The campaign by the neo-neftegna corner against the Oromo quest for a dignified existence is coordinated from Minilik’s palace. Abiy is the “good Oromo” saving the empire from the Oromo, a nation whose longstanding demand for inclusion & justice has been dismissed as extreme. 1/7
A critical part of this strategy is to demonise the Oromo people & their institutions (OMN, OLF, OFC) as extremist, terrorist, uncivilised & barbaric. Subsequent Ethiopian govt’s policed, controlled, & persecuted people of the south and their ways of being and acting. 2/7
The latest campaign is a continuation of the same processee of demonisation and dehumanisation of Oromos & their institutions. There is even a lawsuit against OMN in Maryland in which plaintiff alleges to have suffered distress bc OMN caused internet shutdown. I kid you NOT. 3/7
Once this narrative is grounded, the multinational federal system that allowed the various nations and nationalities to exercise a semblance of autonomy will be blamed for division & violence. 4/7
The unitary camp, and the state media are beamoning how the conditions of possibility created by the federal order to recognise and acknowledge the existence of various groups is undermining their narrow view of Ethiopianess - a totalising and exclusive ideology. 5/7
Abiy and the neo-neftegna corner agree on one thing: dismantling the multinational federal order, and replacing it with geographic federalism - an exercise in futility that is absolutely incongruent with the multinational character of the Ethiopian state. 6/7
This will give Abiy’s childhood dream of becoming the 7th King a plausible path. Perhaps a monarch would be too archaic a title these days but he has made clear his preference for a presidential system - the closest to being His Majesty. That is what is behind this campaign. 7/7
