Somalia has a new, apparently popular president. His main challenges include making federalism work, reducing corruption and improving security.
Somalia's complicated electoral process is finally complete and the country's new big cheese has his work cut out.
Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed - known by the nickname Farmajo - is a technocrat, a former prime minister who served just eight months in office, but is a popular choice judging from the response to his victory on the streets.
There was celebratory gunfire punctuating the night sky across Mogadishu, as the results from the secured voting hall at the highly fortified airport were broadcast to the nation.
His nickname (derived from the Italian word for cheese - formaggio) was apparently inherited from his father rather than from a childhood love of Italian cheese as has been reported, but that's perhaps a question for his first news conference.
Mr Farmajo wasn't favourite to win the presidential election - in some quarters he was one of the least fancied of the main contenders.
Somalis may share one ethnicity, language and religion, but years of war have hardened the domination of society and politics by a complex family tree of clans, sub-clans, and sub-sub clans, and the differing loyalties and rivalries between them.
Members of the Hawiye clan have dominated political leadership in Mogadishu for many years, and although presidents in Somalia don't tend to win second terms in office, another Hawiye choice was available.
By selecting a Darod from the more northern regions of Somalia, MPs from the upper and lower houses decided to vote for even greater change.
Having joint American and Somali nationality, Mr Mohamed returned from the US only last year to announce his candidacy.
He was first posted to the Somali embassy in Washington in the 1980s and was studying in the US when the civil war started in 1991 and he claimed political asylum.
Five things about Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed:
He is a dual Somali-US national
Father of four, with family still in the US
His nickname, Farmajo, is derived from the Italian word for cheese, formaggio
Graduated from the University of Buffalo in New York state with a degree in history and master's in American studies
Was working for the transportation department in Buffalo when he was asked to return to Somalia as prime minister
He was a popular prime minister during his brief tenure in 2010 and 2011, with a reputation for making sure soldiers were paid their monthly salaries.
And with state finances allegedly being diverted to fund an expensively corrupt electoral process they will be hoping to jump to the front of the queue.
Strengthening the national army and police force - in the new federal state that Somalia has become - will be probably his first challenge.
"The real question is whether he is able to work with the federal member states or not," said Matt Bryden from the Somali-focused research organisation Sahan.
"If he is, then Somalia will move in the right direction and the institutions of government will broaden and deepen their legitimacy.
"If he finds himself at odds with the federal member states then there could be political tension or possibly crisis, and we could lose a lot of time in building relations between the regions and the centre."
Seen by some as a nationalist and a centrist while prime minister, the success of what's become a firmly federal project will depend on a change of heart.
Devolution of power was strengthened through the electoral process with the selection of parliament's upper house by federal member states.
But there are unanswered questions over how state income will be distributed from port taxes or natural resources like oil.
And the big failure of federalism so far has been security, and the inability of the central government to form a national army or police force that is trusted across the country and can effectively counter the threat of militant group al-Shabab.
The Islamists have shown a growing capability during the electoral process - bigger suicide bombs and complex armed attacks in Mogadishu, as well as large-scale attacks on foreign military bases in the countryside.
But they failed to stop the electoral process.
The regional African Union intervention force, Amisom, has kept al-Shabab at bay, but troop-contributing countries are setting deadlines to leave.
Foreign troops can clear al-Shabab out of towns and villages, but an insurgency can be beaten only if the vacuum left behind is filled - through the Somali government providing justice, rule of law and services such as health care and education.
"The fight against al-Shabab is really about building state structures and government," said Sahan director Matt Bryden.
"The regional forces and the clan militia are doing the heavy lifting. It's not being done by Somali national army or federal police, and there's a need to adjust the international investment in the security sector to align it with reality."
There's been a difference of opinion within the international actors in Somalia over whether to support centrally run security forces, or those delegated to the regions, where outsiders are not trusted.
Corruption is something which needs to be tackled with a firm hand.
Marqaati, a Somali non-governmental organisation focusing on corruption, has criticised the electoral process.
"The year 2016 was the worst year for accountability in Somalia as political actors sought to use whatever means possible to win the indirect elections process," its recent report began.
It claimed some presidential candidates paid $50,000 to $100,000 to MPs to secure their vote.
There are many accounts and accusations of money being paid in exchange for votes, with a statement from the US, EU and UN before the poll criticising the lack of accountability.
It was hoped that appointing more than 14,000 delegates to choose the 275 members of the lower house of parliament would restrict how much money was ploughed into politics, but it may have just increased the amounts involved.
Even the UN's special representative for Somalia, Michael Keating, admitted there were problems.
"It's not really a normal election, it is a political process with important electoral features," he told the BBC.
"Somalia doesn't have the infrastructure that you need to have one person, one vote elections. So inevitably it is very difficult to control money flows.
"The process has definitely been flawed in some ways - in many ways - but the result I hope will justify the effort that has gone into it," he said.
"There hasn't been a one person, one vote election here since 1969."
And that's another of the challenges facing the new president - ensuring there's a path towards full, democratic elections in four years' time.
Keep these in mind as you contemplate the direction of the American government over the past 50 years and especially since the Obama election.
The Goals of Communism
(as read into the congressional record January 10, 1963, from "The Naked Communist" by Cleon Skousen)
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.
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