Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed refuted the allegation that his government is weak and wavering. “What some are saying that our government is weak is flat-out wrong. There is a saying that only a father who does not spare a rod is a father worth his name; whereas a father who corrects through advice is regarded as not a father. This is the wrong attitude, ” Abiy said Monday during a question-and-answer session with lawmakers. “Ours is not a government which lives in fear of its power snatched from it, whenever some disturbance is caused,” he said. Abiy rather touted his administration’s economic accomplishments in the midst of a global pandemic by giving examples of how the country’s foreign debt has declined from 31 percent of its GDP to 25 percent over the past two years and the growth of coffee export by 16% and meat exports by 21% during the past 10 months.
The kidnapped university students
Abiy touched on a wide variety of issues, from his government’s response to the COVID pandemic to the issue of caretaker and a transitional government to kidnapped Dembi Dollo University students. At least 17 university students, most of them from the Amhara ethnic group, were kidnapped in December 2019, allegedly by a faction of the OLF while they were traveling to the capital via Gambella. “As for the university students who were kidnapped, the government has been conducting an investigation to know their whereabouts, raising money and time needed, to the task. But this is not an ordinary kidnapping. We are doing the search whenever we get tipoffs,” Abiy said. “We are determined in our task. We too have daughters and we know what it means to be in this travail. But there are things being written in social media to sensationalize the incident,” he said.
Ethiopia-Sudan border row
Acknowledging the recent reports of Ethiopia-Sudan border row, the prime minister said his government is committed to resolving it through negotiations. “We have a brotherly relationship with the Sudanese people and we have surmounted many obstacles together,” Abiy said. While saying his government has no intention of going to war with Sudan, he added “but that does not mean that there are not forces who are trying ignite tension between the two countries.” Clashes between Sudan’s military and Ethiopian militias have taken place in the eastern province of al-Qadarif between May 26 and May 28, a spokesman for the Sudanese army, Brigadier Amer Mohammed al-Hassan, said.
The postponement of the elections
When he got reports of the National Electoral Board decided to postpone the August 2020 national elections due to the pandemic, Abiy said he had an exchange of strong words, an unusual one at that, with the chairperson, Birtucan Midekssa because he did not agree with the decision. He said his party, the Prosperity Party is organized and most capable of winning. “It is clear to everyone that the Prosperity Party isn’t afraid of elections,” he said.
On the alleged neglect of the Tigray region by the federal govt
When one or two persons are held responsible, there is a tendency to make it look like it is the whole Tigray population that is targetted, the prime minister said. He added: “Between TPLF and Prosperity party, there have been disparaging exchanges and we should put an end to it.” The federal government has made a 42 percent increase in federal subsidy to the region in the past two years, Abiy said, adding that whether the budget has been properly put into operation or not could only be evaluated only by the region’s council. The region has received 46 million Birr in money and in-kind to combat COVID-19 pandemic, the prime minister stated. An additional 400 million birr has been injected for clean water supply in Mekele city, according to the PM. And as the region failed to settle fertilizer debt, the federal government was obliged to purchase fertilizers with borrowed 445 million birr and send them to the region for the sake of farmers, something that has not been done to any other region, he said.
On Emboch
Recalling that he went in person to Lake Tana to assess the rate of expansion of the Emboch (water hyacinth) a year ago, Abiy said it has been tried to combat the weed either manually or using machines. “However, this has proved not sustainable and requires environmental protection as a long term solution to address the root cause of the problem,” he added. Saying that Tana is fed by rivers emanating from the high mountainous area of Guna Terrara which is increasingly being impoverished due to human activity, he stated the severity of floods in the area is increasing and causing the lake to be conquered by the weed. As the previous machine has not been successful, there is a plan to purchase a new one worth 200 million birr, Abiy disclosed.
On a recent human rights report by Amnesty International
Responding to the Amnesty International recent report that accused Ethiopian security forces of committing “grave violations between December 2018 and December 2019”, Abiy said if the report says the rights of Ethiopians are being violated, we are not saying it worthless. “Since our system is imperfect, these things might happen. We will do what it takes to investigate the matter,” he told the lawmakers. He affirmed the need to correct the error. “If we have committed errors, we don’t need to cover these up. It is not a worrying matter for us to do the proper investigation,” he concluded.
Image: Courtesy of the PM’s Twitter page
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