Farmaajo’s atrocious five years: 2017 – 2022
Farmaajo betrayed the nation’s hopes and saw “Qabyaalad” and hostility in everyone and at every turn. He leaves behind a deep reservoir of venality, countless bereaved families, a plague of venomous politics and vicious insecurity. The de-Farmaajofication of the country will not be easy.
On the 19th of February 2017, three days after Farmaajo formally took office, there was a terrorist car bomb in the Wadajir district of Mogadishu, killing an estimated 69 people and injuring over eighty others. Three days later (23rd of Feb), Farmaajo was off to his first foreign trip to Saudi Arabia, celebrating his election - an auspicious start to his presidency.
The Zoobe mass murder happened a few months later (14th of Oct 2017) – the worst one-day terrorist carnage in Africa in which more than 2,500 innocent people either lost their lives or suffered life-changing injuries. Rather than taking the lead in the country’s response,
Farmaajo was off again to his foreign trips (Uganda and Ethiopia, 22nd of Oct) in the midst of the country’s worst-ever terrorist atrocity. Yet again, on the 28th of Dec 2019, when the Ex-Koontrol terrorist massacre claimed the lives or wounded more than 350 people, Farmaajo was off to Eritrea (10th of January 2020) for a chinwag with his mentor.
The point here is not so much he was out of the country more than any other president in modern times as the fact that horrific as these massacres were, Farmaajo was always indifferent, often leaving the country, or staying abroad, in the midst of national trauma and mourning.
It meant what was happening in Mogadishu over the last few years – within a few miles within his presidential compound - never seemed to have troubled his conscience, let alone mattered to him.
For many people, the idea of a president conjures up an image of a specific type of person: one who can lead, show empathy and do everything he can to protect his people.
It is why the events of the 19th of February 2017 were prescient, foreshadowing the character of the man who was about to lead Somalia at such a critical period.
It was this event, Zoobe and countless others over the years, that would later define him as someone seemingly immune to the horrors of the deaths and destruction around him, prioritising his dictatorial ambition over people’s lives. He is the only president in modern Somali history who became a willing spectator to immense suffering. Under his presidency, not a single one of the thousands of lives lost in Mogadishu and elsewhere had ever been investigated.
Faced with a country that was grabbling with serious terrorist threats and aggravated by political deadlock, Farmaajo did nothing. Instead, he prioritised his own dictatorial agenda by making sure insecurity was embedded, the political discord was poisonous and social and economic reconstruction of the country were left to crumble.
The economy
The fact that there was large-scale corruption under Farmaajo is hardly new. What was particularly distinctive to Farmaajo’s time in office is how pervasive and deeply-ingrained corruption became, and all in plain sight.
Billions of budgetary support were squandered on building personalised paramilitaries; buying off politicians, creating servile parliamentarians and reviving the old “Kacaan” paraphernalia. Prized national infrastructure assets were signed off in secretive deals with neighbouring autocrats and foreign firms for off-the-books income
The scale and cost of which is hard to quantify. There had never been a single year of budget reconciliation for the billions of dollars raised and spent by the government during the last five years.
There was not a single school or hospital opened in the last five years; the economically-important reform of the Somali currency – which started in 2015 - stopped and significant milestones for the debt relief were shelved; no effort was ever made to build adequate economic institutions; and in every one of the past five years, Somalia languished at the bottom as the world’s most corrupt country.
There are more “Duufaan”, “Haram Cad” and “Gorgor” paramilitary units than there are hospital beds or school desks, showing Farmaajo’s true priorities. The country’s entire economy was subordinated to the needs and whims of one man and his goons, feeding off Mogadishu and its inhabitants as a cash cow.
Overall security
In last week’s African summit, Farmaajo said with a straight face that Somalia was ready to take over security, and under his leadership, terrorist threat diminished. He knows that vast swathes of Mogadishu are no-go areas where terrorists operate freely unmolested. That is why he can never leave Villa Somalia without Ugandan troops in tow.
Fearfull for his safety, he never visits any of Mogadishu’s districts or attends public events outside his compound. His assertion demonstrates the remarkable mindset of a man devoid of reality.
The security personnel Farmaajo touted at the summit are the animal-themed paramilitaries that are used to suppress and brutalise the people and politicians.
The threat he talks about are the political opponents, the rule of law and democratic norms, not terrorists. The booming domestic flights reflect how the country became islands of insecurity as none of the roads is considered safe.
The security dividend Farmaajo inherited in 2017 is lost and large areas of key towns of the country are under terrorist control.
The consequences of this are felt right across the country and Mogadishu in particular: Businesses in Mogadishu – from the small street hawkers to large corporates - are having to pay terrorist levies in broad daylight – funds used to support the terrorist threat;
The city is largely blockaded, cutting off the livelihoods of millions. Up and down the country, the security threat is much worse than it has even been for a decade and daily terrorist outrages are creating countless bereaved families and orphans without a future. The people are mentally as well as physically drained.
Institutions of government
Farmaajo made no efforts to help finalise the country’s nascent constitution. He blocked the establishment of key constitutional pillars: the supreme court; the constitutional court; independent judiciary; the anti-corruption commission; or codify the constitutional status of the capital city.
This was not simply because the circumstances were hard: He never wanted any of this to progress. This was because Farmaajo knew the constraining effect of proper constitution, and the deterring effects of laws and regulations enforced by independent courts, would stymie his ambition to build an autocratic regime.
Elsewhere, the rigging of the on-going elections is intended to ensure enablers of Farmaajo’s misrule continue to hold positions of influence in public life. That is why we see those accused of committing heinous crimes, chosen on Qabiil or were instrumental as his enablers to his misrule, parachuted to become members of parliament so that they can vote him back in.
Many others are given ambassadorial jobs or rewarded with exclusive construction, import and export contracts. With a widely-rigged election, the likelihood of his return or that of another wannabe dictator who is inspired by him, grows by day.
All of this means the corrosive impact of Farmaajo’s time in office will continue to undermine the institutions of government for many more years to come.
