WDM EDITORIAL
Somali political stakeholders have a choice—make history cheaply today, or pay an unbearable price tomorrow. The window for a dignified, lawful, and consensual transition is closing fast. And once it shuts, no amount of posturing, ultimatums, or hastily assembled “interim authorities” will restore legitimacy to a system already wobbling on its last legs.
Let us be blunt.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s tenure in Villa Somalia is nearing its political end.
The emergence of Golaha Mustaqbalka Soomaaliya and its ultimatum to form an alternative federal administration is not a cause—it is a symptom. It reflects a growing consensus across Somalia’s fractured political landscape that the center has failed to convene, reconcile, and govern inclusively. But here is the danger: if this process drifts into a rushed, reactive interim arrangement after Villa Somalia loses all legitimacy, Somalia will not be fixing a crisis—it will be manufacturing a bigger one.
When Everyone Loses Legitimacy, No One Can Negotiate
Here is the hard truth policymakers prefer to avoid:
Once Hassan Sheikh Mohamud loses legitimacy, he becomes politically irrelevant— unworthy of serious negotiation. But at the same time, any alternative administration born out of haste, exclusion, or political vengeance will suffer the same fate.
That is how Somalia repeatedly ends up with dueling claims of authority, parallel institutions, and endless conferences that solve nothing. Legitimacy is not retroactive. You cannot declare it after the fact. You must build it—carefully, deliberately, and collectively.
The National Congress: Inevitable—But at What Cost?
A national congress to renegotiate consensus is inevitable. The question is not if, but when—and under what conditions.
Do we convene it now, while some institutional credibility remains, and while dialogue is still possible?
Or do we wait until the center collapses politically, the alternatives look improvised, and the country enters another gray zone of contested authority?
History answers this question mercilessly. Somalia always pays more when it waits. More instability. More fragmentation. More foreign interference. More lost years.
Doing the Right Thing Is Always Cheaper—If Done on Time
Consensus-building today is politically uncomfortable—but economically, socially, and strategically cheap. Consensus-building later, after legitimacy evaporates, is prohibitively expensive.
Somalia does not need another brinkmanship experiment. It does not need ultimatums followed by improvisation. It needs sobriety, foresight, and a recognition that no single actor—Villa Somalia included—owns the state.
This is the last call for a negotiated, dignified exit from the current impasse. Delay will not strengthen anyone’s hand. It will only ensure that when the reckoning comes, everyone arrives weakened—and the nation pays the bill.
The clock is ticking.
The cost is rising.
And history, as always, will not forgive those who chose delay over duty.
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Warsame Policy & Media Network (WAPMEN).
Fearless analysis. Uncomfortable truths. No delay, no illusions.
Warsame Policy & Media Network (WAPMEN) 