Opinion: Addis Ababa does not have Jericho’s Wall

By YohannesY

Once upon a time there was a man name Joshua. Joshua/Eyasu was one of the strongest leader ever seen in the history of Israel, and was advised by God to be strong and courageous because he was the one who would lead the Israelites to possess God’s Promised Land.

Here is this strong, self-confident man who trusts in his strength, leadership and military skills, but followed God’s orders when told to do something unexpected. He was told that he needs to make a big noise with his fellow Israelites in order to conquered Jericho, this mighty warrior ready to fight and die for Israel.
But instead of fighting for the city, he was told to make noises with his fellow Israelites. He put his reason aside and listens to the order of the divine command and he obeyed it.

When the people heard the sound of the rams’ horns, they shouted as loud as they could. Suddenly, the walls of Jericho collapsed, and the Israelites charged straight into the town and captured it. Joshua 6:20

I truly believe this story occurred in the old biblical time, I understand it is very difficult to understand for the carnal mind but it happened.

However the main reason I mentioned this story is to express my frustration on the Diaspora Ethiopian politician. These days Diaspora politicians think by making a lot of noise from a distance they think they can collapse the Addis Ababa/EPRDF wall but unfortunately that is not going to work because the old Joshua time a deeply convicted leader who provide the Israelites with unshakeable leadership fought along with his people.

And also the western world did not pay attention to the Ethiopian Diaspora, and it seems to me that Mr. Meles achieved his objective by using the Ethiopian opposition weakness. And tactfully he divide and weak the leaders of the oppositions, he puts some in Jail and scared them and then allowing them to leave the country and leave the Ethiopian people struggle without leadership.


"If you want to fly with the eagles, you can't hang around with the chickens."

The government of Ethiopia is not genuinely or adequately challenged by the Ethiopian oppositions because the Ethiopian oppositions are not ready to engage in Ethiopian political process plus the government did not tolerate the opposition groups at all. So we Ethiopians are stuck with two rigid and uncultured political leadership they do not know how to compromise so for us, we cannot elect between the horse and the mule. They are not better than each other.
As I see it, first the oppositions are not organized internally and externally, there is no united goal or purpose, they do not have a solid foundation and cannot rely on them, it is amazing some of the opposition group were in leadership for such a long time but never learn from their past experience, they are operating the same way, nothing change so you are relying on Ethiopian opposition; you lean on them, they will pierce your hand and will hurt you. You cannot rely on them because they are not organized and united. So somebody need to tell them organized or lost forever!

And also there are a lot of reactionary elements who are working against Ethiopian interest and some of the oppositions are influenced by selfish greedy leadership or by Eritrean’s government agents. Actually some of the Ethiopian Diaspora opposition elements are highly influenced by the Eritrean regime and it seems to me that they are infiltrated by sheabe foot soldiers. And a few years back they declared to us that Issias is as the man of the year and they have a nerve to tell us that the number one Ethiopian enemy as the man of the year, they are testing the Ethiopian Diaspora intelligence.

So in order to be against or weaken the government of Ethiopia some of the opposition Diaspora will not hesitating to sleep with anyone including with Ethiopian known enemies. What really bothering me is that some of the oppositions articles are reckless about the future of Ethiopia, it seems to me they do not care about the future of Ethiopia, they did not have anything to offer or honest outlook except trashing the government of Ethiopia, what has to be done for the future of the country, and very difficult to differentiate if the author is Ethiopian or Eritrean who hate to see Ethiopia progress.

I want to mention that, there are real Ethiopians who loves their country dearly and want to see a well developed and democratic and peaceful Ethiopia, these peoples are the most precious children of Ethiopia are scattered all over the world, they always say something constructive to advance the Ethiopian people progress. No string attach on their view than progress of their country.

In other hand, I want to recognized that, if you want, you can discredit the author but unless you are in denial, whatever way you see it, the Ethiopian government are doing their job, development in Addis and other part of the country including the blue Nile project and 13 Universities and a lot of private colleges are established and a lot road and dams are constructed in every part of the country and we Ethiopian see and witness this effort. But because we are part of the world community and as any other country the economy is goes up and down life become harder and the economy is not improving for the ordinary people. I believe it takes time. Rome did not build with one day. But I like their effort.

However even though Ethiopian government tries to focus on the economy and they put their utmost effort to improve the Ethiopian people life, they should put some more effort to establish a real democratic system, where the oppositions and others freely express their view and without intimidations. And let them fight genuinely without violence but with ideas, where the Ethiopian people judge and make a decision on their future. Unless the Ethiopian government goes that direction and they will fail, nothing can save them when the lions are awake; there is no question about that.

What has to be done?

Instead of trying to change the Ethiopian government change must start within. If you cannot change yourself cannot change the government, change always must come within, then it will go out, you need to get organized and earn the Ethiopian people’s trust.

At the same time, The Ethiopian people are progressing and are more politically matured than you think. Like the youth of the rebelling Arab countries, to some extent Ethiopian progressive youth have access to the Internet, they are informed and they know what is going on in their own back yard. They can different between the opposition and the Ethiopian government and I am sure if they obtain genuine election they will choose EPRDF, because the opposition did not show anything except impractical theory, it is painful but it true! I do not surprise if Ethiopian people 100% vote for EPRDF.