By Mohammed Hirmoge, communications expert
For the 13th time, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has invited the opposition for talks. The previous 12 attempts failed. Not necessarily because the differences were irreconcilable, but because the President appeared unwilling to budge.
This has become a familiar routine: extend an invitation, welcome opposition leaders to Villa Somalia, smile and shake hands for the cameras, then refuse to concede an inch. It is a political version of musical chairs, except that everyone keeps moving while nothing changes.
Now, for the 13th time, the President has invited the opposition for talks on elections, scheduled for 14 November. But the steps leading up to this invitation offer little reason to believe this round will end differently.
Let’s unpack that.
First, elections are held in Galmudug and Hirshabelle, with the outcome already predetermined. The President’s allies and his party emerge in a position to celebrate, while questions over the credibility and competitiveness of the process linger.
Then comes the disputed electoral commission, which announces the timetable for federal and presidential elections. And, as the icing on the cake, the President declares, rather boastfully, “No consultations!”
No consultations on a matter that will determine the country’s political future.
Then, voilà! Two weeks later, he addresses the nation and extends an invitation to the opposition for “talks.”
The sequence raises an obvious question: if consultation was unnecessary when the electoral timetable was being drawn up, what has changed now? Is this a genuine opening for compromise, or an attempt to secure political legitimacy for decisions already made?
The President may not have invented the art of buying time, but he has certainly perfected it.
The real test of the 13th invitation is not whether the opposition will show up at Villa Somalia. It is whether the President is prepared to negotiate, reconsider disputed decisions and make meaningful concessions. Without that, 14 November risks becoming another photo opportunity in a political process that has mastered the appearance of dialogue without delivering its substance.
