Ibrahim Megag Samatar (Ibraahim Meygaag Samatar): economist, finance minister and SNM leader

Who was he?

Ibrahim Megag Samatar (also written Maygaag or Meygaag) was a Somali economist and politician. He served as finance minister of Somalia, defected from the military government in 1981, and was the first speaker of the House of Representatives of Somaliland (Wikipedia, Ibrahim Megag Samatar). Carl Gershman, his classmate at Yale and later president of the US National Endowment for Democracy, wrote a tribute to him for the Yale class of 1965 (Carl Gershman, "Ibrahim Samatar (1942-2011)", reposted by Abaarso Tech University, 6 November 2014).

Study and early career

He studied at Yale University and the University of California, Riverside (Wikipedia). At Yale he studied economics and lived in Jonathan Edwards College. Gershman recalls him as a believer in the "Dream of Greater Somalia", who also felt that Mogadishu treated the north as "a backyard province" (Gershman).

He went home after graduating and became Somalia's Director of the Budget in 1968 (same source). After the military took power in October 1969 he was Minister of Finance from 1970 to 1971 in the government of Siad Barre, and later Minister of Industry (Wikipedia). Gershman adds that he was also adviser to the president on economic and political affairs (Gershman).

Defection and the SNM

In 1980 he was appointed ambassador to West Germany. In 1981 he defected and asked for asylum in the United States (Gershman; Wikipedia). He joined the Somali National Movement and became its North American representative and chairman of its central committee (Gershman).

Somaliland

He chaired the House of Representatives at the 1991 conference in Burao, and held the post of speaker from 1991 to 1993, when Ahmed Abdi Mohamed succeeded him. He was elected to the House at the Borama conference of 1993 but soon resigned and left politics (Wikipedia). In 1991 he asked Gershman to help Somaliland reach policymakers in Washington, and gave a presentation to congressional staff. The National Endowment for Democracy later funded more than a dozen Somaliland organisations working on civic education, human rights, media and elections (Gershman). In a 1996 letter to President Bill Clinton he wrote that "one can hardly recall another example of a liberation movement which won power through the barrel of the gun and which was simultaneously so uninterested in ruling with its gun" (same source). See Somaliland's institutions.

Japan and his last years

He moved to Japan in 1997 and worked as a researcher at Josai International University (Wikipedia). After President Egal died in 2002 he told Gershman he might run for president, but he did not. In 2008 he published a statement of his views, "Where I Stand", covering democracy, Somali unity, Islam and the economy. It ends: "We know we are a poor nation. But, poverty need not be a curse" (Gershman). He died at his home in Tōgane, Chiba Prefecture, on 31 January 2011 (Wikipedia).

Sources disagree

• Year of birth. Wikipedia gives about 1939 and says the BBC reported 1939. His passport gave 20 February 1942, and Gershman's tribute is titled "1942-2011" (Wikipedia; Gershman).
• Place of birth. Some accounts say Hargeisa. Wikipedia says he was born in Qullad, a town in Ethiopia between Hargeisa and Aware (Wikipedia).
• His SNM title. Wikipedia calls him the SNM's North American representative. Gershman says he was also chairman of its central committee (same sources).