His name combines that of the Holy
Prophet of Islam (Mohammed) on two sides and Mohammed’s father’s name in
between. Then his more popular Italian nickname follows – a nickname he is
known for and for which he bears on his official twitter handle – ‘Farmajo’.
Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed ‘Farmajo’
was on February 8 elected the 9th President of Somalia. An election held in an
airport hangar due to increasing insecurity largely because of the activities
of al-Shabaab insurgents.
There was a virtual lockdown in the
capital Mogadishu as lawmakers in the country’s Upper and Lower legislative
houses met to choose the Chief Executive of the Horn of Africa’s most insecure
and embattled nation.
Security aside, a battered economy
and drought are not helping matters and yet Farmajo and over 20 others believed
it was worth pitching to inherit a nation in crisis, with the view to turn
things around for the better.
In the end, it came down to four
candidates and then to two – Farmajo and the then incumbent Hassan Sheikh
Mohamud, who ‘saved the day’ by conceding to President Farmajo – all candidates
committing to join hands to overcome the challenges.
Who
is the man Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed Farmajo?
- Born in the Somali capital Mogadishu in 1962. The
President is married with four children
- He holds dual citizenship Somali and American. He moved
to the US in 1985, he got his US citizenship after 1991.
- He worked as a secretary in the Somali embassy in
Washington DC between 1985 and 1988.
- He put himself through school after arrival in the US,
8 years later (1993) he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in history from
the University of Buffalo.
- Then 6 years later (2009) he bagged a master’s degree
in American studies. His thesis was titled, ‘U.S. Strategic Interest in
Somalia: From the Cold War Era to the War on Terror.’
- Whiles in the US, he worked for the Buffalo Municipal
Housing Authority as a commissioner. In 2000 he served as minority
business coordinator with the county’s equal employment opportunity
division.
-Africanews
AEP
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