From time to time, I meet people from different countries who have visited or worked in Ethiopia. They often say “we found the country’s history, culture, hospitality and climate charming”.
Regrettably, the charm that visitors recount exists in contradiction. To start with there are 13 months of sunshine, 12 months of salary and humiliating level of poverty. Many find Ethiopia’s success in air transport services and athletics paradoxical. The world class performance and reputation of Ethiopian Airlines and the county’s synonymy with famine remains confounding to many observers. The enduring winning formula Ethiopian athletes apply in long distance running is perplexing to the outside world, because the runners’ background doesn’t always match their performance on international athletics stages. To get an idea, watch the documentary ‘Endurance’, which presents Haile Gebreselasie’s rise from a humble beginning to international fame and to acquiring considerable wealth.
If you in a conversation mention that Ethiopia is the water tower of Africa, or the country has the highest number of livestock on the content, a few eye brows will be raised. The country’s charm doesn’t match the excruciating destitution, illiteracy, disease, unemployment, etc. prevailing everywhere in the country.
Ethiopia ushered in its 3rd millennium with expensive fanfare and heartening promises. With extensive display of neon lighting gullible people were enticed to believe that the dark days of the past will be behind them. But soon, the new era started to deliver its dividends (increasing food shortage, high inflation, devaluation of the Birr, dwindling foreign currency reserve, power shading, water borne disease in the capital and more).
In the new millennium, the promise of increased access to ICT has yet to be realised. The 2009 African Economic Outlook states that “Despite the introduction of telecommunications to Ethiopia in 1894, the ICT infrastructure of the country is extremely low. Household mobile penetration and access to the Internet in Ethiopia is the lowest in the world.” While some of the countries problems, to a certain extent, can be attributed to persistent systemic and structural problems, the root cause lies in the invariable absence of good leadership that has, over the past 40 years, been devoid of political charm that neither excites citizens nor observers.
In my life time, political leaders haven’t been fair to the Ethiopian people. They have invariably denied them freedom, justice and equality. Consequently, citizens never had opportunities to use their full potential for improving their lives. Denied of basic rights by subsequent governments and crushed by the vagaries of nature, Ethiopians resort to stretching their hands to God according to their creed. Unable to curve the level of poverty, the country continues to depend on aid.
Despite the government’s rhetoric of rapid economic growth, the standard of living for a majority of the population continues to deteriorate and the country seems to have very little chance of extricating itself from the vicious cycle of dependence in the short-term. In 2009, the share of foreign aid and loan, in the national budget, stood at 28.4 percent (Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, 2009). The official figure doesn’t include aid channelled to the country through other agencies – for example the UN and non-governmental organisations. According to OECD-DAC statistics, net Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) to Ethiopia amounted to US$1.94 billion in 2006, making it the 7th largest recipient among 169 aid receiving developing countries. In the same year, ODA accounted for 58.5 percent of overall government expenditure. In 2007, the country received a total of US$2.4 billion in aid (see African Economic Outlook 2009).
I challenge the ‘developmental state’ to prove the above statistics wrong or to handover Arat Kilo to those who can make the country spring. I know this is wishful thinking. I also know that the people of Ethiopia are dealing with former rebels who think that they have paid a heavy price to get where they are. By extension, they believe that they have the right to own and control everything; including what citizens think. It is conventional wisdom that a government that controls everything can take everything. Evidently, the government of Ethiopia hasn’t failed in carrying out its coercive responsibility and does it ‘Big Brother’ style – it denies citizens’ rights enshrined in the constitution and instils fear. So far, the government has been successful in creating the perception among the public that if the EPRDF doesn’t remain in power, the old system will return and the country will disintegrate. The government effect says that there are no other responsible Ethiopian leaders (except those indoctrinated by revolutionary democracy) that understand the need for considering diversity, past and current grievances, and putting in place polices and strategies for good governance.
Hardened by their deprivation and isolation from society during their long years in the bush, leaders of the EPRDF are secretive, difficult to deal with and are suspicious and jealous of everyone outside their inner circle. The “you are with us or against us” principle and approach to collaboration is dear to them. The lingering question is how will the Ethiopian people part with such leaders?
Charles Onyango-Obbo has written “[for] Africa to be free, its political fathers must die” (Nazret.com 05/09/2010 accessed on 05/12/2010). I couldn’t agree more. I agree, because the business as usual approach to governance must change to unshackle Africa from the chains that unscrupulous leaders have tightly strapped it with. I also agree, because for the continent to move forward, it must be released from the grips of greedy leaders. Regardless of the history and method of their ascension to power, Africa’s leaders have become extremely repressive to the detriment of political, economic and social progress they promised to deliver. Fifty years on, since the end of colonialism, there is very little to show except chanting independence cha…cha on Independence Day.
Africa’s hippopotamus leaders, their families, cronies, businesses associates and other internal and external opportunists benefit a great deal at the expense of the poor and most vulnerable people. A majority of people have been forced to be passive observers of the policies that affect them to the point of fatalism. This is perpetuated by the absence of good leaders that use wisdom and charm to influence the course of history. The notion that there is light at the end of the tunnel is lost by the growing belief that there is no tunnel to see through even a faint positive future. This is because of the growing uncertainty about the emergence of desirable leaders anytime soon. In the case of Ethiopia, the political stream is dammed and jammed with all sorts of blockages and is prevented from going anywhere; except in the predetermined revolutionary democracy-developmental state style, pace and direction. Consequently, like the country’s famous and useful Awash River, every promising beginning sinks into our violent and dry political sand – a situation indifferent leaders, to the plight of the Ethiopian people, are happy to see endure.
African politicians come to power with the intent of staying in power indefinitely. They don’t believe in alternating leadership, but give it lip service. Since 2001, nine African leaders have revised their countries’ constitutions to remain in power – perhaps until they die. They haven’t learned to distinct power from the obligations of demonstrating statesmanship and magnanimity.
I find it interesting when some refer to the lessons that African leaders can learn from the just ended UK general elections. Let us not deceive ourselves. We can be fascinated by what we have heard and watched on TV concerning UK’s mature democracy. The fact is we have the intention, but are not yet there. Worse, there are no rooms (political space) and students (wiling incumbent leaders) to make the learning process a reality. African leaders are adept to saying the West cannot teach them how to govern their people and outsiders cannot tell them what they should or shouldn’t do – how pathetic! They use arrogance and defiance to reduce the importance of fulfilling, respecting and protecting basic universal rights.
Since the end of the cold war, Africa’s “democratisation” efforts have been bearing the wrong fruits. Ironically, the results of elections are known before voting day. Foreign reporters who visit countries before the elections predict with certainty that the incumbent government will win. The opposition cry foul about fraud and irregularities in advance of the polls. Poor African’s “run to vote and vote to run”. The accusations and counter accusations that follow elections are dumfounding and the chaos that follow have been destructive and disgraceful; luring Africans to question the value of creating an open society.
Outsiders who go to countries to observe elections waste time and spend million of dollars for issuing statements that do not make a dent on flagrantly corrupt and fraudulent electoral practices. Donors spend a lot of money in the name of promoting good governance, but end up supporting the proliferation of arrogance and the mechanics of elections. This happens because the fundamentals (institutions, processes, principles and good practices) that make a system progressively democratic are weak or absent. African elections have, therefore, become fixes for maintaining the status quo.
When leaders come to power through the barrel of the gun, their triumph raises their ego and insecurity. It induces the development of multiple personalities. Afflicted with this disorder and forced by the international new order (which became prominent after the end of the cold war), a leader and his cronies adopt a semblance of democracy or good governance to appease and hope to be accepted by their own people and the international community. At the same time, a leader manifests his true nature by being a self-proclaimed champion of the interests of people he claims to represent. Such leaders coerce benign group and/or individual challenges and destroy entities that they consider will potentially become malignant to the detriment of their political survival.
The emergence of a leader with charm and charisma should ideally happen as a result of succession planning – not sons taking over from their fathers (DRC, Togo, and Gabon) and not sons being groomed to replace their fathers (Egypt, Libya, and Senegal).
Africa continues to fail in encouraging the emergence of a new generation of leaders. It is increasingly becoming clear that Africa’s youth will have to take the lead in bringing the winds of change. The need for such action can be justified by our experience that the ills that political fathers or grandfathers have imposed on Africa cannot be easily treated and their ideology and way of thinking must be removed from the realms of political and decision-making like a malignant cancer. The way forward is to bank on Africa’s cheetah generation that is ready to leap with a fast pace to begin the process of societal transformation.
In Ethiopia, the multitude of political parties organised under different banners, have failed to respond to the call of duty. Over the past 19 years, the message of the call hasn’t changed – remove the incumbent government from power through sustained and coordinated means, which should be supported through a grassroots movement. In this regard, the opposition inside the country and in the Diaspora should have unity of purpose (putting aside differences temporarily) to defeat the EPRDF, if possible, at the ballot box. This will not only introduce a system of transferring power without bloodshed and will usher in a new era in our country’s political culture.
In the short-term, a coalition of political parties, with diverse strategies, may not be expected to put in place a perfect system of governance; if they win that is. However, their success in taking over power from the EPRDF will propel Ethiopian politics to a point of no return, because a people that have tested freedom (provided the new leaders will live up to their expectations) through their sacrifice would not like to live differently.
I hope we will not wait for too long until a charming Ethiopian Mandela or Julius Nyerere is born. I believe there is a wise and responsible coach somewhere in Ethiopia or outside the country who will lead Ethiopia to play in the “first political freedom division” and be a winning side. The journey will be extremely rough, but a team that puts the common good first will undoubtedly win and lift the freedom cup to the relief and elation of the Ethiopian people and their friends who are eager to be charmed by our politics of the future.
