ARTA, Djibouti (SONNA) \u2013<\/b> President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of the Federal Republic of Somalia delivered a foundational speech on Friday at the 25th-anniversary commemoration of the Arta Reconciliation Conference in Djibouti, calling for a systemic overhaul of Somali politics.<\/p>\n
The President argued for a decisive shift away from a political culture centered on individuals and personalities toward a stable framework built on enduring, predictable institutions.<\/p>\n
Addressing an audience of dignitaries, including Djiboutian President Isma\u00efl Omar Guelleh, President Mohamud diagnosed the long-standing challenges of Somali governance, asserting that a system reliant on individuals is inherently unstable.<\/p>\n
“We want to reform Somalia’s politics,” President Mohamud stated. “We need to establish a political system based on institutions and organizations, and move beyond the politics based on the individual.”<\/p>\n
He elaborated on the flaws of a person-centric model, noting that individuals are, by their nature, changeable and impermanent.<\/p>\n
“A person is not constant,” the President explained. “The person I am this morning, I could be a different person by the afternoon. The person I was yesterday, I could be a different one today. Circumstances can change me.”<\/p>\n
He dismissed the political discourse of “we want so-and-so” or “Ali was better” as counter-productive to nation-building. “That will not benefit us,” he stressed.<\/p>\n
In contrast, President Mohamud championed a future where Somali politics is anchored in robust institutions with clear principles.<\/p>\n
“A known political institution has its principles and its policies set in place. It has explained and ‘sold’ its vision to the Somali people,” he said. The primary benefit of such a system, he added, is stability: “It is not easy to change.”<\/p>\n
The setting for the speech was deeply symbolic. The Arta Reconciliation Conference, hosted by Djibouti in 2000, was the historic event that re-established the first formal Somali government institutions after the state’s collapse in 1991.<\/p>\n
President Mohamud praised the host nation, Djibouti, as a regional example of the stability he seeks for Somalia, noting its “political maturity and established institutions.”<\/p>\n
“Today, Somalia has set its foot on this same road,” President Mohamud declared, signaling his administration’s commitment to this path.<\/p>\n
He framed this institutional reform as the essential next step for the nation, allowing it to “move beyond person-centric politics and clan-based politics.” This structural change, he suggested, is the necessary foundation for completing Somalia’s constitutional review process and achieving the long-term goal of a universal “one person, one vote” electoral system.<\/p>\n
The President’s address in Arta serves as a clear articulation of his vision for a new Somali republic, one governed by resilient systems and the rule of law rather than the shifting fortunes of individual leaders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ARTA, Djibouti (SONNA) \u2013 President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of the Federal Republic of Somalia delivered a foundational speech on Friday at the 25th-anniversary commemoration of the Arta Reconciliation Conference in Djibouti, calling for a systemic overhaul of Somali politics. The President argued for a decisive shift away from a political culture centered on individuals and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":450826,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-450825","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-local"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450825"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":450827,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450825\/revisions\/450827"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}