Consensus politics freed Somali leaders from fear of political violence

Evidence

The basic distinguishing feature of the … team was the fundamental factor underlying the political framework … consensu[s]… . One of the results of such consensual approach was the removal of the need to resort to political violence. Hence, neither the government nor its opponents considered intimidation as an instrument to use in the political arena… . The advantage of this system of mutual tolerance … included … freedom from physical intimidation and from the resulting worry about their personal safety. Consequently, one of the common sights [in Mogadishu] of the period was to see Prime Minister Abdirazak Haji Hussen sitting in Juba hotel, sipping a cup of tea while dueling verbally with the critics of his government. He would, at the end, calmly walk, usually alone, to his house, situated a few hundred metres up the hill to the then Monopolio. An equally familiar sight of the period was to find the President of the Republic, Aden Abdulle Osman, performing his Maqreb prayers, beside his small Fiat, alone or with an ad hoc prayers gathering on the road side. There just were no reasons then for either of them to worry about his personal safety. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 694