I Vote For You Dear Waddani

by Abdi-Noor Mohamed
Thursday, June 14, 2007

 "We have received requests from some Somali clans asking for more time to choose delegates and we need time to prepare the venue for the conference," Ali Mahdi, the conference's chief organiser told journalists in Mogadishu. "So we have decided to postpone the congress until July 15."

What a sad news! This conference seems to have died long before it was born and by the time it shall be presided over, delegates convene to attend the funeral service of this ill-fated reconciliation conference. And this will become one more figure added in the records of Somalia’s Failure Statistics.

Delaying of the reconciliation conference bothers me not so much but the fact that the 15th Reconciliation Conference is doomed to fail is sad if not excessively disgraceful. Whatever happens to us I keep my spirits high and always see a ray of hope at the end of the tunnel.

I write this article to uplift the spirits of Somalis worldwide who might be fed up with the constant disillusionment and bad news coming from home. It is pity that the ordinary peace-loving Somali is torn apart between two groups both assisted by foreign powers who are at a loggerheads or absorbed in a deadly political stalemate. They are the TFG that had led the country become an Ethiopian colony and the renegades who, behind the scenes of hatred, play dirty wars in the guise of liberating Ethiopians from the country.

My worry is not whether this reconciliation conference is supportive to the ill-fated TFG  or whether it will survive amid turbulent or rather murky political waters. My worry is not either the groups who holed up in Asmara, Eritrea making themselves visible as a potential threat to the TFG and its Ethiopian invaders, but my concern is primarily concentrated on the poor mother or child who are trapped in the middle of fire and whose lives are being gambled on by these power-hungry factions. 

Truly speaking my inspiration comes from the sturdiness of the Somali people, no matter how thoughtlessly they are now divided over tribal and clan interests. Though Somalia is now wading into a sea of blood, there are still prospects that a united Somalia shall be born in the near future. Somalis have lost dear ones in the war over the past 17 years yet they still retain their dignity and have not lost hope over.

And never have their dreams to come back as a nation ever been shattered. They wish to have their country back and put it to a place of honor. With vigor and renewed vitality they shall one day rebuild Somalia.

They are the people of Somalia. I Love them all because in every place they live they have a common denominator and a similarity that binds them together: Moral courage and strength in personality. Somalis are not only a good fighting material but they are also talented and rather peaceful entrepreneurs. Resilience is their badge of honor. Oh if we only had a leader! We are all looking for a future leader who would rebuild Somalia with the love buried under the rubble of a failed state. If you are the one, Dear reader, please let me know. I vote for you dear Waddani

Please share this poem with me:

Bullets ricocheted

Smoke billowed high

Up in the dry air

I see rising fireballs

This is hell living in hell

It is hell Dying in hell

It is our history

Living in history

it is our history

Dying in history

It is our Somalia

Dying in Somalia

It is a living piece

of a war museum

It is a river of blood

Joining a sea of terror

Oh if we only had a leader

Abdi-Noor Mohamed
Mogadishu, Somalia
[email protected]