Hiiraan Online
Saturday October 12, 2019
MOGADISHU (HOL) - Jubbaland president Ahmed Madobe has said he is ready for talks with the Federal Government noting he is not opposed to President Mohamed Farmaajo and Prime Minister Hassan Khaire.
Speaking during his inauguration in Kismayu Saturday, Madobe who now officially starts his second four year term said Somali leaders should give dialogue a chance.
Noting that the current stalemate between Kismayu and Mogadishu was adversely hurting the people of Jubbaland, Madobe said it was time to set aside differences for the common good of Somalis.
The Jubbaland leader said it was wrong to subject the people of Jubbaland to ‘punishment’ for political reasons adding his administration recognized the leadership of President Farmaajo.
The Federal Government has severally insisted it does not recognize Madobe’s election.
Madobe’s remarks come barely a week after the Federal Government issued guidelines on what it said were to guide new elections in Jubbaland.
Speaking in the same event, former president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and his predecessor Sheikh Sharif Ahmed lashed at the government noting the country was heading in the wrong direction.
Mohamud said the ‘situation in Mogadishu is not acceptable’ calling on the government to ‘rectify it’.
What we are demanding are basic rights of all Somalis not an individual, Mohamud said. Sheikh Sharif said the country needed ‘salvation’. "Somalia is heading on a treacherous path and needs salvation. Every sensible Somali should work together on saving this nation,” Sharif said.
Senate first speaker Abshir Ahmad called for completion of the constitutional review process noting its incompletion and lack of respect for it was ‘the greatest undoing of our time’.
The event was attended by prominent Somali and Kenyan politicians among them Kenya’s majority leader Aden Duale and his Kamukunji counterpart Yusuf Hassan among others.