ABOLISH THE SOMALI PRESIDENCY, ITS TITLE, POWERS, AND ALL ITS PRIVILEGES

RECOMMENDATIONS: ROTATING PRESIDENCY BY CLAN OR COUNCIL OF CHAIRPERSONS BY CLAN?

Today, a group of Somali intellectuals in a video press release claim to have the solution to Somalia’s governance problems and the resulting unrest, destabilization, and clan hostilities. The solution they say is to create a rotating presidency between the three major clans of Darood, Isaaq, and Hawiye. In summary, they present that “Every five years, a major Somali clan will have the presidency, and the same for the Prime Minister.”

Ismail Haji Warsame of Warsame Digital Media (WDM) kind of agrees with them with the exception of named clans. While he agrees that a “primitive” society should find a system that fits their governance capacity, he tells Daljir that no major clan should be sidelined and they should all be included in the rotation.

ABOLISH THE SOMALI PRESIDENCY, ITS TITLE, POWERS, AND ALL ITS PRIVILEGES

RECOMMENDATIONS: ROTATING PRESIDENCY BY CLAN OR COUNCIL OF CHAIRPERSONS BY CLAN?

Today, a group of Somali intellectuals in a video press release (https://t.co/LuvnildXfi) claim to have the solution to… pic.twitter.com/GdXB0wesbe

— Daljir Media (@radiodaljir) January 6, 2025

However, he also has other ideas of how to right the course of this ship that has gone wrong in this primitive society. He writes, “The most destabilizing factor in Somali body-politic is the post of the president. This post is the source of all evils and adequately represents what went wrong in Somalia’s statecraft. Somali society is still primitive and can’t remodel advanced governance structures of modern societies. Under this title, its abusive nature, historical background, political tradition of governance in Somalia, practice of despotism, corruption, nepotism, tribalism and gross abuses of power without any checks and balances, originates from this presidential position. No matter what the national constitution stipulated under the parliamentary system, the president grabs power upon election, making the parliament, judiciary, and cabinet disabled and irrelevant as well as weakening of other public institutions across the board. The position, title, and powers of a president must be abolished constitutionally in Somalia. We believe that way a great burden on Somalia’s destabilising main factor could be lifted, and Somalia could be saved now from the brink of abyss (https://ismailwarsame.blog/2025/01/06/abolish-the-title-powers-and-post-of-the-somali-president/).”

He adds that the problem isn’t limited to Villa Somalia but “cascades down to the presidents of the Somali Federal Member States. The title of regional president should be scrapped similarly. Understand that the title of the “president or head of state” is toxic in Somalia’s statehood and self-government. We know that from our history and experience. It isn’t just a theory.”

Mr. Warsame then makes some recommendations. He begins that Somalia must “first recognise that we have a severe governance problem that can’t be resolved through conventional thinking. We need advanced research into this issue, but we can start with a national congress to explore different ideas and consult widely, and agree to a New Deal.”

With the assumption that the presidency at Villa Somalia is the source of all that is evil in Somalia, he recommends a form of clan rotation by “creating a Council of Chairpersons with an annual rotating chair role. That way, continuity of governance experience and government operations could be maintained, and clan rivalries eliminated once and for all.”

Can the Somali people fix what ails them? Share your thoughts and feedback.

> Daljir Media