HOW I HAD HELPED REPAIR AND RE-BUILD VILLA SOMALIA

September 11, 2019

In 2006, Villa Somalia was a dilapidated squatter-campound, initially looted and ramsacked and strip-naked by USC mob, and then spoiled by the militia of Hussein Caydiid, who were squatting there as their shit-hole and living space. It was a place beyond any normal repair.

As the forces of late President Abdullahi Yusuf seized the campound from the militia of Caydiid, they couldn’t believe their eyes to appreciate the extent of destruction the Camp had suffered. Recall, the forces of Yusuf had entered Mogadishu first, losing considerable men and material along the way from Afgoye. The Ethiopian forces came to Mogadishu days later.

President Yusuf and his soldiers made minor repairs in parts of the residence sections of the Villa. The President also let Hussein Caydiid militia to stay on with him in the Campound and get integrated into his own security detail. Ethiopian forces came along and had occupied most of the campound as they too moved into Mogadishu, especially into the run-down Office Complex of Villa Somalia.

At that time, I came to Mogadishu, after completing my contract with the Joint Needs Assessment for Somalia, JNA Project, with the UN and World Bank. I was not with the Transitional Federal Government (TFG).

A group of us, including General Morgan, MPs Jurile, Ali Bashi, and Abdullahi Ulaa and Ahmed Giitaara etc took residence in the current living quarters of the FGS Prime Minister. We made our own repairs of the building then.

It so happened that President Yusuf, owing to the absence of most of his office personnel and presidential staff, had asked me to help him out and run Villa Somalia for only ten days, knowing my experience with Puntland Presidency. I, however, found Villa Somalia dysfunctional. In just a few days, I had managed to make the place operational with state of the art equipment and independent communication gear outside the control of Hormud Telecommunication Co. with Internet hooked up with VSat.

Next, I called for the poor Campound engineer inherited fron Hussein Caydiid militia and hooked him up with a wealthy businessman of Puntland origin, to start repairing the whole Villa Somalia and ordered the Ethiopian forces to move out of the campound altogether. China-donated funds for government housing repairs were available at discretion of Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Mohamed Gedi. I requested for the release of these funds for the repair works of Villa Somalia to the level it is today. Former TFG President, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, had inherited the fruits of that labour, where he took over Villa Somalia with no teaspoon missing.

One memorable episode I would like to share with the readers is the fact that one day came to my office General Abdi Qaydiid, the TFG Police Commissioner then, now a Senator, waving a sheets of papers for me to rubber-stamp for him. I looked at papers. They already carried the signature of the President. It was about the promotion of ranks of nearly three hundreds police officers. I looked at him, and told him that his papers were forgery. Qaydiid couldn’t believe his ears. “What?” “Forgery”, I said. “Don’t you see the signature of the President”, he asked. “This documents were not prepared and issued by this office”, I told him flatly. “They have been prepared by my Commander’s Office”, he shot back. “That is why they are forgery”, I told him. He quickly stormed out of my office to the President’s. Later, I was informed that the President advised Qaydiid to wait a bit until I leave office in a few days’ time.

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