By Ismail Ali Ismail (Geeldoon)

On Wednesday, January 27, 2016 the Somali people lost one of their best and brightest advocates and senior diplomats in the person of Ambassador Abdullahi Said Osman, who passed away in the U.S, and in him I also lost a great friend of long standing – a friend whose memory I shall cherish for the rest of my life. I gather he and I were, approximately, of the same age, but we were introduced in 1961 by common friends in Hargeisa. He was then on leave from his law studies in the U.K and I was working in the Governor’s Office. I had finished my secondary education the year before in Aden and was hoping for a scholarship abroad. We have since been very good friends.

Since WardheerNews.com has just republished the life history of Abdullahi in his own words, I would limit myself to my knowledge of him as a person and as a friend.

I knew Abdullahi’s father too – Sheikh Said – and later his growing family. Those who knew Abdullahi never failed to see how deeply he loved his father and was attached to him. He was a man with a tender heart, a happy man, a man of the people, always wearing a friendly smile, and could be easily engaged in a conversation. Though some of the early graduates were just too much for themselves Abdullahi was down to earth, and would befriend both princes and paupers easily and treat them exactly the same way. For in his eyes people were equal, no matter how varied their fortunes in life. He was gregarious and fond of jokes; and when he laughed – which was often – he laughed with all his heart. But one could, nevertheless, detect a lawyerly streak in him.

A man’s fabric is sometimes shown more accurately by the way he treats the people who serve him at home or in the office. I knew some rotten characters, both back home and in the UN, who filled themselves with airs to terrorize their juniors but were almost instantly deflated, like a punctured tire, at the sight of a superior. Abdullahi was kind and genuine. His kindly disposition was demonstrated beyond the slightest shadow of doubt when, as Assistant Secretary General of the OAU, his Ethiopian cook of a few months asked if he could be helped with a visa to Rome where he would look for better opportunities. Abdullahi did not make a promise, but he spoke to the Italian Ambassador and got him the visa.

Abdullahi and I never worked together. But he was one of my referees when I applied for the UN job in Addis Ababa in 1976. He was then ‘Chief State Counsel’ at the level of Permanent Secretary, and I was at SIDAM. He did not lie to say that he was familiar with my work, but he did write an excellent character reference. After his tour of service in Geneva and New York as a successful Ambassador to the UN he joined us in Addis Ababa at a time when no Somali could be expected to run for, let alone being elected, to such exalted position as Assistant Secretary General of the OAU.

It all happened due to his optimism, his pertinacity and his brilliant calculation. And as we Moslems say: “It was written that he should get the post”. He called me one evening at home in Addis Ababa to tell me that he wanted to run for the post, and to ask for my advice. I was flabbergasted and told him without mincing my words of the futility of trying to unseat the incumbent of the post who represented and was backed by the host government, Ethiopia, particularly when there was no Somali government to back him and push his candidacy. But, he insisted and did not recoil. Somali Ambassador Ibrahim Haji Musa (to Ethiopia) and I got together, discussed the matter and agreed that the man had taken leave of his senses. And we told him so. But he did not budge, and we left the matter at that thoroughly convinced that he was wasting his time, his money and his energy.

However, God turned the tables on the incumbent. Within days the Ethiopian government fell and the new EPRDF fellows were not prepared to support the incumbent’s candidacy and said so openly. In the event, Abdullahi flew to Abuja where the OAU Summit was being held in 1991, ran for the post and was, against all odds, elected. A day or two later I flew from Addis Ababa to New York on official mission. On arrival, I spoke to Khadra, his wife, on the phone and was pleasantly surprised to learn that he got the post. Well, there is such a thing as Divine intervention, for God can change anything within the blink of an eye, and that was what happened. I think it was Napoleon who said that ‘impossibility’ is found in the dictionary of fools. Abdullahi showed that to be true.

Abdullahi’s family and mine were one family in Addis Ababa. We spent five happy years together: the children went to school together, ate together, played together and have since close friends. In a way, we are all bereaved by his demise but he will continue to live in our hearts.

Abdullahi, was a good human being, a good husband, a good father and grandfather, and certainly a good and loyal friend. He was a nationalist too. I extend my sympathies to Khadra, Mohammed, Omer, Nasser, the little grandsons and the rest of the nuclear and extended family. May the Lord erase his debits, multiply his credits and accommodate him in Firdowsa. Amin, Amin, Amin!

Ismail Ali Ismail (Geeldoon)
Email:geeldoonia@gmail.com
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Ismail Ali Ismail (Geeldoon), is an author and political analyst, who writes about  politics and governance. Mr. Geeldoon is a regular contributor of WardheerNews and the author of the book, Governance: The Scourge and Hope of Somalia. Now retired, he was a senior civil servant in Somalia and, later, a senior professional staff-member of the United Nations. He now resides in Virginia, USA.