Former President Farmaajo accuses Hassan Sheikh of violating the constitution, consolidating power through state resources, and dismantling Somalia’s fragile federal order.
As Somalia prepares for one-person, one-vote elections, former President Farmaajo warns that President Hassan Sheikh is undermining the constitution and fragmenting national unity by politicizing federal institutions and alienating member states.
Somalia is inching closer to a political cliff—and former President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo has just thrown up a flare. In a searing statement this week, Farmaajo accused President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of tearing through the Transitional Federal Constitution and dragging the country into a dangerous spiral of authoritarianism, factionalism, and federal breakdown.
The trigger? The launch of the Justice and Solidarity Party (JSP), a so-called political movement chaired by Hassan Sheikh and propped up by federal power brokers. Far from being a vehicle for democratic reform, Farmaajo and sixteen other heavyweight opposition leaders see JSP as a blatant power grab—one that abuses state resources, weaponizes government institutions, and steamrolls regional autonomy under a fraudulent banner of “unity.”
Farmaajo didn’t mince words. He cited constitutional violations—including articles protecting parliamentary independence and mandating executive neutrality—and condemned the use of the national army, public media, and civil servants to build a state-backed political machine. His warning was unambiguous: Somalia is on the brink of renewed political crisis.
Puntland President Said Abdullahi Deni doubled down, calling the JSP a repackaged 4.5 clan formula meant to entrench Mogadishu’s dominance. “The National Consultative Council has become a political party,” he said, accusing the president of orchestrating a hostile takeover of Somalia’s federal structure.
And therein lies the real danger. With Jubbaland and Puntland already in open defiance and central institutions like the NCC hollowed out, the promise of one-person, one-vote elections risks being reduced to a farce. The federal government’s interference in regional politics, its dismantling of commissions, and its promotion of party loyalists over consensus leaders threatens to reignite the very tensions that plunged Somalia into chaos decades ago.
As universal suffrage looms, Farmaajo’s warning serves as a call to arms: either Hassan Sheikh recommits to inclusive governance and constitutional order—or Somalia enters yet another chapter of elite power struggle, dressed in the language of reform.
