WARSAME DIGITAL MEDIA (WDM)

WDM Satire

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud must hold a world record — not for good governance, but for air miles. He is everywhere except where he should be — Mogadishu. Whether it’s a mid-level education forum in Brussels, a charity dinner in Doha, or an irrelevant “peace symposium” in Tashkent, you can be sure Hassan Sheikh will be there — front row, smiling, flag pin shining, pretending Somalia is stable while the house burns at home.

You start to wonder if he is allergic to Villa Somalia. Maybe he sees coup d’état attempts in every hallway, or fears that the State House itself might one day declare independence. While he roams the world with the energy of a man running from his own shadow, some federal member state leaders seem to have joined his hide-and-seek game — living comfortably in Mogadishu instead of governing their states. Perhaps Garowe, Baidoa, or Kismayo have become too “provincial” for their tastes.

And yet, despite this theatre of absentee leadership, Somalia is not in total flames. Clans, though weary, are not at each other’s throats. Regional administrations function, however imperfectly. Markets open, children go to school, and local police handle their own affairs. The miracle behind this relative calm? Federalism.

Federalism — the very system demonized by centralists in Mogadishu — is quietly doing what no strongman ever could: keeping Somalia governable by dividing power among many hands instead of one. It allows every clan, every community, every corner of the republic to breathe, to self-manage, to avoid being smothered by the delusion of “one-size-fits-all” governance. It is federalism, not Mogadishu’s noise, that has prevented a return to the chaos of the 1990s.

Ironically, the same centralists who shout about “unity” from Mogadishu are the biggest beneficiaries of decentralization. They fly safely because Puntland controls its roads, Jubaland guards its ports, and Galmudug keeps its militia busy. But mark this: those who underestimate the quiet blessings of federalism will only realize its worth after they lose it. And when that happens, Hassan Sheikh may find himself travelling not to Paris or Doha — but to exile, holding yet another irrelevant conference on “Somali Unity,” hosted by whichever dictator offers him a chair and a microphone.

Moral of the satire: Somalia survives not because of its leaders, but despite them. Federalism is the invisible glue keeping the nation from collapsing under its own hypocrisy.

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