The study seeks to explore the impact of leadership personalities of previous Somali political leaders on social integration. As Somalia now transit into post conflict reconstruction, there is the need to explore how previous flaws in leadership personalities resulted into social disintegration of the Somali society. To achieve this objective, qualitative interviews were held with 13 respondents across Somali elite in Mogadishu. Using the Big Five personality framework, the results revealed that previous Somali leadership personalities were deeply flawed due to colonial legacy and influence of clannism. In addition, fear of losing and retaining power at all cost instituted clannism as a means on obtaining and retaining political power, thereby compromising unity and social integration. The result also depicted that a significant number of Somali leaders were generally low in conscientiousness as a necessary leadership quality within the Big Five framework. The study maintains that the ongoing post-conflict reconstruction is unlikely to succeed unless leadership personality adapts properly to the prevailing situation of social integration. Moreover, the study recommends that leadership in Somalia should prioritize the restoration of social trust so that Somalia’s reconstruction process can succeed.
The study analyses the implication of the relationship between leader attitude and Somali Clan-Structure in post-conflict nation-building. The research questions were drawn from a review of relevant literature. Ten subjects were interviewed as a sample to achieve the study objective. Data were thematically analysed using a combination of social identity and reification theories. The results show that clan structure significantly influences Somali leadership attitude in nation-building. The paper argues that since it is clear that the reified clan system exerts a strong unfavourable influence on the future attitudes of Somali leaders towards nation building, the clan structure must be repositioned. Notably, the study discovered that the rise and fall of Siad Barre’s efforts in nation-building relate to the adverse influence of Clan-Structure on the leader’s attitude. As glaringly made clear by this study, attitudes that adversely affected nation-building in Somalia, as depicted by Siad Barre, were dictatorial, nepotistic, egoistic and survivalist. The consequence has been the fragmentation of the Somali political system into clan particularism resulting in a survivalist race and determination of leadership attitude. The study concludes that despite the centrality of Clan-Structure in shaping Somali leaders’ attitudes, there is the necessity for a radical departure towards more constitutional-democratic practice for success in post-conflict nation-building. The study presented some recommendations on reforms in relation to clan structure and leadership attitude towards a more constitutionally relevant PCR.
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