Kormeeraha Magazine Team picked General Odowa Yusuf Rageh as the Somali Personality of the month of August.
That month has a particular significance for the young general since he was promoted Chief of Staff of the Somalia National Army on August 2019 at the age of 32.
The past few months, General Rageh was on the frontline fighting the enemy of the nation, unlike other living Chiefs of Staff, and like the greatest generals in history.
He didn’t only share the hardships faced by our under-equipped, underpaid and weary young soldiers in the bushes, he showed them leadership and what sacrifice means.
General Rageh is a gifted young man whose professionalism, patriotism, courage and dedication launched him to the top within 14 years.
The main reason for Odowa’s rapid rise is that he is the antithesis of everything that undermines Somalia: corruption, warlords, nepotism, entitlement mentality, unruliness, treachery.
He is one of the rare high-ranking officers who are not tainted by the old regime’s abuses, the clan wars and massacres, and the theft of army property.
Rageh took his stripes thanks to his merit and the openness of the current President to let younger generation take the lead of the national army.
Last July, the nation commended its confidence and audacity to criticize the passivity of AMISOM troops in the fight against Al-Shabab and remind them of their rules of engagement.
We thank him for staying out of the political skirmishes that slow down the country’s progress and his focus on what matters to the nation: our security.
He is everything Somalia needs now: fresh start with a clean slate, patriotism, discipline and dynamism.
The successes and steadfastness of the General, and the national army which he leads, make us proud and give us hope for a secure and sovereign Somalia.
