On February 08, 2017, Somalia delegates elected a Somali American to become the nation’s ninth president pre and post-war. The hope that came with the event was so potent that his inauguration on February 22 the same year was attended by over 1,200 delegates and presidents of two neighbouring countries who had hoped this was the moment the sleeping giant was waiting for. Just like every horror movie, the tell-tale signs of his short stint as prime-minister in 2010 did not tell the story that was a somali educated American dual citizen with less than desirable moral character to lead the nation from war.

The president, upon election and inauguration started to show his true colours, amassing power and auctioning Somali resources to the highest bidder regardless of the benefit to the community given our countries less than ideal negotiating power given the security instability challenges. The desire of the 195 delegates of the 330 that endorsed him and the people they represented, save a few that knew his true mission, was to defeat Al-shabaab and stabilize the country in order to leverage the stability for development. In my mind, and I hope for the one that represented me in voting for him, these tasks were to be undertaken in the specific and logical sequence; security, stability and then development.

Needless to say, the honourable president saw things differently. He had his personal objectives. In his way, stood regional leaders who had sacrificed all to fight alshabaab but the president wanted to consolidate power to Villa Somalia. Talk of absolute power corrupting absolutely. The president begun fighting leaders of semiautonomous regions of the country in view of spreading of his incompetence tentacles. While this happened, our people were bombed out of existence day in day out while the security forces were busy trying to subvert semiautonomous regions instead of protecting women and children going on with their daily lives from the egregious Al-shabaab.

Ahmed Mohamed Islam aka Madobe and the president of Juba used his clout in the region to overcome all these misguided nefarious overtures. The Somalia resources were almost entirely channelled into defeating Madobe, the little that wasn’t pocketed by the president and his cronies anyway. The 2019 Jubbaland elections was the culmination, the climax so to say of the battle between the people of Jubbaland protecting their semi-autonomy and livelihood and the Villa Somalia hegemony.

Villa Somalia poured its’ all to ensure that the Jubbaland elections were too chaotic for an acceptable outcome. Things happened; Bombs, splinter groups and contested nominations but the people of Jubba Kind of knew what was good for them at least in their own eyes. Madobe was elected president for another term. This was more a scathing indictment of Villa Somalia’s ability to influence anything outside of Mogadishu, a place they can’t keep secure for a week.

After the elections were over, the only weapon left in the hands of Farmaajo was to ensure the election of Ahmed Mohammed Islam was not legitimized by a successful inauguration studded with opinion leaders and leadership from the region and beyond. Villa Somalia issued a NOTAM; all flights headed to Kismayu to pass through Mogadishu so that they could limit the number of attendees to the inauguration. To make the point even clearer, they started arresting Jubbaland government officials and jailing them. The idea was no star-studded inauguration for the Jubbaland leader at any cost. Villa Somalia on 23 September banned former President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed from travelling to Kismayo to attend Madobe’s inauguration.

The former president of Somalia Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, Puntland president Said Abdullahi Deni, current and former leaders of Galmudug and South-West states, members of federal parliament, senators and other influential political leaders in the country and beyond attended president Madobe’s inauguration for a second four year term.

Is the attendance of the inauguration a sign of the growing acceptance and appreciation of the autonomous leadership of Jubbaland in Somalia and the region at large? Is the unequivocal endorsement of Madobe election by current and former leadership of other autonomous regions as well as the peoples’ representatives in the federal government a statement against Farmaajo’s tentacles of unabated corruption? Is Villa Somalia’s inability to dumpen the election and inauguration of the Jubbaland people a sign of Somali people’s power triumph over the evil dominion of a corrupt and self-serving federal government?

Mohammed Ise Khayre

The writer is a Somali national and an anticorruption activist

Find him on twitter @Ise_Khayre

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By Christine Apiot

Recently, we celebrated the UNESCO World teachers’ Day, I’m very happy with this year’s theme “Young Teachers: The future of Professions”. This is because in Uganda, we don’t have many young people in the profession as we would want and they aren’t always supported in a way that would make them the best teachers they could be.

This theme thus calls on the fact that we need to secure tomorrow’s teachers by having more young people join the teaching profession and harnessing the enthusiasm that new teachers have to improve learning outcomes. As we work on motivating young teachers to join the profession, supporting them properly will be critical. This is why a new campaign was launched and is ongoing called #TeachersTransformLives to celebrate teachers on World Teachers’ Day and advocate for bettersupport and training that will help them succeed in the classroom.

It is so well known that teaching is a noble profession and has been highly respected across generations.  It is and always was a very prestigious and respectful profession, that in Uganda if you are known as “Musomesa” you are held in high esteem. In our communities, most teachers were sort after to help in decision making and to hold positions of leadership.

Yet, despite the importance of the roles of teachers they don’t always get the support that their role demands. World over we have continuously had reports of teachers advocating for improved teacher’s welfare. There has also been a gap in terms of ongoing training and professional development. All these challenges are a deterrent to the young generation in joining this noble profession and to those thousands of teachers already in Ugandan classrooms.

Like all professions, teachers need ongoing mentorship, motivation, training and development. They need to feel that what they do matters and see the evidence of learning after all their hard work. They need materials and resources that will enable them to teach to the best of their ability; plus encouragement and feedback that will help them to grow.  Helping teachers deliver child centric lessons in an interactive way; narrating the positive and providing ongoing training and development all helps teachers teach and ultimately children learn.

As we mark this important Day of teachers, showing more support and mentorship to the teachers is what can motivate and encourage more millennials to join the profession and make those within, be successful in the classroom, improve outcomes and as a result to feel satisfied and love the work they are doing.

That is why the new campaign – #TeachersTransformLives – is shining a light on inspirational teachers whose teaching has been transformed through a tripartite programme of materials, support and development. An approach to teaching that is helping teachers transform young lives; by improving learning outcomes; excelling in challenging environments and developing the leaders of tomorrow.

The teachers highlighted in #TeachersTransformLives share their stories of how their teaching has changed and enabled them to turn their classrooms into springboards for success. Ibrahim Bashir from Bridge Academy in Yesu Amala is just one of the teachers highlighted in the campaign who has transformed the way he teaches and delights in sharing his success. 

Every teacher can succeed with the right support. That’s the main message of the new campaign designed to highlight the importance of training and empowering teachers across the world. If we want learning outcomes to improve we must focus on teachers.

The writer is Ugandan educationalist and Brookings Institute Fellow.

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By Martin Zwilling

You have to be extra tough mentally to start a new business venture. While thinking about it, I realized that it’s really not that different from the toughness required and trained into America’s elite military force of Navy SEALs, who are known to be cool under fire, able to sense danger before it’s too late, and never give up on achieving their objective.

I learned some good lessons along these lines from the classic book “The Way of the SEAL,” by Mark Divine. He spent many years with the SEALs, but has since started and built six multimillion-dollar business ventures. He now teaches these key principles to business leaders, focusing on the following lessons and strategies, which I recommend for every entrepreneur:

Lead from the front, so that others will want to work for you. To be an entrepreneur or a Navy SEAL, you must first have vision, focus, and the courage to step up to lead. That means visibly walking the talk and willing to clear a path for others. People want to follow leaders they can learn from, who demonstrate excellence and commitment in all they do.

Focus on one thing until victory is achieved. SEALs call this front-sight focus, or the ability to envision your goal to the point that you see it, believe it, and make it happen. Every entrepreneur needs this kind of focus to build a minimum viable product, target the right customer segment, differentiate from competitors, and drive business growth.

Think offense, all the time, to eradicate fear and indecisiveness. Indecision leads to doubt, then the two blend and become fear, which signals defense, resulting in being overrun in the business world, as well as the military world. Offense, for entrepreneurs, means leading with a new business model, new marketing, and new technology.

Never be thrown off-guard by chaotic conditions. Smash the box and think outside the box. In the world of the entrepreneur and the SEAL, chaos is the norm, not the exception. Plan for it mentally and physically, and you will see opportunities rather than problems in the chaos. Winning is finding opportunities, rather than fighting problems.

Access your intuition so you can make “hard right” decisions. Your intuition is really your knowledge and awareness of your business environment, which must be honed with practice and focus. This knowledge is required for you to turn quickly or pivot based on new input from the market, without loss of competitive position.

Achieve twenty times more than you think you can. Set your targets high. Nobody knows what they are truly capable of, with the right discipline, drive, and determination (three Ds). SEALs challenge themselves to find their 20x factor, and entrepreneurs should accept no less of a challenge. Leverage the resources of mentors, investors, and peers.

By teaching and practicing the principles behind these six lessons, Mark Divine was able to improve the pass rate of Navy SEAL candidates from less than 30% to over 80%. I see the same potential for improving the success rate of new entrepreneurs from the current 10-year survival rate closer to 30%, to a new high target of 80% in this new era.

He suggests that you start with a self-assessment against the “five mountains” to be climbed on the path to self-mastery and success, with my adaptation for entrepreneurs:

Physical: business as well as technical skills required for the domain you want to enter.

Mental: ability to persevere, make decisions, focus, and visualize success.

Emotional: resilience, open to relationships, keep negative emotions under control.

Intuitional: level of awareness, listen more than speak, strong self-esteem, insightful.

Spiritual: strong values, at peace, willing to make sacrifices, see the big picture.

I agree with Divine that if you desire serious change in your life, you can’t get there by focusing on what you don’t want. Becoming an entrepreneur is a great lifestyle, but it is a serious change from other career alternatives. If you decide to be an entrepreneur because you don’t want a boss, on don’t like regular business hours, you may be setting yourself up for failure.

Apply the lessons from the Navy SEALs and you too can be an elite warrior who leads and succeeds in the new global business paradigm. Are you up to the challenge?

The writer is a veteran startup mentor, executive, blogger, author, tech professional, professor, and investor. Published on Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc, Huffington Post, among others.

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