Hiiraan Online

Nicholas Musonye
Saturday, November 29, 2008

Nicholas Musonye (left), the Cecafa Secretary General, and the late Farah Addo. [photo: courtesy]

Addo is one man African football will take long to forget. Born in Mogadishu in 1940 to peasant parents, Addo was a self made man, who rose from the streets of Mogadishu to become the second most powerful man in African football.

He once told me how he washed cars and ran errands for Somali merchants in Mogadishu to raise money to feed his large family who depended on him at the age of 10. At 12, Addo had decided that he wanted to be a sportsman, and that is when he enrolled to play for the popular Somali club, Horseed.

He had played on the streets of Mogadishu where he lived very dangerously during his childhood— fighting with gangsters and petty peddlers. He survived a stormy childhood and lived also to fight other bigger wars in his adult life.

Fifa ban

In between he served as the Chairman of the Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations (Cecafa) as well as Vice president of Confederation of African Football (Caf), chairman Somalia Olympic Committee, member of Fifa referees committee and a member of Association of Olympic Committees of Africa (Anoca).

At the height of the insurgency against President Siad Barre, Addo was one of the men who went into the bush to dislodge the Somali strongman. By then, Addo had become the mayor of Mogadishu and one of the most successful businessmen in Somalia.

After dislodging Barre the comrades-in-arms turned against Addo and drove him into exile in Cairo. From his Cairo command post, Addo ruled African football with an iron fist that saw him become the most feared Caf executive committee member.

Having sat on the Caf executive committee from 1988 alongside, Kenya’s late Joab Omino, Addo always wanted to be the big man of Cecafa and in his spirited efforts to stamp his authority in the region, he fought bruising battles with Omino and many other football administrators in the region. In the end, Addo prevailed and became CAF vice president in 2000 during the Congress in Ghana.

That elevation gave Addo increased powers which saw him change Cecafa statutes from Cairo and flew to the region in November 2000 to stage a swift coup during the Cecafa congress in Kampala, Uganda and swept to the body’s chairmanship for the second time.

Embroiled in fights

In May 2001, I became the General Secretary of Cecafa and worked with Addo in transforming the turbulent organisation, which had been embroiled in fights for quite a while. During his stint at Cecafa, Addo clashed with many people who he perceived to be corrupt and not worth running football in the region.

In 2002, Addo shifted his base to Nairobi to launch another ambitious project of becoming the President of Somalia.

He spent over Sh37 million mobilising his supporters in the Diaspora for his campaign. But the warlords in Mogadishu once again stifled his campaign and never allowed him to return to his motherland.

Towards the end of 2002, external forces outside Cecafa region waged an underground campaign and staged a vicious coup that removed Addo from the helm of Cecafa in an acrimonious Congress in Mwanza, Tanzania.

Facing problems from Fifa, Cecafa and even in Somalia, Addo resigned from all Football activities in 2004 and shifted to Dubai. During all these skirmishes, Caf president Issa Hayatou of Cameroon remained Addo’s bossom friend and in 2006 Congress in Cairo, Addo told me: " I have so many friends, but Hayatou is my most sincere friend and the only one I can trust."

Failling health

Failing health took a huge toll on Addo and in September this year, I met him in Cairo and he looked frail and visibly sick. He briefly returned to Dubai, but on a visit back to Cairo early November, Addo died, but with a will that his remains must be taken to Mogadishu at a spot he had indicated. He was laid to rest on November 25 and Africa has indeed lost a hero in the true sense of the word.