The Federal Government of Somalia (FGS), under President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, has once again perfected its favorite political art form: performative dialogue followed by deliberate sabotage. The latest casualty is a potential sit-down with the Golaha Mustaqbalka Soomaalia—not by accident, not by misunderstanding, but by design.
At the inauguration of the SSC-KHAATUMO Administration in Laascaanod, Prime Minister Hamse Abdi Barre stood on a national platform and publicly insulted and denied the legitimacy of Jubaland President Ahmed Mohamed Islam (Madobe)—a sitting federal member state leader. Then, in a stunning display of political schizophrenia, the same federal leadership invited the very actors it had just humiliated back to Mogadishu the next day to “prepare for a technical meeting before a summit.”
This is not statesmanship.

This is political mockery.
Whatever instructions Hamse Abdi Barre received from Villa Somalia, he executed them with brutal clarity: signal contempt first, extend an invitation later, and blame the other side for refusing. The result was predictable. The Golaha Mustaqbalka rejected the proposal—not because it fears dialogue, but because it recognizes bad-faith governance when it sees it.
At first glance, some may ask: Was the rejection too hasty? Was something wrong with the Golaha Mustaqbalka’s response? But a deeper look reveals the uncomfortable truth: FGS is not interested in resolving Somalia’s outstanding political crises. It is interested in controlling the narrative, neutralizing dissent, and buying time.

Dialogue as Theater, Not Solution
For Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s administration, dialogue has become a stage prop, not a governing tool. Invitations are issued without respect. Summits are announced without groundwork. “Technical meetings” are proposed without political seriousness. The aim is not reconciliation—it is optics, donor appeasement, and domestic confusion.
Insulting Jubaland one day and inviting it the next is not diplomacy.
It is gaslighting the federal system.
And let us be clear: this is part of a broader pattern. Puntland is sidelined. Jubaland is delegitimized. SSC-KHAATUMO is instrumentalized. Somaliland is mishandled. The constitution is manipulated. Mandates are stretched. Elections are weaponized. Nothing is resolved—everything is postponed.

The Real Test for Golaha Mustaqbalka
The rejection of the FGS proposal should not be the end of the road—it should be the beginning of clarity.
The Golaha Mustaqbalka Soomaalia was not formed to orbit Villa Somalia or to beg for seats at a poisoned table. It was formed to provide alternative leadership to a regime that has exhausted its credibility and imagination. If it merely reacts to Mogadishu’s theatrics, it risks becoming another footnote in Somalia’s long history of squandered initiatives.
The task ahead is bigger—and harder.
Golaha Mustaqbalka must now move decisively:
Articulate a clear national roadmap beyond the Mogadishu regime.
Address the federal crisis honestly, not selectively.
Propose a credible framework for constitutional settlement, security cooperation, and electoral legitimacy.
Speak to the Somali people directly—not through Villa Somalia’s filters.
Somalia does not suffer from a lack of meetings.
It suffers from a lack of seriousness.

Conclusion: Somalia Needs Leadership, Not Stagecraft
The FGS sabotage of engagement with Golaha Mustaqbalka is not a misstep—it is a revelation. It confirms that Villa Somalia is more comfortable managing crises than solving them, more skilled at dividing than uniting, and more invested in survival than in statecraft.
History will not be kind to leaders who mistook delay for strategy and arrogance for authority.
And history will not forgive alternative platforms that failed to rise when the moment demanded courage.
Somalia is burning time it no longer has.
The question now is simple: Who is ready to lead—and who is content to perform?

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