The Fallout with Mr. Madobe
Ahmed Madobe, the president of Jubbaland was one time the most loyal leader to the Federal government among all regional leaders. And the question becomes what happened, and why Mr. Framaajo and Mr. Madobe became sworn enemies?
What happened is that Mr. Farmaajo feels that Mr. Madobe attacked him at Farmaajo’s weakest link: on the issue of Qalbi-dhagax. Without going into long details, here are the facts:
-Mr. Farmaajo had Qalbi-dhagax kidnapped, and handed over to the Ethiopian enemy. And because of that treasonous act, the overwhelming majority of the Somalis understood
-Mr. Farmaajo to be dishonest and a traitor, and he effectively lost the trust of the most Somalis.
The only two glimpses we had of Qalbi-dhagax during that ordeal were a one in which Farmaajo’s security officials threw Qalbi-dhagax in a solitary room. They forced him to sit on the cement floor and deprived him of anything to sit on, be it stool or a chair. Then to scare him and psychologically abuse him, they turned the lights off and walked towards him in the dark room, where he could hear their approaching footsteps! Then they turned their flashlights on, and aimed the lights on his eyes just to humiliate him, as if he was a dog or something!
Qalbidhagax in handcuffs
These security officials were doing all these cruel things based on direct instructions from Mr. Farmaajo’s highest officials. We know this because security officials are like water: they take the colour of whoever they serve. Under the previous administration, those very security officials, who were this time abusing him, knew who Qalbi-dhagax was, and where in Mogadishu he lived, but they never bothered him, because President Xasan Sheikh Maxamuud was no traitor!
The other picture of Qalbi-dhagax that the world had seen was that an elderly man, dressed in two pieces of cheap clothing, frail and exhausted, passed out on a long wooden chair in what appeared to be a train station, somewhere in Ethiopia.
Then Ahmed Madobe went to Ethiopia, and interceded on Qalbi-Dhagax’s behalf, took some great pictures with him, and helped his release from prison.
Mr. Farmaajo interpreted Mr. Madobe’s action and success as slap in the face and a great insult! Why Mr. Farmaajo feels that way is something only he could answer. But there is no doubt about the fact that Mr. Farmaajo feels Mr. Madobe upstaged him at his weakest point, and came across so good, at Mr. Farmaajo’s lowest point! And all the available evidence suggests that it is for that reason, more than anything else, that Mr. Farmaajo decided Madobe must go! The rest, as they say, is history.
It was in his first 6 months that Mr. Farmaajo betrayed Qalbi-dhagax. From there, the damage he caused the country has been escalating day by day. Of all the failed leaders in Muslim history, the ones that Mr. Farmaajo resemble the most are the awfully corrupt leaders of Muslim Spain. Andalus or Muslim Spain collapsed not because it didn’t have enough armies, or weapons or manpower, or technology, but because it was cursed with corrupt leaders, who were preoccupied only with their own selfish ends, who could never come together, for the common good, or for the welfare of their people. When dispute occurred between the leaders of Muslim Spain, since, for them, selfishness was paramount to everything else, instead of settling their differences, many of them went to their Christian neighbours, and made alliances with them just to get even or destroy their Muslim rivals. Perhaps the saddest episode in that regard was the story about the fall of city of Toledo.
When the resurgent Spaniards were attempting to capture the city of Toledo, which served as the center of Muslim learning and culture for over 300 years, a Muslim renegade who in the past feuded with the ruler of Toledo saw an opening. The renegade made an alliance with the Spaniards reasoning that if he helped the Spaniards capture the city, he could kill two birds with one stone: he would avenge against his Muslim nemesis, and at the same time, share the spoils. The city resisted. But in the end, the combined forces of the Spaniards and that of the Muslim renegade had their effect, and Toledo fell. The Muslim renegade then started counting the hours, expecting to receive his share of the spoils. The victorious Spaniards, however, had other ideas. They held a huge celebration whereby the biggest mosque of Toledo was transformed into a church, and the hapless Muslim renegade was made the guest of honour for the occasion!
One of the worst things about President Farmaajo is that, selfishness is the lenses through which he sees everything. Unlike all other previous presidents, Mr. Farmaajo is only president whose main tool is sowing division and discord among Somalis, just to attain his selfish goals.
In every major town, in every province, and every region, he turned people against one another: politicians against one another; sub-clan against sub-clan just to achieve his selfish ends! Just look at the trail of destruction he left behind in Galmudug, Hirshabeele, Koonfur-Galbeed, and Jubbaland. Even Puntland, the most politically stable and cohesive region in the federation, could not escape his attempts to sow discord and subversion. Farmaajo’s favourite method of dealing with his Somali political opponents is NOT to try to find a solution, but, like the rotten leaders of Muslim Spain, to use the neighbouring enemy to destroy his Somali opponents. That is exactly what he did in Baydhaba against Mukhtar Robow and his supporters.
Sheikh Mukhtar Robow
Mr. Farmaajo is not a man who keeps his word. The ugly manner in which he double crossed Mukhtar Robow is forever reminder of that. When Farmaajo could not defeat Robow in the polls, he used the Ethiopian forces to crush his Somali opponent, and slaughtered scores of innocent Somali citizens in the process. Mr. Farmaajo repeated the same tactic in Jubbaland. He turned politicians against one another and attempted to turn sub-clan against sub-clan. However, when all that failed against Ahmed Madobe, he used the ACE card that he apparently relies more than anything else: the Ethiopian forces. Here, unfortunately, what Farmaajo attempted to do wasn’t given enough reviews or paid enough attention: he attempted to create a bloodbath in Kismaayo, by luring the small Ethiopian regiment into harms way, and causing them to suffer significant casualties, and thereby forcing the hand of the Ethiopian government to bring its heavy guns and tanks and sack the city to avenge its fallen soldiers. That was exactly what Mr. Farmaajo planned to happen,
when he gave Ethiopia the full responsibility to deal with Juabbaland.
The sinister plan by Mr. Farmaajo almost came to fruition, when the Ethiopian regiment attempted to take control of the Kismaayo airport, at the excuse that they were just about to facilitate the landing of an Ethiopian plane that was sent from Godey. However, the scheme was foiled when the Ethiopian plane was denied to land, and the Ethiopian regiment was prevented from coming anywhere near the airport.
Had the Ethiopian regiment managed to take control of the airport, they could have refused to leave, arguing that their presence at the airport was legitimate and was sanctioned by the Federal Government of Somalia in Mogadishu. And faced with such predicament, the Jubaland authorities and their local forces would have been forced to storm the airport, and cause significant casualties to the Ethiopian regiment. And such action in turn would have forced the hand of the Ethiopian government to act the way
Mr. Farmaajo planned: sack Kismaayo to avenge its slaughtered soldiers. Thank God that didn’t happen. However, Mr. Farmaajo spared no effort to bring about a catastrophic bloodbath in that town. And now, having failed to manipulate the Ethiopian government to sack the city, it is not farfetched to think that Mr. Farmaajo would create a communal strife in the city to lead to the same catastrophe, just to get even with the man he has grudge against. If the unhappy two years under Mr. Farmaajo, from the treason against Qalbi-dhagax to the slaughter of innocent civilians in Baydhaba, from banishing every courageous and patriotic person from the position of leadership to wrecking havoc in the regional governments, taught us anything, it is that when it comes to Mr. Farmaajo, one should expect the worst.
