-building strategies
Political Fragmentation and clan politics: Because of entrenched clan interests and the struggle for resources, the federal government and the regional administrations within the federal system often suffer from deep infighting. The political culture of some regional administration and their rivalry to the government in Mogadishu created a persistent divisions and hatred between any federal government in Mogadishu, who come to the power through the 4.5 system and the Somaliland and Puntland administrations respectively, this has led the country frequent cabinet shifts and political crisis and instability in so many years.
Written by: Omar Ahmed Malin