Osman blamed all sides equally for the pre-independence political crisis

Evidence

I told him that I did not intend to advise anybody unless they request it, that I would have spoken with these men if they had consulted with me and would have tried to dissuade them. I told him that I do not want to get involved. I ask myself why Abdullahi expects others to do what is in his interest when he very well knows that he totally ignored the advice of those whom he would like to help. Inept he, Abdullahi, inept the administrator, and inept the dissidents who went too far in sending telegrams abroad with the evident danger of discrediting the future of our country on the eve of independence and who lost the confidence of others who would have supported them in a vote of no confidence to the government. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 406

Categorization

• SEED: Osman’s frustrated diary entry, denouncing every party to the dispute as inept, is a vivid primary-character moment — usable as an anecdote in writing about leadership neutrality or the isolation of a principled middleman.