When Abdinur Mohamud returns to war-torn Somalia for the first time in 28 years, he'll take over the jobs of two men killed by a suicide bomber last year.
"My country is dying," said Mohamud, who has lived in central Ohio since 1985. "(I'm) trying to help a nation in dire straits."
There are others in the local Somali community who feel the same pull.
Abdulkadir Ali is embarking on a quest to become Somalia's next president. He's holding a kickoff event Saturday night at a North Side hotel and expects 200 supporters.
Abdulkadir Ali
Like Mohamud, Ali is a long-time area resident. He said he is tired of the chaos caused by two decades of strife, al-Qaida-
linked extremists and an ineffective transitional government.
Some friends question his judgment.
"They know what I'm facing. I'm facing a community and county where violence has been the norm," said Ali, the former chairman of the Somali American Chamber of Commerce who now runs a job-training center for young people.
"Everybody's waiting to get perfect conditions. I'm not waiting for perfect conditions. I don't want to be indifferent anymore and sit idle."
The two men are following others who want to fix a desperately broken country.
Mohamud was contacted in November by the country's new prime minister, a Buffalo, N.Y., Somali-American. He asked Mohamud to become Somalia's new minister of education, culture and higher education.
The new prime minister, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, had worked for Buffalo's municipal housing authority and hadn't been back to Somalia in 25 years. Since his return, he has appointed seven cabinet ministers from the Somali diaspora in the U.S., Mohamud said.
Mohamud, a language consultant for the state Education Department, is taking over duties that were handled by two men killed Dec. 3, 2009, by a man who detonated a bomb during a graduation ceremony for physicians in Mogadishu.
Abdinur Mohamud
One of the men, Ibrahim Addou, the minister of higher education, once taught at American University in Washington, D.C., and had been Mohamud's college roommate.
"They were trying to do a good job for the nation," he said.
Now it's Mohamud's turn. He's leaving behind his wife and seven children, including a 1-month-old son.
He said he benefited from the education he received in Somalia, which once provided public stipends for college, and wants to help lead the long way back within the U.S.-backed government.
"Somalia has to move beyond transitional governments toward statehood," the 50-year-old said.
Ali said he favors a united Somalia with a federal government similar to that of the United States.
"I don't want every region to have an independent foreign policy (or) military."
Mohamud said he had planned to return to Somalia after completing his education in the United States; he came to Ohio to earn a degree in public administration and government at Ohio University.
But then civil war broke out in 1991, and he has been here since. He has taken a year's leave of absence from his Ohio job but said he might be there longer.
Mohamud is well aware of the potential danger he faces.
"When your time comes, whether it's in Columbus in your bedroom or somewhere else, your time comes," he said.
mferenchik@dispatch.com
Source: THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
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