Day: April 14, 2026

Banquet of the Blind: How Puntland’s ‘Elders’ Dined with a Dying Presidency


There is a dangerous myth in Somali politics that ignorance is harmless — even virtuous. It is not. Ignorance, when weaponized in politics, is a curse that drags entire societies into the abyss while its carriers celebrate illusion as strategy.
What we are witnessing today in Mogadishu is not politics. It is theatre — a tragic satire where so-called Puntland “elders” and self-declared opposition figures shuffle into Villa Somalia like invited guests to a collapsing palace, mistaking access for influence and proximity for power.
Let us be blunt: you do not attend a feast hosted by a presidency that is already politically expired unless you are either naïve, compromised, or complicit.
The clock is ticking — loudly, relentlessly — toward May 15, 2026. The mandate is evaporating. The constitutional roadmap is non-existent. The political capital is depleted. Yet, in this twilight, Villa Somalia continues to assemble a gallery of enablers, dressed as stakeholders but acting as props.
These “elders” — unelected, unmandated, and unaccountable — have become traveling ornaments of a regime in decline. They do not negotiate; they legitimize. They do not represent; they decorate. Their presence is not political engagement; it is political surrender disguised as dialogue.
And what exactly are they endorsing?
A presidency increasingly seen not as a unifier, but as a destabilizer. A leadership that toys with federal fault lines while pretending to arbitrate them. A political project that has burned bridges with Puntland, alienated Jubaland, and left the rest of the federation in a state of anxious limbo.
This is not governance. This is loitering in power.
The international community — often slow, often cautious — is watching. And when it watches long enough, it acts. The language will be diplomatic, but the consequences will be surgical: isolation, designation, and quiet but effective sanctions. No regime collapses overnight; it is slowly suffocated — politically, financially, and diplomatically.
Those dining today in Villa Somalia may soon find themselves photographed in the wrong room at the wrong time in history.
And let us address the illusion of protection: proximity to power does not grant immunity when that power collapses. It only ensures association.
History is unforgiving to those who mistake access for influence. From Mogadishu to countless failed capitals before it, the script is always the same: when the centre fails, it takes its courtiers down with it.
The real tragedy is not the fall of a presidency — that is inevitable in politics. The tragedy is the recycling of ignorance as leadership. The elevation of noise over legitimacy. The betrayal of constituencies by those who claim to speak in their name.
Puntland does not need spectators in Villa Somalia. It needs statesmen who understand timing, legitimacy, and consequence.
Because in politics, as in life, there is one unforgiving rule:
You do not anchor your future to a sinking ship — unless you intend to go down with it.
And right now, far too many are not just aboard.
They are applauding.


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THE WORLD UNMASKED: WHEN POWER NO LONGER PRETENDS TO BE CIVIL

There was a time—recent enough for memory, distant enough for illusion—when the world order at least pretended to be civil.

Heads of state chose their words carefully. Wars were dressed in legal language. Starvation was denied, not declared. Assassinations were whispered, not televised. And institutions like the United Nations acted as a moral stage—even when they failed backstage.

That time is over.

What we are witnessing today is not merely disorder. It is the stripping away of the mask.

THE DEATH OF DIPLOMATIC DECENCY

When a head of state can insult a global moral figure like Pope Leo without consequence, it signals more than bad manners—it signals the collapse of restraint as a governing principle.

Diplomacy has been replaced by performance.
Statesmanship by populist theater.

The message is clear: respect is no longer strategic currency—power is.

ASSASSINATION AS POLICY, NOT EXCEPTION

Once upon a time, killing a senior state figure risked global outrage and escalation. Now it risks… headlines.

From the targeted killing of Qasem Soleimani to the brazen assassination of Jovenel Moïse, the line has been crossed—and then erased.

What was once taboo is now tactical.

States justify it. Allies ignore it. Enemies replicate it.

This is not rogue behavior.
This is normalized impunity.

STARVATION AS A WEAPON OF WAR

The most damning sign of a collapsing order is not bombs—it is hunger.

Entire populations are being squeezed, blockaded, and deprived—not accidentally, but strategically. Food, water, and medicine have become instruments of leverage.

The old world order at least pretended to uphold humanitarian law.
The new reality doesn’t even bother pretending.

When children starve and the world debates terminology, you are no longer in a rules-based system—you are in a power-based vacuum.

THE SILENCE OF A PARALYZED WORLD

At the center of this paralysis stands the United Nations—an institution designed for a world that no longer exists.

A Security Council where:

  • The powerful veto accountability
  • The victims plead into procedural voids
  • Resolutions gather dust instead of enforcing peace

The UN is not failing because it is weak.
It is failing because the powers that created it no longer agree on the rules it was built to enforce.

THE GREAT TRANSITION: FROM ORDER TO EXPOSURE

Let us be clear: this is not chaos without cause.

This is what happens when:

  • An old order fades
  • A new order has not yet formed
  • And no single power can impose discipline

In such moments, history tells us one thing:
norms collapse before new ones emerge.

The 20th century saw this before—between empires, between wars, between illusions.

We are living in that gap again.

THE WDM VERDICT: CIVILITY WAS ALWAYS CONDITIONAL

Let us not romanticize the past.

The so-called “rules-based international order” was never purely moral. It was managed power disguised as principle. Civility existed because it was enforced—or at least beneficial to enforce.

Now that enforcement is fractured, the truth is exposed:

  • Rules without power are suggestions
  • Norms without consequences are theatre
  • Institutions without unity are relics

What shocks the world today is not the presence of brutality—
but the absence of shame about it.

FINAL WORD: THE AGE OF PRETENSE IS OVER

We are entering an era where power no longer seeks legitimacy through civility. It seeks compliance through dominance.

No apologies.
No disguises.
No illusions.

The old world order did not die peacefully.
It is being dismantled in full view of a watching, powerless world.

And until a new order rises—if it rises at all—
expect more insults, more assassinations, more starvation, and more silence.

Because in this interregnum, one rule reigns supreme:

Power speaks.
And no one is left strong enough to tell it to be quiet.