Girma Seifu the “namuna” (nominal) MP of Ethiopia

Seifu’s worldwide fame and notoriety arose from being the one and only member of an opposition party in the land of 13 months of sunshine, obelisks and rock-hewn churches. Seifu mathematically holds 0.0018315 (1/546) power in the Ethiopian Parliament. The author understands that there are other more precise quantitative measures of power and authority, but believes that this simple one might suffice for those mathematically challenged like this author himself. But if he is required to come up with a down to earth explanation, one can sum up this phenomenal underachievement of Seifu, by merely restating the fact of Seifu’s power in passing any legislation in the Ethiopian parliament to be even less than the power of a listro or shoe shine boy in Arat Kilo, just across the street from parliament, who can tap on his box to let his parliamentarian customer know to change his feet. The listro has a success rate of close to 99.99% in convincing his usual customer to do as bidden unless he has an argumentative customer from the parliament or a drunk. Seifu’s influence deficit in the parliament arises from his dealing with the 545 strong coalition of the single block of ruling party parliamentarians who despise him and make his legislative success rate almost 0%. In other words his success rate is no better than a mere opposition pedestrian passing by in the street outside of parliament and doing his own business without pretending ownership of any representational political power.

The mercurial and unique Seifu’s has been described as a 48-year-old economist who was elected as a “namuna” representative of the opposition MEDREK for some years. “Namuna” in Amarigna sounds very close to its closest English translation “nominal”, and one wonders if the English word had indeed an Ethiopian beginning. We will leave this etymological analysis for the linguists for the time being. But Seifu indeed fits the bill as a namuna and a nominal parliamentarian with absolutely no power. Since his election some years back, Seifu, has since tenaciously survived like a drug resistant bacterium in an unfriendly and hostile environment under the withering glances of detractors see him as an unwanted vermin and whom they have every reason to frustrate at every turn and no incentive to help. It is not clear how he deals with the stress of his unsavory job which is similar to that suffered by the proverbial Ethiopian dog which strayed into church during mass or the goat who somehow inadvertently entered the wrong barn and spent the night surrounded by a flock of sheep. In human terms his role can best be described more like that of a lone and bedraggled prophet who emerges from the desert knowing well that nobody will heed his imprecations and tries to scare his listeners with hell fire and brimstone awaiting them if they do not hark to his divine remonstrations and dire warnings. As often happened in biblical times there might come a Herodiade who will demand his head on a silver platter unless he plays his role with the perfection of a fast darting gazelle in the middle of hungry carnivores. But not too surprisingly that Seifu’s wolfish colleagues look at him as the unaccompanied suckling lost kid with no horns or feet to escape and ready for the taking. One wonders what will power and spiritual strength he must gather, for him to get up in the morning and go to his day job. But in the meantime the rest for his 546 unloving colleagues knowing well that there is no threat at all from any opposition have become more like their American counterparts in treating their job as a vexing vacation rather than an important responsibility. Most parliamentarians allegedly do not even care to show up routinely and prefer to wheel and deal from the bonus and largess of their unprecedented power as members of the party and parliament in a nation where corruption and bribery are growing asymptotically skywards by the minute as more wealth pours into the economy. When they indeed do try and drag themselves to appear to their boring jobs, many have been seen slumbering or even frankly snoring while parliament is in session. But Seifu to the chagrin of his colleagues has a penchant and a reputation of showing up to work regularly and on time, which are the two main things over which he has in his power. It is possible that this minority of all human minorities enjoys the chance of getting at his detractors by being vengefully irksome and a pain in the ass as much as he can on a daily basis. But being an Ethiopian Seifu probably has an unlimited store of hopes for divine intervention, and might be hoping to one day be the only one showing up alone and then passing a bill as a 0 to 1 majority! This possibility again is 0%.

Being the one and only, and the loneliest politician on earth mercifully has it’s benefits. The curiosity factor of Seifu attracts international media when they are bereft of other more interesting stories to sell. Thus Seifu has become somewhat of a media sensation and attracts international press like Lonesome George does at the Galapagos islands. Luckily for him, unlike George who can only chew on vegetables and cud as visitors come to pay him respect and attention without uttering a single word, Seifu speaks English fairly well and makes pronouncements ranging from local issues such as the imbalance of the political process in Ethiopia that has left him as a political orphan all the way to momentous international issues. In one of these interviews, Seifu told a Reuters correspondent, “The Chinese model is (which Ethiopia follows) is that economic development is the primary issue, don’t ask about freedom, keeping silent people’s rights so that a few politicians get the economic benefits” He is describing the concept of developmental state which is conceptually not too different from socialism with a simple replacement of the “people” in socialist ideology, with the “economy” in the developmental state hypothesis and leave everything else intact. This allows the same socialist party under this aegis to rule with the same fiat as the vanguards of the socialist state as long as the economy is growing under the rubric of legitimate “democratic capitalist state” Some more political enhancements with periodic elections thrown in and at least one wild card and “namuna” like Seifu added in the mix will often soften the hearts of western partners to loosen their purse strings. But the astute Seifu is also very careful not to harp on these political fine points as he is also a savvy politician and walks on a political tight rope using words in a metered and minced fashion to just meet his aspiration as an media sensation while not aggravating the flammable authorities of real political power who can snuff his career outright or send him back to Kaliti prison where he had spent some time in the past. He knows that if he is sent there again it could be on a more permanent basis. Understandably the smart Seifu is apparently not fond of Kaliti and would like to stay away from it as long as possible. With this in mind and more recently, Seifu has been ramping up his ante on less controversial issues and distant targets that do not carry risks of incarceration at Kaliti. His most recent project was the US at whom he accused of financially supporting Egypt, which is using American money and aid to block the completion of The Millenium dam on the Blue Nile. One doubts whether anybody in the US congress will heed their Ethiopian counterpart, but Seifu can be proud of getting a little attention from a Somali paper if not from Reuters. As long as Seifu continues along this path of innocuous and broad allegations he is likely to survive for much longer and enjoy his occasional media fame if not legislative success.

One of the most interesting aspects of Seifu’s tenure in parliament is that he is a kind of Manchurian candidate. Seifu might be a legitimate opposition member of parliament, but with or without his consent he unwittingly plays a quite different role than his representation of an opposition party. His presence in the parliament is more important for the ruling party than for his own opposition party MEDREK. Miraculously he serves the pyrrhic ulterior purpose for the Ethiopian government. The Ethiopian government has periodically been under criticism by foreign media and governments for political and human rights abuses. Seifu’s presence in parliament is handy for mockingly and with suppressed laughter to claim that Ethiopia is a democratic and multi-party state in order to appease some aid donors and financial collaborators who might have some hesitation to cooperate based on this issues. Under such circumstances Ethiopian officials can spring Seifu like a jack in the box even in his absence, which is often beside the point as they can provide evidence by referring to his politically convenient interviews and pronouncements to Reuters et al as the evidence for tolerance of opposition views and politicians. He probably knows that he is just one more pawn in the complicated politics of Ethiopia and that he is powerless to do anything about this predicament. At the end of the day the future of the tenacious and interesting Seifu’s future in Ethiopia is unclear, but as Andy Warhol once quipped, ”everyone will be famous in the world for 15 minutes”, Seifu has been successful by having a few rounds of world fame.

NB: Abebe Haregewoin is not a politician and is not aligned with any political group. He writes as a lover of his country of birth and as an independent social commentator on matters Ethiopian, which are of interest to him and those who share these interests. He welcomes comments and criticisms whenever possible.