Gacmadheere pursued his secondary education in Syria, and then moved on to Iraq and Romania, where he eventually obtained Bachelor's, Master's and PHD degrees in the fields of Economics and Agriculture.
He was reportedly a leader of Mogadishu's civil society groups, and opposed the armed factions led by warlords as well as the sectarian clan violence that had engulfed the nation after the collapse of the central government.
Gacmadheere contended in the 2000 presidential elections held in Djibouti, but eventually lost to Abdikassim Salat Hassan.
He was also for a brief period a political advisor to Ali Khalif Galaid who at the time was Somalia's Prime Minister.
He announced that checkpoints were established by Somali and Ethiopian forces to conduct searches for the Islamists.