The Oslo-based renowned Oromo exile and leader of the Oromo Democratic Forum (ODF), Lencho Leta, along with the deputy, Dima Nageo, would be coming to Addis Ababa for “substantive talks” with government officials, responding to Abiy Ahmed’s gesture towards dialogue, it was announced. ODF confirmed in a press release today that it has indeed reached an agreement with government officials “to play its role in enabling all concerned to carry out reforms that would culminate in an inclusive dialogue towards national reconciliation and consensus.” After having a discussion with high-level delegation of the government for two days, May 11-12, ODF announced an advance team of the party will travel to Ethiopia soon for talks, with the aim of kick-starting this process. Though the party did not say who would represent it, credible sources told Ethiopia Observer that Lencho himself would lead it along with Dima.
Ethiopia’s new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said his government was ready to open honest and constructive dialogue with the opposition on his inaugural address on April 2. Ten days later, Abiy hosted a dinner reception for home based opposition leaders and promised to widen the democratic space. ODF in its statement said although much needs to be done, it is encouraged by the government’s recent positive steps towards reforms. In its interaction with the government delegation, ODF reiterated its commitment to deepening and broadening the reforms and democratization process, it said. The government delegation on its part expressed its enthusiasm to engage all those espousing nonviolent means of struggle, it was said. The Minnesota-based Oromo activist Jawar Mohammed who in recent years arguably has been exerting more influence than Lenhco himself commented about the latest move saying that, “to aid real transition, these talks need to include all political organizations and must focus on substantive issues of managing transitional politics.” Derese G Kassa, a US-based political analyst and university lecturer, sounded more critical of the move saying that ODF did not make any mention of “the ever narrowing democratic space, harsh authoritarianism and ethnic domination of the TPLF which forced CUD leaders into exile and persuaded some to pick arms.”
Some say ODF’s latest move is to save face and not be forgotten, as its exiled leaders have been weakened by their long absence, and the digital savvy young activists emerge at the forefront of political and social movement, such as Qeerroo activists.
Sources told Ethiopia Observer that the first meeting between ODF and government officials was conducted before Abiy’s appointment, on 8 to 10 October 2017 in Khartoum, Sudan. Lencho and Dima came on person to Khartoum in meeting organized by the African Union in coordination with the East Africa bloc IGAD and the Sudanese government. Though at the time Lenhco insisted that he and his associate was there as experts to present papers on the region’s security and peace, there was indeed a side-line meeting with ministry of foreign affairs officials who represented the Arat Kilo government.
Though Lencho served as deputy secretary general of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), a party classified as a terrorist organization by the government for many years, he is no longer in the party. One connection could be his brother who is still the OLF’s political director. Lencho is associated with the Norwegian Research Institution, Institute for Applied International Studies. He works as a freelance analyst of political developments in the Horn of Africa. Lenco Leta came to Addis Ababa on March 2015 for a talk with Ethiopia officials but with no success. He later told an interviewer that he was told by officials that the negotiation should first be conducted overseas before he entered the country. Lencho began the Oromo Liberation Front in 1973 before leaving to join the ODF in 2013. “We accept the current constitution and want to participate in peaceful political struggle,” he was quoted by Bloomberg in 2015. However, on august 11, 2016 ODF made alliance with the Patriotic Ginbot 7, a proxy army fighting on the Eritrean side.