Until very recently Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government president, Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and the speaker of the transitional parliament, Sharif Hassan, were close confidants. Both men are co-founders of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia in Asmara in 2007.  Both Sharifs and their supporters put their weight  behind the UN-facilitated  talks with TFG in 2008, a timely strategy that gave ARS ‘moderates’ an opportunity to expand the parliament and put forward the name of the Sharif  Sheikh Ahmed, as presidential candidate  when  Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed ,the  former TFG president,  resigned in December 2008. Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was elected a president in January 2009; he appointed Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, former UN worker, a prime minister. Sharif Hassan joined the new cabinet as a Minister of Finance.  For one year the working partnership of the president and the prime minister was spared the rift that affected the TFG under their predecessors. Political animosity between the former parliamentary speaker, Sheikh Adam Madobe, and the former Finance Minister Sharif Hassan put strain on working partnership between the president and the prime minister gradually. Sheikh Adan Madobe replaced Sharif Hassan as speaker in 2006 when the latter made a pact with the former Union of Islamic Courts in Mogadishu.  Sheikh Adam Madobe, along with the former TFG president Yusuf and Prime Minister Geddi supported the Ethiopian intervention that led to an insurgency by Al Shabab in southern Somalia.

Pay-back time

More than one year after the formation of TFG II, former ARS MPs in the parliament tabled a motion to replace the parliamentary speaker, Sheikh Adan Madobe whose mandate, they argued, was coming to an end in 2010. President Sharif did not intervene but supported Sheikh Adam Madobe who misinformed the president about the outcome of a parliamentary meeting and resigned. President Sharif accepted the resignation of Sheikh Adam Madobe early this year and dissolved Prime Minister Sharmarke’s government and vowed to appoint “a prime minister capable of doing the job” as recommended by   Sheikh Adan Madobe in his resignation speech.  Prime Minister Sharmarke challenged the decision of president Sharif who “violated the transitional federal charter of Somalia”. President Sharif cited misinformation from the former parliamentary speaker and reinstated the Prime Minister Sharmarke. Several week after reinstatement of the prime minister, Sharif Hassan who resigned as finance minister was elected the speaker of the parliament.  He sought to bridge the communication gap between the president and the prime minister and managed to persuade the prime minister to agree to a cabinet reshuffle that, according Mohamud Uluso, former   chairman of Ayr sub-clan Political Committee, the reshuffle led to purge of “pro-Arab Ministers and Ministers from the Union Islamic Courts … [and inclusion of] of pro-Ethiopia [Ahlu Sunna Wal Jama’a] ministers” in the cabinet.  Former speaker of the parliament, Sheikh Adam Madobe, was appointed a minister of Transport and Port and deputy prime minister. 

‘Alternative indirect representation’

The TFG leadership rift has resurfaced after the prime minister and the speaker of the parliament   sent letters to the international community about the draft constitution about extending the TFG mandate after the draft constitution is ratified by MPs and the civil society. The prime minster the parliamentary speaker suggested that ‘alternative indirect representation’ be the basis “ for an indirect means of selection that will put in place representational mechanisms that foster greater legitimacy and accountability   between the government and its people.”

President Sharif countered the two leaders’ communication with the international community with a warning against “politicizing” the draft constitution. “Drafting a constitution for a new Somalia is a solemn national undertaking which must be transparent and beyond reproach to ensure that the constitution is vested with legitimacy.”  President Sharif’s anger understandable: neither the prime minister nor the parliamentary speaker has sent copies of the two letters to the president. The two letters were published in Somali websites. The subject of the prime minister’s letter is “Request for electoral assistance”.

Questioning the capital

The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, commended Somalia’s Independent Federal Constitution Commission for the draft constitution and noted that “the Chairman of the Commission stated that a number of contentious issues, including the adoption of a presidential versus a parliamentary system of government, the role of sharia, and the status of Mogadishu in the context of federalism, would be referred to the consultation process for further deliberation.” 

Questioning Mogadishu’s status as capital of Somalia will put more ‘clan’ pressure on president Sharif. It was leaders of United Somali Congress, the armed opposition group that ousted the military  regime in 1991,   who claimed Mogadishu as a clan fiefdom and  did nothing  to stop massacres USC militias committed in 1991, and  subsequent destruction of commercial  districts in  Old Mogadishu city centre. President  Sharif’s  has failed  to undercut Al Shabab and Hizbul Islam influence because of failure to talk to Al Shabab and Hizbul Islam commanders and supporters   without making them feel he is laying claim on Mogadishu as sub-clan turf . 

“We can't accept incompetence. I was named to choose the prime minister. If he fails to perform his duties I have to get back to you about it. I can't be utterly quiet as Somalia's future is being destroyed," Wall Street Journal reported. How can the TFG perfrom satisfactorily if people like Sheikh Adam Madobe, former parliamentary speaker who “lied” to the president about a parliamentary meeting, can join the government as a cabinet member?  In his report to the Security Council, Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General,   encourages “donors to scale up their utilization of the Government’s PricewaterhouseCoopers facility in the delivery of assistance. I am encouraged by the successful accountability measures introduced by the Government and the tracking mechanisms established by my Special Representative, which are important not only for resource mobilization but also for harnessing the political support needed to advance the Somalia peace process.”  President Sharif wants the international community to have no role in solving the TFG crisis but is keen on using the parliament to remove the prime minister who wants the parliament to extend the TFG mandate and have a bigger role in ratifying the draft constitution. President Sharif talked about collective responsibility. The cabinet the Somali  prime minister  puts together is the outcome of negotiations and inputs from various stake holders (clans)  but president Sharif would like the prime minister to face the   ‘parliament’  for   incompetence  caused by collective decision making.

Liban Ahmad
E-Mail: libahm@gmail.com       

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