My home country has descended into what is a silhouette of her past glory. A country once known for harmony and strength in diversity now finds herself in ruins because of identity.
In my opinion, the slow but inevitable descent of the country started about 5 years ago. But the past year and a half has been a time where all that could ever go wrong in the country actually did!! With tensions rising in every direction of the country, it was a time for the government to do the absolute best thing for the situation. One would assume that a government led by a person that has a Nobel Peace Prize to his name would be intuitive and reactive towards its people that are specifically under oppression or a targeted attack; And yet somehow it looks like the government chose to reply with the single worst reply you can give in this situation…Silence.
Ethiopia has upwards of eighty nations and nationalities living, in what seemed to be, an equilibrium before the current government came in power. When the nation’s people are as diverse as Ethiopia, it takes a special type of leadership to make sure one group does not overstep on the other’s rights. It needs a vigilante and attentive leader to moderate the fluidity of information and exchange of goods. Unfortunately, that’s not what the country got.
I have to admit, the first year of leadership for the current prime minister was quite festive. There were new parks opening everywhere, new buildings being built, and he got the oh-so-talked-about Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts of reconciliation with an estranged neighboring country. Although all these actions are worthy of admiration, what his leadership did not pay attention to and what came about as a price for that neglect is not even close in comparison.
At the same time of all these projects and developments opening up in the country, making way for the pseudo-tranquil facade that the government proudly gloats so shamelessly, there were multiple political unrests and ethnic based violence in almost all parts of the country. When the current government took power, it was not in a justified and all inclusive way. This made the many groups of people feel as if their voice does not matter in matters of big decisions like assuming power. This in turn gave motivation for almost all the major ethnicities to have a desire to defend for themselves and control all the power to themselves.
And let me guess; You would think that this is where a democratic government that claims to protect the people would swoop in and make things right, right?? You couldn’t be more wrong. The government did nothing but throw journalists and activists in jail for efforts of exposing the nonchalance of the government towards the issue. It actually went ahead to open more parks and send out invitations for foreign investors to take advantage of the economy. An economy that was not even strong enough to feed its own people. Promoting the export industry before providing food to its own people that need it. Promoting a lifestyle of peace when its own people are being ethnically targeted and murdered in the cities. Yup…Nobel Peace Prize!!!
This led to the deterioration of the integrity of the government. The people started getting frustrated because there was no government to protect them from a dominant ethnic group that would like to target them. On the contrary, they were being force fed fake prosperity news that would do them no good at all. Literally thousands have died in ethnic centered violence in the country since the current prime minister got in power.The government’s inability to take action at the first sight of injustice gave out the impression that it either does not care about the targeted people or it means harm towards them. And they were not to blame for thinking that way. This was widely accepted as the reality among the people. And the humour in it all is the fact that it’s not even just one group of people that think this way, it’s actually all the major nationalities in the country!!
The end result of this was what we saw in the news these past weeks. But what was more devastating was the government’s response. After waiting for it to get to this point, a few days ago, The Ethiopian Government, led by the one and only prime minister, has officially declared war on one of the ethnicity groups residing on the northern part of the country. Because, of course as everybody knows, the one thing a country that has around 8 million of its population estimated to be in hunger is a government sanctioned declaration of war. Yup…that should fix things!!
