SOMALIA: Why I am Running for the Office of the President of the Somali Republic. by Bashir Nur-Bidar Hassan Looyan PhD

Why I am Running for the Office of the President of the Somali Republic
by Bashir Nur-Bidar Hassan Looyan PhD

 

Not long ago, while having to decide what career to pursue, I was asked the ever-important question of “what motivates you?” It seemed to me then, as it now, that at the heart of this merely three words question is a query to the very essence of one’s drive which must be acknowledged as both a guide and forecast measure to successes in life and hereafter.

As the years, I continually have to revisit and ponder over the fundamental premise of this question and acknowledge to myself that which motives at every significant juncture of my personal life and my career.

By the grace of Allah the Almighty, I can say many things have motivated me. My late father AUN Nur Hassan Looyaan certainly has, as did my family, childhood friends, classmates, neighbors , the poor and distressed, the unfortunate and the helpless, and society as a whole have served as source of inspiration to strive successes in life, to transform negatives into positives, and to see challenges as opportunities for growth and enlightenments. Therefore, as I today seek to render public service for my country and people, it is must that I publicly re-acknowledge to myself what it is that motives me in seeking the privilege and the honor for the Presidency of Somalia – the highest public servant.

Without a doubt, at the heart of my drives public service are senses of civic duty and concerns for the plights of the poor, the distressed, the unfortunate, and the helpless of our society accompanied by an inherent desire to offer service and leadership, to the best of my abilities and accumulated expertise, for the land of my birth towards better tomorrow for its people.

As a student and then as a professional, I have followed, with serious interest, awareness, and deep sorrow the calamities that have befallen our Republic and people; cataclysmic calamities that shook the foundations of our nation state causing hard to stomach tallies of lost lives, boundless hardships that spared no one, not to mention immense destructions of properties and infrastructures. We have witnessed war in its most hellish form and millions of our countrymen, having being uprooted from their homes, are today refugees either in their own country or in exile.

Drought and famine have pierced into our souls to humanitarian catastrophe levels. Deforestation and environmental degradation have stripped naked our once beautiful and lush green lands, rendering it barren and potentially uninhabitable. We have witnessed staggering declines in human and country developments.

Rather than witnessing it, doing something in subduing and reversing the tides of the aforementioned protracted sorrowful state of our affairs is the prime reason/drive of my candidacy.

It is my firm belief, as my Somalis would attest, that among the key factors that have sustained our society’s immeasurable tragedies are failures in leadership and in governance. Thankfully, these are factors that can be changed and no longer must we remain indifferent, due to despair, in affecting these existential changes our people and country desperately need and undeniably deserve.

Ever since the birth of our Mandeeq, hope, for better tomorrow to come, has stubbornly remained in the hearts of our people. In our darkest of days, exemplary resiliencies in the face of cataclysmic tragedies were our demonstrable true quality and reinforced strengths. By the grace of Allah, accompanied by our undying Hope and demonstrated Resiliency, the promised bounties of our proverbial Mandeeq (the satisfier of our Hopes) shall fruit handsomely for and be shared by all. Change shall come, for we have waited for far too long!.

Dr.Looyan is the eldest son of the late Nur (Nur-Bidar) Hassan Looyan and presidential candidate in Somalia. He can be reached at looyaan@looyaan.com and http://www.looyaan.com.