Ethnic Federalism vs Nation of Individuality

Ethio Explorer / June 29, 2014 / No Comments

The Ethnic Federalism practiced in Ethiopia is non-consequential to Ethiopia’s past or present social or political evolutions. Considering the unending external attempts to control Ethiopia, logics guide us to the footprints of Ethiopia’s worst enemies who designed and prescribed Ethnic Federalism also known, rather negatively as ‘Kilil- Governance’ (…. ….) for the purposes of controlling the rich by Browser Shop”>resources of the nation.

If we explore the deep sea of Ethiopian politics, we find the political animals as numerous as the sea contains. The concern is always about by Browser Shop”>the smallfish, the oppressed Ethnic people that dictators rise on their behalf, but only to fulfill their own agenda, greatness. History has repeatedly shown that, and the case of present Ethiopia makes it evident.

No one would be able to by Browser Shop”>answer the question unless armed with the arsenals of democratic principles, and contradictions. The pseudo democratic minds have tried in vain, and some scholars and experts have attempted to answer the question, but only to stretch the debates to no end. Little or no progress results through applications of quasi tenets of democratic concepts that some experts tend to treat the conditions of the traditional people a little differently.

This is one other spectacular opportunity for this author to argue no more with his friend, Wallelign Mekonnen, theby Browser Shop”>father of the concept of “Nation and Nationalities”, but to deliver the final messages. The debates are over and done. Here is the final chapter on which all must rest. Understanding the deep and immense love that Wallelign had for his country and its people, the author believes this brief article represents the quest and answer sought. One of us was destined to carry the burden of delivering the message to those who unwittingly waited for so long, and what a remarkable and rare opportunity to pass the message.

The Debates

To debate political philosophies, and what is good and bad, there must be some basic principles that we should accept and agree to. If we agree, for instance to travel from Addis to Dessie, we can argue about the shortest and less difficult route. If we agree Ethiopia should by Browser Shop”>continue as a nation, we can argue about the best economic and political system that suits the people. If we cannot agree on fundamental matters, each of us appeal to the people who would ultimately decide what is debatable and is not. All the ills of Ethnic Federalism exposed and its purposes known, we have reached the point to debate what is good for Ethiopian people. We can fairly debate whether constitutional monarch, capitalism, socialism, and communism, is suitable to Ethiopians.

Finally, we can presume that we have reached the higher level of the political debates, and the fundamental question now is whether Ethiopia should re-continue its existence as a nation, or let it go the route where ‘Nations & Nationalities’ leads it to. The idea that Ethiopia continues on the experimental project is a drastic proposition, and only the worst enemies of Ethiopia are its proponents. The foot soldier of this mission is TPLF, the mother of Ethnic Federalism. The roadblock by Browser Shop”>to change Ethiopians’ historic destiny, is the document of the phony constitution, which reads, ‘We nations and nationalities’. Experts assert the existences of two groups: 1) those who wish to live in the model house for they see their aspirations fulfilled, and their future hopes secured, and 2) those who fear that re-establishing the country as a “Nation of Individuality” would mean returning to the old ‘Amara-Tigre legacy’.

People can be their own worst enemy, and Africa constantly gives birth to these kind of people. When self-destructions become evident, preventive actions are essential to safeguard by Browser Shop”>the national interest. Three profoundly chaotic conditions presently exist in Ethiopia: 1) Dictators, unelected and not constitutionally empowered govern the nation. 2) The Administrative entities that represent a pseudo Federal system have no resemblance to any other government system on the planet, and 3) the half-capitalist and half-socialist practices are volcanic explosions in the making.

Furthermore, we may agree that the present political and economic systems are not definable by any economic and political principles. No Federal System does function properly as it should when dictators rule the country. We may agree that Ethiopia’s economic system is neither capitalism nor socialism. The fact that the rulers and by Browser Shop”>followers accumulated staggering amounts of wealth through vast industries and franchises they own do not make the economic system capitalism. The rulers have imposed the socialistic system upon the people, only to burden and deprive them opportunity to advance, and better themselves or simply survive. That is hardly a socialistic system known to people around the world.

The people have plenty of opportunities appearing on the horizon. Their forceful positions will materialize. Mighty citizens will emerge, and the nation will give birth to outstanding brave and wise individuals. Ethiopians have certain qualities to rely on. They can also learn from the examples and experiences of other people, and take bold actions, and make history for that is their legacy. America had repeatedly crashed the internal enemies, be it groups or States that rose against the nation. The by Browser Shop”>Federal Government will not hesitate to repeat the actions today, and it does it all the time to suppress the rise of rebellions.

A leader of a country who does not protect its sovereign territories, and defend its nationals has no business to be the leader, and he is in the true meaning of by Browser Shop”>the word, treasonous. A leader, who dismantles the power of the people’s government established to protect the nationhood, has committed the vilest treason of all times. Nothing justifies the inaction of the Ethiopian people against its enemies, except only under insurmountable armed occupation.

Ethiopians can also learn about Ethiopia’s justified historic actions from the perspective of other nations the World admires. America purchased lands, and annexed them to by Browser Shop”>create the great nation it is today. Parallel to this nation-building scheme is that of Emperor Menelik who secured some of Ethiopia’s ancient territories. During 1861 – 1865, America fought the bloodiest war and crashed the forces of the secessionists. During 1855

– 1869, Atse Tewodros crashed the small kingdoms and established the indivisible nation. If American people hold the Presidents who expanded the country as the fathers of America, Ethiopians ought to consider Atse Tewodros, Atse Yohannes, Atse Menelik, and Atse Haile Selassie as the fathers of Ethiopia. Ethiopians have also honor the little fathers by Browser Shop”>of the country who helped, and assisted to build the nation without whose roles and contributions no emperor or king would have materialized.

Nations cannot evict citizens (nationals), cut off territories of the nation, and give away land and people to other nations. These are by Browser Shop”>the laws of the jungles of TPLF applied to modern Ethiopia, where the Africa Union, and many other distinguished International organizations have permanent Head Quarters. Again, nothing justifies the inactions of the Ethiopia people, unless the people are under insurmountable armed control.

The by Browser Shop”>Concept of Indivisible Nation

Eritrea, Gondar, and Wollo wanted Tigray out of Ethiopia because they did not want to deal with the people of that province socially, and economically. The people of Tigray strongly opposed the unjust demand of the three very important provinces. The people of Tigray proved that they are as Ethiopians as any of the three provinces, and decided to fight to the last drop of blood to ensuring and securing their historic place within Ethiopia. The rest of the country alarmed by the demand of the people of three provinces arose and sided with the people of Tigray, and ordered the Federal Government to secure and ensure the rights of Tigray people as an integral part of Ethiopia. Through the action of the national forces, the Indivisible Nation prevailed.

The Concept of Succession

A group of guerilla fighters started war to separate Eritrea from Ethiopia. Many generations of Eritrean-Ethiopians had sacrificed their lives to build the nation and maintain its independence. by Browser Shop”>The small group wanted to undo the works of generations and change the long history. The Ethiopian people wanted and instructed the leader to use the nation’s forces to protect the Ethiopian nationals and its sovereign territory. However, the leader of TPLF did not have to, and disobeyed the people. The leader, known for his pervert and warped behavior instead blessed the independence of Eritrea to the amusements and horrid reactions of the leaders of nations and International communities. Tested again to what extent he would practice and display his cowardice nature, he repeated his betrayal act against the African nations. He amused the West who had known all along that he was no Ethiopian, and found him excessively coward, and embarrassingly too good for them.

If the leader of a small group of bandits can become the leader of a big nation, and rule the people he never knew, let alone serve, what prevents Ethiopians from taking actions to protect and defend its territories and nationals? If it were ok for Isayas to use military power to achieve his mission, should it be different for Ethiopia? Will the Ethiopian people ever fail to bring the coconspirators and abettors of its destruction to justice?

The “Amara-Tigre” legacy is a perpetual phobia. This insidious political phobia has inflicted the astute minds of political leaders, and misguided by Browser Shop”>followers. In the quest for “Nation of Individuality”, the democratic principles do not allow group rights. Kilil Federalism promotes groups’ (Gossa) rights. Kilil Federalism is the exact opposite concocted notion of “Nation of Individuality”. The purported “Amara-Tigre” legacy is the thing of the past. However, generations of Ethiopians will celebrate the fathers of Ethiopian Nation, Tewodros, Yohannes, Menelik, and Haile Selassie as well other many other brave Ethiopians in every locality. True Federalism requires the reconstruction of Ethiopia into provinces like those of Canada, or if necessary curving new States out of the provinces in ways that promote social, economic, and political developments.

In conclusion, support to the present Ethnic Federal government of Ethiopia ought to be with the knowledge and understanding of by Browser Shop”>the three consequential developments: 1) Dictatorship, 2) Kilil (Gossa) Federalism, and its constitution that starts with “We Nations & Nationalities”, instead of “We the people of Ethiopia”, and 3) TPLF’s capitalist stomach, and socialist mind. “Nation of Individuality” is democratic and quite a natural progression to Ethiopians’ social, economic and political developments. There is not alternative to the conditions of the Ethiopian people.

The rough and long journey, the quest for the model of ‘Nation & Nationalities’ that ensures equality and justice to every Ethiopian national is about to become a reality. The remaining road, if any is much shorter than the road you last travelled from Addis to Dessie. This document contains the final message to your beloved Ethiopians past, present and future generations, those who died dreaming and fighting for it, non in vain, those who are presently trying to make it a reality, and to those who will by Browser Shop”>continue the legacy of Ethiopians, having established their supremacy over their vast domain.

posted By Daneil Aleyu Zeleke

Who are the Zone9ers? Detainees’ Profile

Who are the Zone9ers? Detainees’ Profile

Befekadu Hailu, Atnaf Berahane, Natnael Feleke, Mahlet Fantahun, Zelalem Kibret, and Abel Wabela are members of a group known as “Zone9”, an independent blog that identifies itself as “an informal group of young Ethiopian bloggers working together to create an alternative independent narration of the socio-political conditions in Ethiopia.” Zone9 is a popular social media platform that has emerged as one of the leading spaces for campaigns on constitutional rights.

Edom Kassaye and Tesfalem Waldyes are both freelance journalists. Asmamaw Hailegeorgis is a journalist working with the Addis Guday newspaper.

Hailu, Kibret, Wabela, and Kassaye are all Amharic translators with the Global Voices network, working to make content from around the world accessible for readers in Ethiopia

Befeqadu Hailu 
Age: 32

Profession: ICT specialist, blogger and writer, 2012 Burt Award winner for African Literature Co-founder of Zone9, Global Voices Author and Translator. Befeqadu also run his own blog. He has worked as journalist for various publications since 2009. He is a graduate of Information Technology.  He is the most diligent contributor of zone9 since its establishment.

Abel Wabela
Age: 28

Profession: Graduate of Mechanical Engineering and an employee of Ethiopian Airlines. He is a co- founder of Zone9, Author and Translator for Global Voices. Abel has been blogging since 2009 on his own blog.

Atnaf Berahane
Age: 25

Profession: ICT specialist and human right activist. Co-founder of Zone9 and contributor. He is known for his use of Twitter handle for hyper local updates. He is an employee of Addis Ababa city administration at Bole sub-city. Atnaf also runs his own blog.

Natnael Feleke
Age: 27

Profession: An economist by training and a human right activist by interest. Natnael is an Internet enthusiast with positive mentality and enduring character. He is an employee of Construction and Business Bank in Addis Ababa. He is a co-founder and contributor of Zone9. He also runs his own blog. Natty is peculiarly known for his highly civil engagement with his Facebook and Twitter followers on various issues. He is an active member of the Ethiopian Economic Association.

Mahlet Fantahun
Age: 29

Profession: A graduate of Applied Mathematics working as a database administrator in Ministry of Health in Addis Ababa. Co-founder and contributor of Zone9. Mahlet is well known for her moving Facebook page notes.

Zelalem Kibret
Age: 28

Profession: A lawyer by training and a lecturer at Ambo University. He has just defended his master’s thesis at Addis Ababa University. Co-founder and contributor of Zone9. Zelalem runs a blog which is described as reliable source of educational contents by many. He raises critical social issues with his Twitter handle and engages his followers with conversation.

Edom Kassaye
Age: 28

A practicing journalist and a graduate of journalism. Edom served as a reporter for various media organizations since 2008. She worked for a government English daily “The Ethiopian Herald” Briefly,Edom was an employee of Radio Fana as a radio journalist.  She is an associate of Zone9 and a translator of Global Voices Amharic. She has a Twitter handle for public engagement.

Tesfalem Weldeyes
Age 30

A young yet seasoned journalist who has worked for most of major Ethiopian publications for the last ten years. He was a news editor for the now defunct Amharic weekly Addis Neger, a regular contributor for an English newspaper, Addis Fortune and for the English magazine Addis Standard. He has an educational background of journalism.

Asemamaw Hailegiorgis
Age 31

Asmamw’s educational background is in Information Technology and he has been a practicing journalist for the last ten years with different Ethiopian media organizations. He worked for Addis Guday for 7 years where his last position is was a managing editor. He used to have his own radio program about ICT on Addis Ababa city FM radio station.

Swedish Journalist: Political Prisoners in Ethiopia Packed in Cells Like "Slaves"

Swedish Journalist: Political Prisoners in Ethiopia Packed in Cells Like "Slaves"

SKETCHES By Ana Marie Pamintuan (The Philippine Star) | Updated June 11, 2014 - 12:00am

TURIN – In the darkened auditorium in this Italian city, some forum participants could be seen dabbing at their eyes while others could be heard blowing their nose.

It wasn’t anything in the air in the 90-year-old former Fiat automobile plant that is now the Lingotto Conference Center that made the delegates misty-eyed the other day. What touched the audience was the speech by a Swedish journalist who spent time in an Ethiopian prison for “terrorism.”

I have attended several of the annual gatherings of the World Editors Forum, where a Golden Pen of Freedom is traditionally awarded to a journalist who embodies the continuing struggle for press freedom around the world.

The typical participants in this forum are senior journalists who tend to be hardened and even jaded to suffering. Monday’s event was the first time that I saw anyone moved to tears by a colleague’s story.

“The first screams were always the worst,” Swedish journalist Martin Schibbye began his personal story of life in Addis Ababa’s notorious Kaliti prison. He would never be free of those screams, he said.

He described regular beatings, of inmates being hanged upside down. In the detention cells they were packed “like slaves” and had to sleep on their side. “Once a month an inmate leaves with his feet first,” he narrated.
Opinion ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1

More than the torture and disease, Schibbye recalled, the hardest part was “the fear of speaking.”

“It’s not the guard towers with machine guns that keep the prison population calm. It is the geography of fear. People who speak politics are taken away. They disappear,” Schibbye recounted. “It went under my skin… I would wake up wondering if I had said something against the government in my sleep.”

The Ethiopian government continues to toss critical journalists in jail for “treason” and “terrorism.” Schibbye served only 14 months of his 11-year sentence. He and his photographer Johan Persson were pardoned and freed in September 2012. But Ethiopian journalist Eskinder Nega, on whose behalf Schibbye accepted the Golden Pen of Freedom, has been in prison since his arrest in 2011 and may have to serve his full 18-year sentence.

Nega was initially joined in prison by his wife, who in her 17 months of incarceration gave birth to their son. She at least has been freed and is currently seeking asylum in the United States.

“They will never break him,” Schibbye said after reading a letter written by the Ethiopian to an older son.

Even if they have robbed Nega of almost all his freedoms including “the freedom to drink or eat, and even to [deleted],” what they can’t take away from him is the freedom to be what he wants to be, Schibbye said: “Eskinder is a journalist. And every day that he wakes up in the Kaliti prison is just another day at the office.”

“It’s not us that are fighting for his freedom,” Schibbye said as he concluded his speech, “but rather he who is fighting for ours. Ayzoh Eskinder! Ayzoh!” (The Ethiopian word means “be strong, chin up.”)

Most Filipinos have forgotten the systematic torture of political dissidents during the Marcos dictatorship and may not care what happens in Ethiopia, seen as a hopelessly failed state.

Unfortunately for us, however, instead of being detained and tortured, Filipino journalists are simply killed.

Journalism in the Philippines, as in other countries, also faces new threats that have emerged as technology allows states, private groups and crime gangs to monitor digital communication, and as governments invoke national security to clamp down on press freedom.

* * *

Journalists are facing traditional threats in delivering the news in places where civil liberties are currently being curtailed, such as Thailand and Ukraine. But because of the war on terrorism and because states are increasingly equipped to increase surveillance of individuals, press freedom is under threat even in its traditional bastions: the United States, the UK and other Western European nations.

At one of the sessions here, Associated Press president and CEO Gary Pruitt narrated how the American wire agency cooperated with their government in May 2012 and deferred publication of a foiled al-Qaeda bomb plot in Yemen because, AP was told, certain individuals could be compromised and lives could be placed at risk.

Later it was learned that the US government had secretly seized AP phone records including text messages to find out who leaked the story.

Aghast over what Pruitt described as one of the worst intrusions in its 168-year history, AP asked the US Justice Department to safeguard the records and strengthen their rules governing such cases. The US government agreed and promised that no journalist would be prosecuted for doing his job.

It was good to know no one would be sent to jail “for committing journalism,” Pruitt said, but the incident “created a very real chilling effect” on AP’s sources.

The British press, for its part, has not yet recovered from the phone hacking scandal, which has paved the way for UK officials to impose rules that tend to curtail press freedom.

“We have gone from hero to zero,” said Guy Black, executive director of the UK’s Telegraph Media Group. “Where once we could draw on our history of free speech, now we are held as a shining example that we are shackling the press.”

Why are trends in the US and UK worrisome? As Claudio Paolillo of Uruguay noted, Latin American journalists used to look up to the American and British media as models of press freedom. “Not anymore,” he said.

Worse, Paolillo said, the moves of the US and British governments to curtail press freedom in the name of national security were inspiring despots. The attitude, he said, is, “If the US can do it, I can do it too.”

* * *

I know prominent Filipinos who think the Philippine press could use tighter regulation, but government intrusions on journalists’ work can quickly get out of hand.

Borrowing a line from Winston Churchill, Pruitt reminded the audience, “The media is the worst check on government except for all the others. It’s all we’ve got.”

What can journalists do in the face of increasing government surveillance even in Western democracies? Panel moderator Kai Strittmatter of Germany urged the audience: “Let’s not start getting used to this. Let’s not find some of these things normal.”

“All our freedoms stem from (press freedom),” Black said. “We have to fight.”

Eskinder Nega is doing just that, in the worst conditions. He is showing, Schibbye said, “that they can jail journalists but they can never succeed in jailing journalism.”

posted By Daneil ZELEKE

ሇአዱሲቷ ኢትዮጵያ የጋራ ንቅናቄ (አኢጋን)

“ነጻነትነታችን እንዯ ዕርዲታ እህሌ ከምዕራባውያን የሚሇገሰን አይዯሇም!”
ሇአዱሲቷ ኢትዮጵያ የጋራ ንቅናቄ በኢትዮጵያ ሇሚገኙ የፖሇቲካ መሪዎች
ያስተሊሇፈው ግሌጽ መሌዕክት
የተወዯዲችሁ በኢትዮጵያ የምትገኙ የፖሇቲካ ፓርቲ መሪዎች፤
በቅዴሚያ ሇአዱሲቷ ኢትዮጵያ የጋራ ንቅናቄ (አኢጋን)  የአክብሮት ሰሊምታ በማቅረብ በትግለ መስክ
የምትከፍለትን መስዋዕትነት የሚያዯንቅ መሆኑን ይገሌጻሌ፡፡ በተሇይ በአሁኑ ጊዜ የፖሇቲካ ምህዲሩ እጅግ
ጠብቦ የሇም የሚባሌበት ዯረጃ በዯረሰበት ወቅት በምታገኙት ስንጥቅ ሁለ እየተጠቀማችሁ ሇህዝባችሁ
የብርሃን ጭሊንጭሌ ስሇምትፈነጥቁ አኢጋን ሥራችሁን ያዯንቃሌ፤ ያከብራሌ፡፡ እኛ በሥራችሁ ስኬት
የምንመኘው ሇቆማችሁሇት የፖሇቲካ ዓሊማ ብቻ ሳይሆን ከህወሃት/ኢህአዳግ አገዛዝ ራሳቸውን ነጻ
ሇማውጣት አቅቷቸው መፈናፈኛ ሊጡትም የመወሰን ኃይሌ እንዯምትሰጧቸው በማመን ነው፡፡
አገራችን ካሇችበት ወቅታዊ ሁኔታ አኳያ የበርካታዎች ጥያቄ “ህወሃት/ኢህአዳግን  በምን  ዓይነት  የተሻሇ
አስተዲዯር እንዳት መሇወጥ ይቻሊሌ የሚሇው ነው?” ይህ ጥያቄ “እኛ ኢትዮጵያውያን የዘርና የጎሣ ትንንሽ
አጥሮቻንን  አፍርሰን  ሁለን  አቀፍ  ትግሌ  ሇማዴረግ  ተዘጋጅተናሌ  ወይ?” ብሇን ራሳችንን መሌሰን
አንዴንጠይቅ የሚያዯርገን ነው፡፡ እንዱሁም ከጎሣ  ይሌቅ  ሇሰብዓዊነት  ቅዴሚያ  በመስጠት ሁለም  ነጻ
ሳይወጣ ራሳችንን ነጻ ሇማውጣት እንችሊሇን ወይ? ብሇንም እንዴንጠይቅ የሚያስገዴዯን ነው፡፡
ህወሃት/ኢህአዳግ ከኢትዮጵያ አሌፎ ሇቀጣናው እንዱሁም ሇመሊው አፍሪካ “የሚተርፍ” እኩይ የዘርና የጎሣ
ፖሇቲካ በማስፋፋት አገራችንን እንዯዚህ ባሇ አሳሳቢ ዯረጃ ሊይ በጣሇበት በአሁኑ ወቅት የብዙዎች ጭንቀት
አገራችን ወዯ ምን ዓይነት አዘቀት ውስጥ እየገባች ይሆን የሚሇው ከሆነ ዓመታት ተቆጥረዋሌ፡፡ ነገር ግን
ይህንን ፍርሃት ወዯ ተስፋ የሚቀይር አማራጭ እስካሁን ተግባራዊ መሆን ባሇመቻለ አማራጭ የጠፋ
ይመስሌ ህወሃት/ኢህአዳግም “እኔ ከላሇሁ …”  እያሇ ያስፈራራሌ፤ ተቃዋሚዎችም በእርስበርስ ሽኩቻ
የህዝብ አመኔታ በማጣት ወዯ አሇመታመን ከመሄዲቸው የተነሳ መሌሶ ተዓማኒነትን ሇማግኘት ጥረት
እያዯረጉ ቢሆንም ገና ብዙ የሚቀር አሇ፡፡ ይህም ሆኖ ግን ሇኢትዮጵያ ሕጋዊ አማራጭ በመሆን ሇሕዝባችን
መፍትሔ የምታመጡበት ወሳኝ ጊዜ አሁን መሆኑን የጋራ ንቅናቄያችን ያምናሌ፡፡
እንዯምታውቁት የዛሬ ዓመት ምርጫ የሚካሄዴበት ጊዜ ነው፡፡ ምርጫውንና አመራረጡን ከሥሩ ጀምሮ
የተቆጣጠረው ህወሃት/ኢህአዳግ ሆኖ ሳሇ በኢትዮጵያ ውስጥ ነጻና ፍትሃዊ ምርጫ ይካሄዲሌ ብሇን
አናምንም፡፡ ሆኖም ከተቃዋሚ ፓርቲዎች በኩሌ የሚፈሇገው ተግባር ከተከናወነ በአገራችን እውነተኛ ሇውጥ
ይመጣሌ ብሇን እናምናሇን፡፡ ዓመኔታ  የሚጣሌበት  አማራጭ  ከተገኘ  ዓሇምአቀፉ  ኅብረተሰብ
ህወሃት/ኢህአዳግን  አንቅሮ  ሇመትፋት  ከምንጊዜውም  ይሌቅ  ዝግጁ  ነው፡፡ ይህንንም የምንሇው ከምንም
ተነስተን ሳይሆን ዴርጅታችን በአውሮጳ፣ በሰሜን አሜሪካ እና በላልች የዓሇም ክፍልች ባሇው የግንኙነት
መስመር ከሚያገኘው ተጨባጭና ተዓማኒ መረጃ በመነሳት ነው፡፡ በምዕራቡ ዓሇም ዘንዴ ህወሃት/ኢህአዳግ
በኢትዮጵያ ውስጥ የሚያራምዯው የዘር ፖሇቲካ፣ የሚከተሇው እጅግ ጭቋኝ ፖሉሲ፣ በየጊዜው በሚያወጣቸው
አረመኔያዊ ህግጋት፣ ወዘተ ኢትዮጵያን ሇከፍተኛ አዯጋ የጣሇና ሇአህጉሩ መጥፎ ምሳላ እየሆነ በመምጣቱ
በኢትዮጵያ የሥርዓት ሇውጥ የመከሰቱ ጉዲይ ከምንጊዜውም በሊይ አሳማኝ የሆነበት ጊዜ ሊይ ይገኛለ፡፡
አሁንም ጥያቄው “ህወሃት/ኢህአዳግን ማን ይተካዋሌ?” የሚሇው ነው፡፡ ይህንን የመመሇሱ ኃሊፊነት በሁለም
ኢትዮጵያውያን  ሊይ  የወዯቀ  ቢሆንም  በተሇይ  አገር  ውስጥ  ያሊችሁት  የፖሇቲካ  ፓርቲዎች  በቅዴሚያ
ሌትመሌሱት  የሚገባ  ጥያቄ  ነው፡፡ አመኔታ  የሚጣሌበት  አማራጭ  ሆናችሁ  የመቅረባችሁ  ሁኔታ
ስሇምርጫው ነጻና ፍትሃዊነት ከመጠየቅ ባሌተናነሰ መሌኩ ተጠይቆ መሌስ ሉሰጠው የሚገባ ነው፡፡
አገራችን ያሇችበትን ወቅታዊ ሁኔታ ሇእናንተ ማስረዲት የሚያስፈሌግ አይመስሇንም፡፡ በየቀኑ
የሚፈጸመውን በዯሌና ግፍ መከታተሌ ብቻ ኢትዮጵያ ወዳት እየሄዯች እንዯሆነ በበቂ ሁኔታ የሚያመሊክት
ነው፡፡ ህወሃት/ኢህአዳግ እንዯ ተቀጣጣይ (ክሊስተር) ቦምብ በየቦታው የበተነው የጎሣ ፖሇቲካ ፈንጂ ከፋፍል
በመግዛት ሇራሱ የሥሌጣን ማቆያ ቢጠቀምበትም በአሁኑ ጊዜ አገራችንን ከሊይና ከታች እያነዯዲት
ይገኛሌ፡፡ ከዚህ አኳያ በአገራችን ሊይ ሉፈነዲ የሚችሇው ነገር ሁለንም የሚያሳስብ እንዯሆነ በእርግጠኝነት
መናገር ይቻሊሌ፡፡ ህወሃት/ኢህአዳግ ራሱ በፈጠረው ችግርና በበተነው መርዝ ራሱን በራሱ ሉያጠፋው
እንዯሚችሌ ከዴርጅቱ ውስጥ የሚታዩት የሥሌጣን ሽኩቻዎች ሁለም “ሳይቀዴሙኝ ሌቅዯም” በሚሌ
አስተሳሰብ እንዯተወጠረ የሚያመሇክት ነው፡፡ አገራችን  ነጻነቷን  ከመጎናጸፏ  በፊት  ይህንን  ዓይነቱ
የህወሃት/ኢህአዳግ  እርስበርስ  መበሊሊት  የሚያሳስባቸው  ኢትዮጵያውያን  እጅግ  በርካቶች  ናቸው፡፡ ከሁለ
በሊይ ዯግሞ እናንተ ባሊችሁ ኃሊፊነት ይህንን በውሌ የምታጤኑት እንዯሆነ የጋራ ንቅናቄያችን ያምናሌ፡፡
ህወሃት/ኢህአዳግ ከውስጥ በሚነሳበት ግፊትና የመበሊሊት ስጋት፤ ከውጪ በሚመጣበት ተጽዕኖ ወይም
በሁሇቱ ጥምረት ከሥሌጣን መወገደ የማይቀር ነው፡፡ ይህንን የሚቀበሌ ካሌሆነም ሥርነቀሌ ተሃዴሶ
ማዴረጉ እየጎመዘዘው የሚጠጣው ሏቅ ነው፡፡ በየትኛውም መሌኩ  የሚከሰተው  ሇውጥ  አገራችንን  መሌሶ
መሌኩን ሇቀየረ በዘር ሊይ ሇተመሠረተ አገዛዝ አሳሌፎ የሚሰጣት መሆን የሇበትም፡፡ ይሌቁንም የሚመጣው
ሇውጥ ሕዝባችንን እውነተኛ ነጻነት የሚያጎናጽፍ፣ ፍትሕ የሚሰጥና ወዯ ዕርቅ የሚመራ መሆን ይገባዋሌ፡፡
አገራችን በዚህ ጎዲና ሊይ እንዴትጓዝ የማዴረጉ ኃሊፊነት የእናንተ እንዯሆነ የጋራ ንቅናቄያችን ያሳስባሌ፡፡
ይህ ዯግሞ ሥሌጣን ከመጨበጥ ባሇፈ ምኞት ሊይ የተመሠረተና እያንዲንደ ነጠሊ ፓርቲ ከላልች ጋር
በኅብረት በመሥራት ተግባራዊ ሉያዯርግ የሚገባው መሠረታዊ ዓሊማ ነው፡፡ አገራችን  ካሇችበት  ታሊቅ
ችግር  አኳያ  የፓርቲዎች  መተባበርና  ከተቻሇም  መዋሃዴ  ወዯ  መፍትሔ  በሚወስዯው  መንገዴ  ሊይ
የመጀመሪያው ስኬት ነው፡፡ ይህ ግን በቀሊለ አይገኝም፤ ሆዯ ሰፊ መሆንን፣ ከራስ ይሌቅ ሇአገርና ሇሕዝብ
እንዱሁም ሇመጪው ትውሌዴ ማሰብን፣ ከሁለ በሊይ ዯግሞ ከፍተኛ የመንፈስ ሌዕሌናን የሚጠይቅ ነው፡፡
ሥሌጣንን፣  የራስን ክብር፣  የበሊይነትን፣  “እኔ ከላሊው  የተሻሌኩ  ነኝ” ማሇትን፣  ወዘተ  እያውጠነጠኑ ሇአገር
አስባሇሁ ማሇት በእጅጉ አስቸጋሪ ነው፡፡ “ከጠሊት” የሊቀ የመንፈስ ሌዕሌና ከሁለም ይጠበቃሌ፡፡
በመጪው ምርጫ ከምንጊዜውም በበሇጠ በመጽናት ሇሇውጥና ሇነጻነታችን የምንታገሌበት ሉሆን ይገባሌ፡፡
የኢትዮጵያ ሕዝብ የናፈቀውን ነጻነት ሉጎናጸፍ የሚችሌበት አማራጭ ሉፈጠር እንዯሚችሌ አኢጋን
ያምናሌ፡፡ ይህ ሉከሰት የሚችሇው በአገር ውስጥ ያሊችሁት የፖሇቲካ ፓርቲዎች ጥቃቅን ሌዩነታችሁን
አስወግዲችሁ አጀንዲችሁን ሕዝባዊ በማዴረግ በኅብረት ሇመሥራት ስትወስኑ ነው፡፡ የጋራ  ንቅናቄያችን
ባዯረገው ጥናት አብዛኞቻችሁ ያሊችሁ ሌዩነት መሠረታዊ እንዲሌሆነ ሇመረዲት ችሎሌ፡፡ ይህም የሚያሳየው
እርስበርስ  ከሚያሇያያችሁ  ነገሮች  ይሌቅ  ሉያስማሟችሁ  የሚችለት  በርካታዎች  እንዯሆኑ  ነው፡፡ በተሇይ
በአመራር ሊይ ያሊችሁ በተሇያየ ጊዜ ከላልች ጋር የተከሰቱ ሌዩነቶችና ግጭቶች እንዱሰፉ ምክንያት
ከመሆን ይሌቅ ሇአገርና ሕዝብ በማሰብ ኢትዮጵያን የመታዯግ ኃሊፊነት ወዴቆባችኋሌ፡፡ አገር ከላሇ ምንም
ሉኖር አይችሌም፤ እንዯ ትሌቅ የያዛችሁት ሌዩነትና ችግርም ከንቱ ይሆናሌ፤ አብሮ ይከስማሌ፡፡
በተዯጋጋሚ የሚሰማው ነጠሊ ዜማ “በኢትዮጵያዊ ውስጥ ተስፋ የሚጣሌበት ተቃዋሚ ፓርቲ የሇም” የሚሌ
ነው፡፡ በእርግጥ ሇዚህ ጥያቄ ዋንኛ ተጠያቂው ኢህአዳግ ነው፡፡ ምክንያቱም በአስመሳይ ዱሞክራሲና
ተግባራዊ ባሌሆነ ሕገመንግሥት ሕዝባችንን ከመጠርነፍ አሌፎ የፖሇቲካ ፓርቲዎችንም በተመሳሳይ ሁኔታ
ሸብቧቸዋሌ፡፡ ህወሃት/ኢህአዳግ የሚከተሇው ፕሮግራም በኢትዮጵያ ውስጥ ጠንካራ የፖሇቲካ ፓርቲ
ሉት  ከመሆን  እንዯማታመሌጡ  እሙን  ነው፡፡ ይሌቁንም  ይህ  ዓይነቱ  አካሄዴ  ህወሃት/ኢህአዳግ
በተሇይም ሇምዕራቡ ዓሇም ሇሚዯሰኩረው የይስሙሊ ዳሞክራሲ ማረጋገጫ ሆኖ በማቅረብ የኢህአዳግ ዕዴሜ
መቀጠያ  መዴሃኒት  ነው  የምትሆኑሇት፡፡ ስሇዚህ ከመጪው ምርጫ አኳያ ትግለ የተናጠሌ ሳይሆን
ፓርቲዎች በኅብረት በመሆን ኢህአዳግን በእርግጠኝነት ሉተኩ የሚችለበት አማራጭ ሉሆን ይገባዋሌ፡፡
በበርካታ አገሮች እንዯሚታየው እናንተም በኅብረት በመሆን ኃይሊችሁን አስተባብራችሁ ሇሕዝባችሁ ስትለ
እርስ በርስ መጠሊሇፍ፣ መነቋቆር፣ መካሰስ፣ ወዘተ አሁኑኑ ማቆም ይገባችኋሌ፡፡ በእስራኤሌ፣ ብሪታኒያ፣
ጀርመን፣ … በተሇያዩ ጊዜያት እንዯታየው ፓርቲዎች ጥምር መንግሥት በመመሥረት ሕዝባቸውን
ታዴገዋሌ፣ አገሌግሇዋሌ፡፡ በኢትዮጵያስ ይህ ሉሆን የማይቻሌበት ምክንያት ምንዴርነው? መሌሱን መመሇስ
የሚገባችሁ እያንዲንዲችሁ የፓርቲ አመራሮች ናችሁ፡፡
ይህ ሳይሆን የሚቀር ከሆነ በቅርቡ የፖሇቲካ ታሪካችን እንዯታየው በዚህም ዘመን በተመሳሳይ መሌኩ
ይዯገማሌ፡፡ በዘመነ አጼ ኃይሇሥሊሴ የተነሳው የህዝብ ብሶት ዲር ሳይዯርስ ዯርግ ሇራሱ አስቀረው፡፡ በዯርግ
ዘመን መከራውንና ስቃዩን ያየው ሕዝብ ህወሃት/ኢህአዳግ “የሕዝብ ብሶት” የወሇዯኝ ነው ብል ሲመጣ
የመከራው ዘመን ማብቂያው የዯረሰ መስልት ተስፋ አዯረገ፡፡ “ብሶት” ወሇዯኝ ያሇው ኢህአዳግ ኢትዮጵያን
ታይቶ በማይታወቅ የዘር “ዴንበር” ከፋፍል የሕዝባችንን ብሶት ሇ23ዓመታት በየቀኑ እያበዛው ይገኛሌ፡፡
አሁንም ጥንቃቄ ወስዲችሁ ሁሊችሁም ሇሕዝባችን የሚሆን መፍትሔ የማታመጡ ከሆነ የሕዝባችን ብሶት
እንዱቀጥሌ የምታዯርጉ ብቻ ሳይሆን በመጪው ትውሌዴም ከመጠየቅ አታመሌጡም፡፡
በቅንጅት ጊዜ ሕዝብ እጅግ ተስፋ አዴርጎ ውጤት ሲጠብቅ ቅንጅቶች “መቀናጀት” አቅቷቸው ጫፍ ሊይ
ዯርሶ የነበረው የሕዝባችን ዴሌ ገዯሌ ገባ፤ በራሱ ተቀናጅቶ የነበረው ሕዝብ የህወሃት/ኢህአዳግ የበቀሌ
እርምጃ ሰሇባ ሆነ፡፡ የጋራ ንቅናቄያችን ከበርካታ ወገኖች ጋር ባሇው ግንኙነት አሁንም ተመሳሳይ ችግር
ይፈጠራሌ እያለ ስጋታቸውን የሚገሌጹሌን ቁጥራቸው በርካታ ነው፡፡ በአገራችን ሊይ በርካታ ችግሮች
የተጋፈጥን ቢሆንም ከፈጣሪ በኩሌ ግን ሁሌጊዜ መፍትሔና የተበሊሸውን የማስተካከሌ ዕዴሌ አሇ፡፡ ይህም
ዕዴሌ አሁን እንዯሆነ አኢጋን ያምናሌ፡፡ ከዚህ አንጻር ጥቂት ሃሳቦችን ሇማካፈሌ እንወዲሇን፤
1. በምንም መሌኩ በኢትዮጵያ አማራጭ ፓርቲ የሇም የሚሇውን ተስፋ አስቆራጭ ንግግር አትቀበለ፡፡
2. ከላልች ፓርቲዎች ጋር አብራችሁ ሌትሰሩ የሚያስችሊችሁን ነጥቦች ዘርዝሮ በማውጣት
በሚያስማማችሁ ጉዲዮች ሊይ የጋራ አስተሳሰብ ሌትወስደ የምትችለበትን መንገዴ አመቻቹ፡፡
3. በዕቅዲችሁና ከላልች ጋር በጥምረት በመሆን ምንም እንኳን አስቸጋሪ ቢሆን በዋንኛነት በአገራችን
የፖሇቲካ ምህዲር የሚሰፋበትንና ዕርቅ የሚመጣበትን መንገዴ ከመቀየስ ተስፋ አትቁረጡ፡፡
4. የፓርቲ ፕሮግራምና ማኒፌስቶ ከሰማይ የወረዯ፣ የማይገሰስ፣ የማይሻርና የማይሇወጥ የፈጣሪ ቃሌ
አይዯሇም፡፡ ስሇዚህ ወዯ ውኅዯት በሚዯረገው ጉዞ መሻሻሌ፣ መሇወጥ፣ መስተካከሌ፣ የሚገባው
የፕሮግራም አንቀጽ የፓርቲያችሁን ኅሌውና አዯጋ ሊይ እስካሌጣሇ ዴረስ ተፈጻሚ ሇማዴረግ
ሆዯሰፊ ሁኑ፡፡
5. ከመሪዎች ጀምሮ በፓርቲያችሁ ውስጥ ውህዯትን፣ ጥምረትን፣ …  ተግባራዊ ሇማዴረግና በጋራ
ሇመሥራት ዕንቅፋት የሚሆኑ ግሇሰቦችን በግሌጽ መውቀስና እንዱታረሙ ወዱያውኑ ማዴረግ
ወሳኝነት ያሇው ተግባር ነው፡፡ “እገላን እንዳት እወቅሰዋሇሁ” ወይም “አቶ እገላ የፓርቲያችን
የጀርባ አጥንት ነው እንዳት ተሳስተሃሌ እሊሌሁ” በሚለ የይለኝታ አስተሳሰቦች ሇአንዴ ሰው ሲባሌ
አገርና ሕዝብ መከራና ስቃይ እንዱቀጥሌ መዯረግ የሇበትም፡፡ አገር ሇመምራት ፓርቲ
መሥርታችሁ ሕዝብን በይለኝታ መንግሥት ማስተዲዯር ፈጽሞ አይቻሌም፡፡ ሇይለኝታ በራችሁን
ዝግ ይሁን፡፡
posted By Daneil Aleyu Zeleke

Freedom is past and present: The state of Ethiopian agriculture, prospects and ...

Freedom is past and present: The state of Ethiopian agriculture, prospects and ...: by Keffyalew Gebremedhin – The Ethiopia Observatory (TEO) If the story and its claim were only true, it would have been news worth publis...

Freedom is past and present: The state of Ethiopian agriculture, prospects and ...

Freedom is past and present: The state of Ethiopian agriculture, prospects and ...: by Keffyalew Gebremedhin – The Ethiopia Observatory (TEO) If the story and its claim were only true, it would have been news worth publis...

The state of Ethiopian agriculture, prospects and pitfalls

by Keffyalew Gebremedhin – The Ethiopia Observatory (TEO)

If the story and its claim were only true, it would have been news worth publishing and disseminating by the media in all corners of the world – especially those that have covered Ethiopia over the years. That two-week old story is about Ethiopia reportedly becoming food self-sufficient/food secure. That not being the case, to the best of my scoping, none has thus far shown interest in it – save the government propaganda machinery and the affiliated borderless social media.

I am here referring to the May 28, 2014 claim by Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, by which he announced Ethiopia’s indpendence from food aid as of the 2014 fiscal year.

If the prime minister or any other person disagrees with this interpretation of his announcement, it is his privilege; however, he would only render pointless the very rationale why in the first place he needed to make mention in his speech to the nation of “በሃገር አቀፍ ደረጃ … በምግብ ራሳችንን ችለናል።” – TRANSLATION: “… We are hereafter self-sufficient in food production at the national level”!

Here is the relevant quotation from his speech, which reads in Amharic: “በዋና ዋና ስብሎች ምርት በ1983 ዓ.ም. 50 ሚሊዮን ኩንታል ያመርት የነበረው የህገሪቱ የእርሻ ምርት ዛሬ ምርትና ምርታማነትን በማሳደግ 250 ሚሊዮን ኩንታል በማምረት በሃገር አቀፍ ደረጃ በሁለት አሥርታት ጊዜ ውስጥ … በምግብ ራሳችንን ችለናል።”

Its unofficial rendition comes across as follows: In a country that produced 50 million quintals of major cereal crops in 1991, Ethiopia’s agriculture has today managed to produce 250 million quintals, because of productivity growths, which within two decades have enabled us to become food self-sufficient at the national level.

Anomalous, as it is, and woven to suit the regime’s need for political propaganda, his claim came during ‘celebration’ of the 23rd anniversary of the TPLF’s victory over the Ethiopian army. Ever since, the story has been incessantly spun around to elicit euphoria and support for the TPLF regime, with the ruling party news outlets as agency. On that, I must point out, it is unfortunate to note that the angle they tackle is proverbially self-serving, further exposing their singular intention of glorifying the Front – in their eyes – which 23 years ago with its victory made this agricultural miracle possible.

As a citizen, I say sincerely, I wish this miracle were true! Nonetheless, for all we know from existing data and facts on the ground, Ethiopia would for a while long remain in need of international food aid. This largely is because of three factors:

  *   Productivity growth remaining work-in-progress;

  *   Urban and rural land grab being widespread Ethiopian reality, private producer farmers are tenure insecure. Moreover, there is general feeling of the small scale producers becoming captive population at the mercy of political cadres and local administrative officials. These have taken into their hands decision-making on matters pertaining to what and when to produce. This has total support from the center, with the regular bimonthly meetings, and more as necessary, of the EPRDF Executive Council, through its standing agenda on irrigation, land rehabilitation, water development, seeding and harvesting and environmental protection, aiming to take decisions that are transmitted down the command of chains to every administrative unit in the country. For instance, the latest Council session

took place on May 11, 2014

and stated, “preparations for the 2006/7 (2013-2014) Meher (production) season are going as per plan.” It should be mentioned that local administrative interventions, especially how much fertilizers must be bought by each farmer has always been flashpoint, as the frequent rural sporadic protests and murmurs persistently attest.

*   There is also the problem of over 300 Ethiopia’s administrative districts – out of a total of 700 plus, being chronically food insecure. Citizens in these districts have kept body and soul together through the Safety Net program, with significant international food aid and cash injection to operate public work projects, historically referred to as food for work projects.

Now formally known as the Productive Safety Net Project (PSNP), this program has been in operation during the past eight years including the surrounding areas of Addis Abeba, in Afar, Amhara, Dire Dawa, Harar, Oromiya, SNNP, Somali and Tigray Regions. The World Bank and the country’s development partners are financing the program in continuity, although technically financing arrangements have been agreed to up only until the end of 2014. The beneficiary population under these projects varies, depending on severity of adverse conditions in the country. In normal times, their numbers range from a staggering 10 to 17 million Ethiopians. As high as their number is, their rank includes anticipated food aid dependent citizens coming in hardship times and half that number in normal times.

From the last count I saw, half of Ethiopia’s administrative districts are in that category, although the prime minister has tried to gloss over this by mention of the extensive activities undertaken in land rehabilitation and expansion of irrigation works.

The dilemma now is that the World Bank is fully aware, at least, from some reports of its evaluation department that, while the program has saved lives, clear and reliable cut off point for graduation – what some refer to as Exit Strategy – is lacking in the Safety Net program. Frightening as it is to be in their place, on Tuesday I read in Abraha Desta’s page, the poor Safety Net beneficiaries ordered henceforth to buy fertilizers at a hefty price of ETB 1,400 ($72), lest they lose their ‘privilege’ of being recipient of the Safety Net assistance.

The question now is, if not anything else, where those citizens figure in the prime minister’s calculation of Ethiopia’s food self-sufficiency, dependent as they are on international food aid.

In discussing this problem, I would at the outset concede that it is not clear whether the prime minister was speaking in the context of food security or food self-sufficiency – not that it makes any difference what he has said in the face of his disregard especially for standard operational and internationally accepted definitions of food self-sufficiency and food security.

The problem now is more profound in their own ranks; the TPLF/EPRDF’s stringers, i.e., their spin doctors having either ended up interchanging the meanings of the two or some of them having even gone to the extent of enjoying the ease of denying existence of distinction between the two, while others turned to emphasizing household level food self-sufficiency. Consult for example, the following just to cite a few such articles: Ethiopia’s Agricultural Growth on the Verge of Changing History; እውነት የተገለፀበት ታሪካዊ ንግግር (ክፍል አንድ) & (ክፍል ሁለት); Towering facts of ‘May 28’, etc.
Dealing at the level of meanings and distinctions

For clarity purposes, let me say that food self-sufficiency is the first stage in the conscious effort by any nation toward food security, provided that it has the endowments. There is recognition that the more a nation becomes food self-sufficient, the more possible it is for it to reduce dependence on external food sources, such as foreign markets or food aid. That is the reason why food self-sufficiency continues to be a national objective for many developing countries, especially those in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), which actually embraced it from the days of the so-called Lagos Plan of Action of 1980, apparently although it never took off ground as either regional approach or known for its success in national policy.

Briefly put, food self-sufficiency means, according to FAO, “the extent to which a country can satisfy its food needs from its own domestic production.” This is very unambiguous and Ethiopia is not there yet!

On the other hand, food security is marker of certainty, i.e., of a nation’s abilities to meet its food needs, some portion of it imported from commercial markets. It implies availability of food, stability and the physical and economic access to it by all household members, according to FAO.

In the internationally accepted definition of food security, which governments, among others, approved through the intergovernmental machineries of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), have since the early 1990s offered us the means by which we could gauge a nation’s food status.

Speaking from economic thinking, without going to the details of market functions, existing forms of distributions, and price trends at all levels, food security implies:

  *   Supply under normal times being greater than demand at the national level

*   Demand being greater than needs at the household level

*   Consumption being greater than needs at the individual level.

In the circumstances, if the prime minister intended to speak in terms of food security, then we surely are far part. Ethiopia is not food self-secure; it neither has capacity to fully meet the food needs of its population from its own farms; nor does it have the capacity to pay for all its food needs from the international markets.

However, I could not even assume that the prime minister was speaking about food self-sufficiency at the household level, since he has specifically indicated that it is self-sufficiency “at the national level.” This also keeps us far apart, since it is divorced from our country’s reality.

Definitionally, in both instances the criterion of a nation satisfying its own food needs domestically or through imports is inescapable. Therefore, strictly on this metric, we can dare say the prime minister has not been telling the nation the truth, when he said “… በምግብ ራሳችንን ችለናል።” He has tried to sweeten this by making reference to farmers getting richer, with millions and billions in their bank accounts. This only tells me that, as usual, TPLF officials are dancing to their own tunes!

The deliberate confusion the prime minister has sown impinges on the concept of national food sovereignty, which Ethiopia is not. Let me reiterate that a nation has ‘national food sovereignty’, when it assuredly has the capacity “to make available to its people the food needed or demanded, irrespective of whether the food is domestically produced or imported.” This has never happened in the Ethiopia we have known as a modern state for over a century, although in terms of numbers it was one of the largest producers in Africa of some cereals, even in times of hunger, as the FAO’s FAOSTAT in country ranking indicates.

Interestingly, the ‘morning after’ syndrome hitting the ruling party, as if to correct the mistaken impression the prime minister’s speech has left behind, its news outlet – Fana – reported, “Ethiopia is on the threshold of becoming food self-sufficient as it has been bolstering production and productivity during the past two decades.”

There I rest my case, in spite of the continuing hullabaloo about possibility of harvesting300 million quintals of agricultural products in the coming agricultural season. This was announced by Agriculture Minister Tefera Derbew in an interview on TPLF’s news agency the very same day the prime minister made his announcement about food self-sufficiency/food security.

What actually does the state of Ethiopian agriculture look like?

Courtesy of ATA

In its Quarterly Update of March 2014, ATA reported, “While fertilizer use in Ethiopia has grown fairly rapidly over the past few decades, only a fraction of the country’s potential for enhanced agricultural productivity has been exploited.”

Regarding the Ethiopian Soil Information system (EthioSIS), which is launched in 2014 by IFPRI’s Senior Research Fellow Dr. Samuel Gemeda and Director of Soil Health and Fertility at the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA), the scientist observes, “Already, our samples are telling us that Ethiopia’s soil is deficient in as many as six essential nutrients.”

Dr. Samuel says specialists at present are harnessing technologies such as remote sensing, satellite imagery, and spectroscopic readings with a rich collection of soil samples to create this one-of-a-kind map in Ethiopia – once over 100,000 sampling has been concluded. In other words, EthioSIS aims at creating a National Soils Database (NSD) and a digital soil map of Ethiopia, replacing the old one, based on data surveyed over three decades ago.

What the experts are doing is to sample two soil samples, according to Dr. Samuel Gemeda. The first level would provide updated information on Ethiopia’s soil properties. The result from this would help “to identify the soils that are best suited for farming and how to best manage them.” The second level is soil fertility sampling to provide information on what nutrients have been depleted from the soils. This activity is understood to focus on woredas (counties) in Ethiopia’s agricultural belt.

Based on the samples so far accumulated, Dr. Samuel says, “Ethiopia’s soil is deficient in as many as six essential nutrients such as Boron, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Sulfur, and Zinc”, according to the Quarterly Update.

It is also learned that so far the ATA team has collected and evaluated soil and vegetation samples in 162 woredas, and 198 more would still have to be carried out in 2014, bringing the total to 360 agricultural woredas. To identify all the deficiencies Ethiopian soil has suffered through lack of appropriate policies, technology and resources, the task now is being addressed, among others, with and appropriate technology adopted from the Africa Soil Information Service (AfSIS). Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, AfSIS is established to assist 42 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), covering approximately 17.5 million sq.km of continental landmass and 90 percent of Africa’s human population.

Confluence points soil mapping (Credit: ATA)

This is only tip of the iceberg as to what is happening in the agricultural sector in Ethiopia these days. Nonetheless, it would be a while for Ethiopia to attain status of food secure, with its 94 million people. Therefore, numerous hurdles must be passed, especially that of productivity growth, before certainty grips the nation to claim that Ethiopia no more requires food aid.

The first cause for that is the fact that close to half the country’s districts are chronically incapable of supporting human and animal existence, as discussed earlier, after years of devastation by drought and the rich surface soil being washed away by rivers, including the Nile River to neighboring countries of Egypt and the Sudan.

Whatever is done by way of rehabilitation work has been inadequate. The problem is that neither the federal government’s Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) – which has long slept on the switch – nor the Bill Gates-initiated and financed Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) are explicit enough to show us where things are headed and in what speed in the agricultural sector, especially regarding agricultural productivity growth.

This partly could be because the work has just begun and/or the EPRDF has been more preoccupied with collecting the propaganda dividends.

Where agricultural productivity growth has reached at this stage is difficult to say, although previous works and now EthioSIS, launched in 2014, has so far completed three of the seven stages.

At the same time, the more one pays close attention, it is clear that a new day in Ethiopian agriculture may be dawning. However, broadly speaking we should not also lose sight of the fact that the ATA is simultaneously into the agribusiness, especially the seeds side; there is also the ticking biotech interest of the big internationals, the chemicals and fertilizers, while simultaneously soils research, data collection and experiments are going on in different parts of Ethiopia.

Conclusion

Ethiopia this month imported 4 mil quintals of wheat to counter shortages

Given this distance, Ethiopia’s agricultural growth has bern trailing in a country of 94.1 million population (UNFPA, 2013), it is extremely unfortunate that the nation should witness, not for the first time, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn’s flippance on such serious matters as agricultural development.

Recall that in October 2013, after a short field visit to Arsi, where only a single farmer produced 111.5 quintals of wheat per hectare, our prime minister yielded to his tendency to be carried away because of that, especially at a time, when Ethiopia’s wheat farms are/were suffering from stem rust disease, as reported in the agricultural sciences news outletsc and by research institutions, such as the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat (DRRW), the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), the USDA-ARS Cereals Disease Laboratory in Minnesota and the Global Rust Reference Centre (GRRC).

Unexpectedly, in Arsi the prime minister went on a hyperbole and declared Ethiopia Africa’s prospective wheat granary, according to the Ethiopian News Agency (ENA). As if that were not enough Hailemariam reiterated, ኢትዮጵያ ከእንግዲህ ስንዴ ሻጭ እንጂ ስንዴ ለማኝ አትሆንም …………ጠቅላይ ሚኒስትር ኃይለማርያም – TRANSLATION – Hereafter, Ethiopia would be wheat exporter, not wheat beggar anymore! The details appear in my January 2014 article Ethiopia to become wheat exporter – ‘thanks to 1 x 5 system, instead of wheat beggar’ – PM Hailemariam!

I am not against hope and wishes, if they are based on realistic expectations – but only the shenanigans of political cadres scurrying for propaganda and political objectives!