Economic and development analysis: Perspectives on economics, society, development, freedom & social justice. Leading issues in Oromo, Oromia, Africa & world affairs. Oromo News. African News. world News. Views. Formerly Oromia Quarterly
Abbaa biyyummaa Oromoo hubachuuf Finfineen kan Oromoo ta´uun isaa shakkiin hin jiru, kana seeraa fi seenaan hardhallee borullee itti gaafannu ta´a. Kanaaf kana duuba Oromoon bakkoota kana qayyabatee itti dhimma bahu koreen ni labsiti.
i. Cabiinsa Halagaa Dura Ilmaan Oromootu Finfinnee Bulchaa Turan Madda Seenaa Irraa
1. Caffeen Tuulamaa kan bulaa turte gooticha Oromoo Tufaa Munaan ta`uu
2. Birbirsa fi Manni Gullallee kan bulchaa ture Qajeelaa Dooyyo
3. Teechoo kan bulchaa ture Guddataa Araddoo
4. Boolee Kan bulchaa ture Shubu Ejersaa
5. Boolee Bulbulaa kan bulchaa ture Soraa Lomee
6. Kolfee kan bulchaa ture Axale Jatanii
7. Qaraniyoo/Dalattii kan bulchaa ture Jamo Dabalee
8. Jarsaye kan bulchaa ture Galatee Ashate
9. Yakkaa kan bulchaa ture Abeebee Tufa
ii. Karra Shanan Finfinnee
1. Karra Qirxi – karra gara kaaba geessu
2. Karra Qoree – karaa Jimmatti geessu
3. Karra Allo- Karaa Walloo/Daseetti nama geessu
4. Karra Qaallu/Qaallitti- karaa Bsiooftuutti nama geessu
5. Karra Gafarsaa- Gara dhiyaatti nu geessu
For many activists the revised bill is wholly insufficient. There are no plans to “pay a penny” to Oromia for use of its natural resources, such as water, or for dumping the city’s waste on its farmlands.
Nine months into a state-of-emergency imposed to quell popular unrest, Ethiopia’s ruling party, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), has unveiled its first significant political concession. But the furor surrounding the draft bill presented to parliament last week reveals just how deep tensions in Africa’s second most populous country still run. At stake is the answer to a highly charged question: who owns Addis Ababa?
For Oromos, who make up at least a third of the population and formed the backbone of last year’s mobilization against the central government, the answer is simple: the federal capital, which they call Finfinne, belongs to Oromia. They recount a long history of grievance which casts Oromos as colonial subjects violently displaced from their land and alienated from their culture.
This anger became especially acute in the past decade as Addis Ababa expanded rapidly and when, in April 2014, the authorities published a new master plan which proposed further eviction of Oromo residents and farmers in the name of development. “The issue of Finfinne is the heart of our politics,” says Gemechis, an Oromo resident of the city. “It is where we lost everything.” The master plan was dropped in January 2016 but demonstrations continued unabated until October.
Addis Ababa, with a population approaching four million people, is also home to the African Union and the UN Economic Commission for Africa and is widely regarded as Africa’s diplomatic capital—and indeed the world’s third largest diplomatic hub.
Pro-Oromo protesters in Addis Ababa. (Reuters/Tiksa Negeri)
The new bill is a symbolically important effort to address some of the protesters’ demands, and to give concrete meaning to Oromia’s constitutionally-enshrined “special interest” in the capital. Proposed changes include making Afan Oromo an official language of the federal government alongside Amharic, as well as setting up Afan Oromo schools in the city; renaming the city “Finfinne/Addis Ababa”; restoring original Oromo names of public squares, roads and neighborhoods; and the establishment of a joint council with the federal government to administer the city.
It is a watered down version of an earlier draft that reportedly met with much objection inside the ruling party. This is not surprising since the meaning of “special interest” has never been fully spelt out and there is much debate as to how much privilege Oromos should have in a multiethnic city that, despite being located entirely within Oromia, has a population that is only around 20% Oromo.
For many activists the revised bill is wholly insufficient. There are no plans to “pay a penny” to Oromia for use of its natural resources, such as water, or for dumping the city’s waste on its farmlands, says Seyoum Teshome, an academic and blogger. “The bill is trash.” He and others argue that promises to pay farmers proper compensation for further evictions merely proves that the government still intends to expand the boundaries of the city.
Holy Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa was built after 1941 to commemorate the liberation of Ethiopia from Fascist Italy. Photo by David Stanley via Flickr. CC BY 2.0
At the end of June, the Ethiopian Council of Ministers revealed a bill that seeks to address questions of social services, language, education and culture involving the country’s capital, Addis Ababa, and Oromia, Ethiopia’s largest region within which Addis Ababa is located.
The government and its supporters say the law is needed to redress the historical injustices that the people of Oromia suffered since the establishment of Addis Ababa. Critics see the law as a tactic to disenfranchise the residents of Addis Ababa. Some go further in their allegation that the law is intended to worsen the already sensitive ethnic relations in Ethiopia.
Most of the debate about the bill has fallen along the lines of regional elites against more cosmopolitan elites, tradition against modernity, and ethno-nationalists against civic nationalists — divisions that are often a source of strife in Ethiopia.
On the map of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa is a stretch of high plains inside the state Oromia. With just 0.047 percent of the country’s territory, Addis Ababa is the largest metropolitan area in Ethiopia. Numerous ethnic and religious groups from every corner of Ethiopia live in Addis Ababa; a significant number of Addis Ababa’s 4 million residents generally present themselves as cosmopolitan, liberal and post-ethnic.
Oromia, meanwhile, is home to the Oromo people, the single largest ethnic group comprising at least 34 percent of Ethiopia’s 100 million population, but which has also historically been politically marginalized. Addis Ababa is the seat of the current government — EPRDF, which is dominated by the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front — and although it is inside the state, Oromia does not control the city; the federal government does and has since 1991 when Ethiopia was transformed into a federation of nine ethnic-based regional states.
The Ethiopian constitution, however, accorded Oromia what the government called “Special Interest” over Addis Ababa when it was adopted in 1995 due to the city’s unique location.
The purpose of the new draft law is to legislate the “Special Interest” provisions of the constitution and solve other problems that have arisen between Addis Ababa and Oromia, such as the possible expansion of the city’s boundaries, which would have meant the eviction of Oromo farmers whose subsistence depends on farmlands that are located around the city.
The expansion, among other things, was at the heart of protests mounted by Oromo students from 2014 to 2016. The Ethiopian government cracked down on the movement hard; according to rights organizations, hundreds were killed and thousands were arrested before Ethiopian government declared a state of emergency in October 2016.
The proposed law is contentious, but many expect that it will be passed over the next few days.
Addis Ababa’s skyline provides a backdrop for Meskal Square, site of military parades and rallies during the Communist era which ended in 1991. Photo by David Stanley via Flickr. CC BY 2.0
Incorporating Oromo identity into Addis Ababa
There are about 13 “titles” in the bill, each dedicated to the “Special Interest” of the state of Oromia over Addis Ababa.
In its major provisions, the bill would incorporate Oromo (known as “Afaan Oromo”) as a working language of the municipality, mandate that the city government provide education for residents of Addis Ababa whose mother tongue is Afaan Oromo, and preserve Oromo cultural enclaves and buildings within the city. The bill also sanctions the use of Finfine (in Oromo language) as an alternative name of Addis Ababa and allows the renaming of streets, public squares, and neighborhoods in Addis Ababa with names memorializing Oromo culture and identity.
This part of the bill has been discussed widely on social media as it deals with the history, identity and language use of Addis Ababa.
Opponents fear it causes division and strife by appealing Oromo nationalists, and some have further claimed the problems these provisions claim to solve don’t actually exist.
However, many Oromo nationalists support this part of the bill, albeit with qualms.
Who owns Addis Ababa land?
Oromo nationalists, however, categorically oppose a different part of the bill that deals with the ownership of land in Addis Ababa.
In the current practice, the federal government owns the land and the bill explicitly asserts that Addis Ababa is a federal land. But the bill would warrant the state of Oromia to acquire and develop land for government activities and public services free of occupancy payment.
For critics, that doesn’t do enough to grant Oromia its rightful and historical ownership of the city of Addis Ababa. As a guest author of the pro-government news analysis site the HornAffairs wrote:
The constitution clearly provides that territorially the Ethiopian State is structured into only nine regional states. The territory of Ethiopia comprises the territory of these member states.
Apart from the member states territory there is no piece of land belonging to the federal government or any other kind of administration. Any conception of Addis Ababa as an administration with its own separate territorial jurisdiction outside of Oromia or as a federal territory is ruled out from the beginning.
Anyone living in Addis is living in Oromia Regional State.
Non-Oromo opponents of the bill claim that this section will allow discrimination against Addis Ababa residents, who usually present themselves as post-ethnic and cosmopolitan.On Facebook, the former chairman of Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce, Kebour Ghenna, wrote:
Very soon, I will be celebrating my sixtieth birthday in Addis Ababa. My son was born in Addis Ababa. I was born in Addis Ababa. My father was born Addis Ababa. My grandfather also!
Last week’s EPRDF arbitrary edict, offering Addis Ababa an absurd affirmative action model has come as a surprise and shock to me… I am sure to many others too. This decree reinforces further the attempt of the government to divide of Addis Ababians according to ethnic lines, and disenfranchises a huge number of residents.
But Oromo nationalists argue back that they were forcefully removed from the land over the course of numerous bloody disputes, so it makes sense for Oromia to be guaranteed some level of influence over the city. In his response to Kebour Ghenna, Birhanemeskel Abebe wrote:
No Armageddon! No Apocalypse at the return of Addis Ababa’s as an Oromia City and Capital!
Healthcare and jobs
Another important component of the bill deals with jobs, social and health care services.
Under current practice, all Ethiopians including Oromos in Addis Ababa are entitled to jobs, social and health care services. But the bill would institute opportunity structures for Oromo youth who live in and around the city of Addis Ababa, seeming to imply that there is discrimination against Oromos in Addis Ababa. Opride, a news analysis site wrote:
…the draft further alienates and excludes the Oromo people from the city by misconstruing basic constitutional and human rights as Oromia’s special interest. For example, a key provision on health care states that Oromos living in towns and rural areas around Addis Ababa can “access health care services at government hospitals and medical facilities like any resident of the city.” This is laughable. It implies that there is a law in place that currently prevents Oromos from seeking medical treatment at public hospitals and clinics in Addis Ababa. Or that Addis Ababa residents currently enjoy preferential access and treatment at public health institutions in the city.
Following the circulation on social media of a document said to be draft law for determining Oromia Regional State’s interest in Addis Ababa, there was a flurry of comments on what the meaning of Article 49(5) of FDRE constitution could be.
Some wanted to see Addis Ababa as a federal territory in which Oromia Regional State only has a special interest. Others chose to consider Addis Ababa as a City State accountable only to the federal government. Still others called for constitutional amendment in order to make Addis Ababa Administration accountable to Oromia Regional State.
In all sides, though, the discussion was narrowly focused on Article 49.
It was as if everybody is trying to limit his/her engagement with the constitution to the barest minimum level possible. That may tell a story about the passion with which Ethiopians hold their constitution. And when one considers the political reality, not the constitutional rules per se, no wonder passion for the constitution lacks.
With regard to the tripartite relationship the constitution calls for in Addis Ababa, in the political practice over the last decades, the federal government prevailed. Addis Ababa barely survived. The interest of Oromia was completely relegated.
The thesis of this article is that FDRE constitution provides fair and balanced approach in addressing the diverse concerns represented by the Federal Government, Oromia Regional State and Addis Ababa Administration.
Because, the three constitutional propositions under Article 49: (1) Addis Ababa shall serve as the capital city of the federal government; (2) the residents of Addis Ababa shall have full right of self-government; and (3) Addis Ababa Administration shall be accountable to the federal government – can fully be given meaning without remotely suggesting that Addis Ababa is outside the territorial/functional jurisdiction of Oromia Regional State.
Any interpretation otherwise would in fact make the constitution document for lessons in self contradictions. For somebody concerned in the determination of where the law stands, therefore, calling the Federal Government’s adventure into the territorial and functional jurisdictions of Oromia Regional state over the last decades unconstitutional is as easy as saying the emperor has no clothes. It only requires honesty.
One must wonder, how come so obvious a constitutional provision be misconstrued for so long? Especially when it relates to the largest and most populous member of the federation at the center of it all?
The answer would take us to the story of what became the fate some of the architects of the constitutional principles and how fast some of the other architects grew into power elites playing a wealth game even at the risk of the same constitutional order they fought to establish.
A shift from subserviently abiding the central government to assertion of their authority by regional states? And could this start in Oromia? Does Oromia Regional Administration have the gut to reclaim the authority it has long abdicated and end up becoming the major guarantor of the federal constitutional order?
If so and the issues involved are clear and simple. They only require FDRE Constitution 101 discussion on the following questions:
1/ Finfinne/Addis Ababa: does it fall out of the territorial jurisdictions of Oromia regional state?
The constitution clearly provides that territorially the Ethiopian State is structured into only nine regional states. The territory of Ethiopia comprises the territory of these member states.
Apart from the member states territory there is no piece of land belonging to the federal government or any other kind of administration. Any conception of Addis Ababa as an administration with its own separate territorial jurisdiction outside of Oromia or as a federal territory is ruled out from the beginning.
Anyone living in Addis is living in Oromia Regional State.
What this means is the territorial limit in which the residences of Addis Ababa are given full right of self-government lays within the territorial jurisdiction of Oromia‐ a regional government established to give effect to the self-determination right of the Oromo nation.
Addis Ababa/Finfinee is a place where the self-determination right of the Oromo nation and the self-governance right of Addis Ababa residents interplay.
In other words, Addis Ababa is a local government structure within the state of Oromia. But unlike the other local government structures in the regional state Addis Ababa is constitutionally named self-government structure.
The reason for that is quite understandable.
Oromia Regional State is a state administration which is established to give effect to the constitutional rights to self-determination of the Oromo nation. And as such among its primary responsibilities are the promotion of the linguistic and cultural rights of the Oromo nation and the preservation of their history. This is in addition to its role as a regional self-administrator.
One can, therefore, assume that in formulating administrative, economic and social policies of the regional states and in determining the regional state structure historical, cultural and linguistic considerations may be applied.
This may not always suit to the priori ties of the residents of Addis Ababa who as a matter of fact are culturally and linguistically distinct from the bigger Oromia.
Apart from this consideration, however, Addis Ababa residents’ rights to local self-government has the same meaning as the right to self-government of the residents of any of the other Oromia regional government’s local structures.
2/ Does the full right of self-government of Addis Ababa residents exclude accountability to Oromia regional state?
Local self-governance presupposes administering one’s own matter in one’s own locality and proportional participation in the regional and federal matter.
What are the self-matters for Addis Ababa Administration? What are the powers and responsibilities that will be required to undertake effectively such matters? What resources does Addis Ababa need to use or administer? Where does Addis Ababa Administration’s finance come from?
Pondering over these questions in light of the federal constitution makes the answer obvious and unequivocal.
Be it for Addis Ababa or any other local administration in any of the regional states, the federal constitution doesn’t provide list of powers and responsibilities. Nor does it gives them their own revenue sources.
Whatever authority local governments have comes from regional government laws. That makes accountability to the regional administration evident. Plus full measure of self-government does not suggest the absence of accountability.
If that was what it means, the constitution wouldn’t have made the Addis Ababa administration accountable to the federal government.
3/ What does accountability/responsibility of Addis Ababa Administration to the Federal government mean?
The Ethiopian constitution establishes governments at two tiers: federal and regional. Both tiers of governments do have legislative, executive and judiciary powers and separate revenue sources. The constitution clearly prohibits each level of governments from acting on the powers and responsibilities of the other.
Therefore, there is no way the federal government, without viola ting the constitution, could legislate or assume judicial or executive authority on matters reserved for regional governments.
The powers and functions reserved for the federal government relate to issues that affect the interest of the whole nation. The constitution has not given power to the federal government to engage in the day to day governmental activity of any locality in the country.
Whenever the federal government engages itself in any locality in any region it must demonstrate that it is ac ting on federal matter that concerns the country in its entirety.
If the task undertaken is a federal one, then the cost will be borne by the federal government and it will be covered out of the revenue sources reserved for the federal government. And all the revenues assigned to the federal government must be marked for expenditures that benefit the whole country.
But if the task falls under the responsibilities and functions given to regional states, the cost could be covered from regional government revenue sources. The federal government may delegate its powers and responsibilities to regional states. And whenever it does so, it could hold the regional state responsible/accountable.
But on matters of regional matter (maters falling under the powers and competencies of the regional state), there is no constitutional way of making a regional state or any local self-government structure within the state accountable to the federal government.
Therefore, the issue of a regional government structure’s accountability to the federal government could be raised only in relation to federal matters. The federal government could never hold a local government in a given state responsible/accountable to itself on issues of regional matters.
In the first place it could never delegate to any local self-governing structure powers and functions given to a regional state. That would be usurpation of power.
Article 49 (3) of the constitution says that the Administration of Addis Ababa shall be responsible to the Federal Government. That is precisely because as per sub article 1 of the same article the City has been selected to serve as the Capital City for the Federal government.
There will be a number of issues in Addis Ababa which could affect the effectiveness of the federal government in discharging its constitutional responsibilities. To such extent only, therefore, the federal government has a concern in Addis Ababa Administration and could hold the administration accountable.
A good test to identify on what issues Addis Ababa Administration shall be accountable to the federal government is to check as to how the project/activity is financed.
If Addis Ababa exercise powers and responsibilities delegated to it by the federal government, the expenditure would be covered by the federal government. Then the accountability to the federal government would be a proper and constitutional one.
But that is pretty rare. The functions and activities of Addis Ababa Administration are bread and butter issues. Tasks and activities which fall under jurisdictions left to regional states.
In terms of accountability, therefore, much of the talk should be between Addis and Oromia. Accountability to the Federal government is need based and is exceptional. That is why it is clearly stated in the constitution.
Accountability to the regional government is the principle. It is so because of the Administration being the integral structure of the regional state.
To just read the statement of the constitution that Addis Ababa Administration shall be accountable to the federal government and regard it as to mean that the federal government should take charge of all the legislative, executive and judiciary matters of Addis Ababa is misinterpretation of the federal constitution at its grandest level.
Therefore, as the issues discussed above indicate all roads seem to lead to the Oromia Regional State legislators. Caffee Oromia could start the deliberation on Addis/Finfinne Charter. The issue of course merits discussions by all the stake holders.
The Federal Legislators in the meantime should deliberate to repeal the Addis Ababa City Charter and replace it with a new proclamation which limits itself to the constitutional interests of the Federal Government.
Better also for them to look into the other laws, which as per the above discussed and other principles of the constitution, are glaringly in contradictions to the federal constitution.
The Oromo Studies Association (OSA) believes the draft law’s utter neglect of the Oromo people’s demands risks reigniting conflict on the unresolved issue of Oromia’s right over Addis Ababa.
On June 27, 2017, the Council of Ministers of the Government of Ethiopia announced that it has adopted a draft legislation to determine by law the “special interest” provision of the 1995 Ethiopian Constitution and sent it to the House of People’s Representatives. The legislation was an abridged version of the draft law the government had leaked a few weeks earlier and quickly disavowed after a backlash from a deeply skeptical public about the intent and contents of the legislation. On June 29, the draft legislation was taken up by House of People’s Representative with a view to promulgating it as law.
The Ethiopian Constitution posits, in Article 49 (5), that the special interest of the State of Oromia in Addis Ababa concerns three important areas: the provision of social services, the utilization of natural resources and joint administration of the city in lieu of the fact that Addis Ababa location within the State of Oromia. The law that was designed to determine these issues would be expected to explain in detail the meaning and process of implementation of the constitutional provisions.
Assessed by any measure, the draft legislation is not worthy of its name. Nowhere does it attempt to define the “special interest” provision of the constitution or recognize the struggle of the Oromo people and their demands regarding Finfinnee/Addis Ababa. The draft legislation doesn’t designate the Oromia regional government as the beneficiary of the constitutional “special interest.” The boundary of Finfinnee is not delimited, even though that is a sinquanon for implementation of the proclamation. Instead there are indications of intent to expand the city limits into the Oromia state territory. With regard to social services, the proclamation only reiterates conventions and practices already in use and in place.
Rather than defining the constitutional provision, the “proclamation” rehashes policy issues that any city government must undertake to serve its citizens. Providing inter-state transport services shouldn’t be a matter defined by law as a “special interest;” market forces are already at work in this respect. Providing youth employment is a responsibility of an incumbent in any city government. It cannot be designated as a special interest of a state. Overall, if there is anything resembling a definition of the constitutional provision, it is allusions to the rights of Finfinne residents who happen to be Oromo rather than those of the Oromia regional state as stipulated in the constitution. The proclamation also re-grants constitutional rights to Oromo residents as if their rights within Finfinnee aren’t already protected by the Ethiopian Constitution.
In this sense, OSA considers the draft proclamation a mockery of the process of legislation that should be solemn and dignified. Even worse, the proclamation is an insult to the legitimate demand of the Oromo people for which, in the last two years, thousands have given their lives, limbs and livelihoods. To reduce the Oromo people’s demands to issues of youth unemployment, compensation for confiscated properties and provision of services is a dangerous political ploy that entails severe consequences.
As a scholarly organization that has documented the struggle of the Oromo people for freedom, justice, dignity and human rights, OSA condemns the Ethiopian regime’s blatant disregard for the Oromo people’s demands over Finfinnee. OSA scholars have documented the history of violent conquests and the consequent dispossession of Oromo lands, dislocation of homesteads and displacement Oromo people from the area today known as Addis Ababa.
It is unconscionable that the Ethiopian regime, when it is given the chance to correct historical injustices, has chosen to pursue the short term goal of perpetuating in power a group that has been there for more than a quarter century by force. OSA feels that the complete failure of the Ethiopian government to heed the cry of the Oromo people can only pave the way for more violence and bloodshed.
Cognizant of the long history and the intensity of the current demands of the Oromo people, OSA calls upon the following to take immediate action to obviate conflict and its horrendous consequences.
To the Ethiopian Government
The Oromo interest on Finfinnee is not “special.” It is historical and inherent. If this draft legislation were to have a chance of being accepted as adequate, it should respond to the Oromo people’s articulation of their interest during their protests last year. At a minimum, the draft legislation must include the following provisions.
Delimit the boundary of Finfinnee the city boundary as it existed in 1991. Continued expansion is a recipe for renewed conflict.
Recognize the Oromia regional government’s right to joint governance of the city. – Establish the Oromo language as a working language.
Respect the political, economic and civil rights of all the residents.
Recognize the city resident full democratic right of municipal self-governance instead of treating them as subjects of federal authority.
– Restore and legally establish the city’s indigenous name, Finfinnee, as the official name of the city.
Established by legislation the Oromo people’s right to socio-cultural, economic, environmental, and political benefits in the city and take measures to facilitate the enjoyment of these rights.
To Oromo people all over Oromia and Ethiopia:
OSA is believes that your protest last year has brought you to the verge of victory. Your gallantry and fearless engagement of security forces has caused the Ethiopian government at all levels to heed your demands. OSA salutes you on your achievements and your discerning wisdom concerning timing and appropriateness of direct action.
OSA believes the government is aware of the power of your commitment to peaceful protest. We reckon that it will quickly abandon its misguided draft legislation. At the same time, we fully support your commitment to peaceful protest.
OSA affirms its commitment to continue to provide the institutional support and intellectual materials needed to press on the Oromo people’s struggle for ensuring Oromia’s interest on Finfinnee.
To Foreign Governments and Donors supporting the Ethiopian government:
The issue of land and the Oromo interest over Finfinnee were the main causes of the protests that lasted for nearly a year in Oromia in 2016. This draft legislation on Oromia’s “special interest” is now being described as a backdoor attempt to implement the dreaded Addis Ababa Master Plan that triggered the protests. Governments and representatives of the international community have an obligation to use their good offices and leverage to persuade the Ethiopian government to refrain from forging ahead with this draft proclamation.
OSA urges all parties to understand that Oromos are a force for peace and stability in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. Respect for human rights and commitment to peace and justice have been the traditional governing principles of Oromos. It is in the interest of those states that have security and other interests in Ethiopia to support these enduring Oromo values and denounce the rule of violence and rule by administrative fiat. OSA is aware that all foreign parties in Ethiopia pursue their own interests. However, an interest that is singularly self-serving cannot guarantee long term stability.
To Non-governmental organizations and rights groups
In line with OSA statement on the Master Plan and the Oromo protests, issued on December 9, 2016, we reiterate our commendation of the courageous work of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and International Crisis Group in
investigating crises affecting the Oromo over the years. The irresponsible act of the Ethiopian regime in drafting the Oromia “special” interest legislation undermines the demands of the Oromo people over Finfinnee. As such, it is bound to provoke public anger. We urge you to continue to document the injustices that are being perpetrated under the state of emergency that has been in effect since October 9, 2016.
To International and Foreign Media Outlets:
OSA calls upon all forms of print, broadcast and online media to document and publicize the events underway in Ethiopia. The issue of Finfinnee is a potent political issue. We urge you to watch the events surrounding this draft proclamation as it is pregnant with all the elements that ignited a historic protests movement that resulted in the death of thousands of people in 2016.
The scheme to dispossess the Oromo of their land and homeland, to dislocate them from their livelihood, and destroy their language and cultural identity, whether expressed blatantly as a Master Plan or shrouded with a cloak of a “special interest” draft law, is a threat to the economic wellbeing and survival as a nation. OSA affirms its commitment to offer all possible intellectual and scholarly assistance to strengthen the efforts to prevent its implementation.
Kuni gonkumaa fudhatama hin qabu. Wixineen kun Oromiyaaf waan tokko osoo hin kennin magaalattiin kan amma duraa daran akka babal’attee Oromoo lafaa buqqiftu kan godhuudha. Kuni salphina. Hasharbashar wixineen kun qabate facebook Addis Araggaa dubbihimaa OPDO jalaa argattu. Jawar Mohammed
In a country where federalism is opted, a given legal policy matter may be percieved by all states, or by group of states or by one state. Accordingly, one can divide states’ interest into three; universal, categorical, and special [particularistic] interest. Space will not allow a full flegde analysis of the first two types. I focus only on special [particularistic] interest.
In special state interest, legislation affects a single state only or same legislation may have differential effects on states. It is percieved either by a single state or by different states in different ways. A single state percieves an interest vis-a-vis the federal government that it shares with no other state[s].
The concept of special interest entered the Ethiopian legal regime in 1992, in Transitional peroid. A Proclamation enacted to establish fourtheen National Regional Self-governments, proclamation number 7/1992, Article 3(4) reads:
The special interests and political rights of the Oromo over Region Thirteen [Harari] and Region Fourtheen [Addis Ababa] are reserved. These Regions shall be accountable to the Central Transitional Government and the relations of these Self-governments with the Central Transitional Government shall be prescribed in detail by special law.
Article 49(5) of the FDRE Constitution articulates:
The special interest of the State of Oromia in Addis Ababa, regarding provision of social services or utilization of natural resources and other similar matters, as well as joint administrative matters arising from the location of Addis Ababa within the State of Oromia, shall be respected. Particulars shall be determined by law.
Pursuant to the second proviso of the same Article, the coming [law] proclamation should address the followings:
⃣. Provision of social services፡
Access to housing, education, health, water, transport, other matters needed for achieving adequate living standards constitute social services.
⃣. Utilization of natural resources፡
Water, forest, mineras, stones, and everything else natural are natural resources. However, one may note that there is hardly any natural resources that the City offers to Oromia. The City itself is dependent on the natural resources of Oromia, out of the City.
⃣. Joint administrative matters፡
Administration is a practical management and direction of the executive department and its agencies. In effect, it involves and starts from representation in the Council and Administration of the City. The word ‘joint’ is important as it impresses fifty fifty per adminstration.
⃣. Other similar matters፡
The phrase, ‘other similar matters’ have no objectivity. Two lines of interpretations can be accorded.
The narrow line of interpretation argues other similar matters is meant to show matters that are immediate to those expressly mentioned. Accordingly, it includes land administration, free access to infrastructures, buildings, halls, industry, naming of the City and sub cities, security matters, participation on policy matters concerning matters affecting interests, and the like.
The second line of argument is broad. It includes automatic representation without election or permanent allocation of a percentage of seats of Addis Ababa City Council, addition of Afaan Oromo as working language of the City, levy and collect revenues and taxes, and the like.
⃣. Addis Ababa as part of Oromia vs independent City:
During the Transitional Period, as established by ‘proclamation’ {not proclamation in strict sense} number 1/1991, Addis Ababa was a City State, proclamation number 7/1992, Article 3(1). This proclamation is repealed by the Federal Constitution, proclamation number 1/1995, by which Addis Ababa is omitted to be City State, by default of Article 47(1).
The Constitution spells out that Residents of Addis Ababa have full measure of self government, and shall be represented in the House of Peoples’ Representative, Article 49(2 and 4). These two Sub-articles give an impression that Addis Ababa is an independent City. It is by the same impression the Charters of the City are proclaimed, establishing the City as independent Chartered City Administration, proclamations number 87/1997 and 361/2003.
Further, Article 49(3) of the Constitution renders the Administration of the City responsible to the Federal Government. The Federal Government, hence, has interest over the City in this regard.
The same Constitution emphasizes the location of Addis Ababa is [with] in Oromia. In line with this scenario, Article 2(1) of the Revised Constitution of Oromia, proclamation number 46/2001, defines Oromia as an ‘… uninterrupted territory…’ The quoted phrase is intended to convey Oromia as landmass, the territory of which is connected from one point to the next without being interrupted. It, in effect, claims Addis Ababa as part and parcel of the State or City within the State.
The proclamation is expected to entertain and harmonize the status of the City as self government City while determining the special interest of Oromia as the location of the City is within the State.
⃣. Intergovernmental relations:
Federalism inevitably implies intergovernmental relations. Leave alone the existence of the interests of Federal Government and Oromia, which are two different governments in the Ethiopian Federation, over Addis Ababa, the recognition of special interest of Oromia in the City Administration, joint administration in particular, necessitates the existence of intergovernmental relations.
The recognition of special interest of Oromia despite the City has full measure of self government and the responsibility of the City to the Federal Government entails the tripartite interrelations, Article 49(2,3 and 5).
The proclamation should ascertain this trinity and establish a channeling institution among them.
⃣. Spillover effects:
Spill over effects are externalities those are not directly evolved in something. In one way or another, the recognition of special interest is a due acknowledgement of the existence of [negative] spill over effect.
Among different studies, a study conducted by Action Professionals Association for the People, aka APAP, indicated downstream users of rivers flowing out of Addis Ababa face health problems, environmental pollution and other human suffering due to the pollution by liquid and solid products of industries and garbages of dwellers of the City, APAP, press release, 20/12/2005. Hence, it seems, the Constitution is trying to disseminate the message that the spillover effect can only be redressed if and only if the special interest is recognized.
The proclamation, while determining the special interest, should address the scheme of redressing the spillover effects in particular.
The Constitution is general in general and Article 49(5) is general in particular. As the Constitution has these things to accomplish, the determining proclamation should address the same in detail. Failing in short of these, the proclamation does not fully and duly serve the purpose of the Constitution.
‘Bu’aa addaa Oromiyaan Finfinnee irraa qabdu: Qurrammi Oromoo Dargi finqilche waan biraa waliin hobbaatii heera saa aango 45/5 keessatt dabales argamsiisee jira. Suniyyuu naannaa waggaa 25f Mormii Oromoo lafa sossoosaa fi wareegama yeros baafameef malee awwaalamee ture. Amma TPLF wuxinee seeraa qabattee sana laalu irratt ifsa baasee jira. Sunis wuxinee seeraa kan dursee ambaaf dhimise ture. Yaa’a tumaa keessa maal fakkaatee akka bahu ta’innaan malee hin beekamu. Mootummaan TPLF ang’aa isa duraa ari’ee Finfinnee kan qabate akka boojuutt malee Oromoon yk ummati biraa fedheef miti. Kanaaf Finfinnee irratt angoo fi mirga, akkasumas abbaawummaa biyya Finfinnee marsee jiru irratt ejjennoo seeraa haa tahu safuu hin qabu. Akka ifsichi jedhutt Finfinneen laaqii Oromiyaa gidduutt argamtu utuu hin tahin qaama saatii. Haalli danuu seenaa, mooraa lolataa koloneeffataa taasiseen jijjiiramuu kan dandahu yoo Oromiyaan kolonummaa baate qofa. Koloneeffataa fi kanneen biroo waliin hariiroo ummachuun kan dandahamu yoo Oromiyaan kolonummaa baate qofa. Yoo haalli sun jijjiiramee Oromiyaan jara kaan waliin federeeshina uumuu barbaadde, finnooti federaawan hundi haala maaliin Finfinnee akka magaalaa muummitii federeeshinaatt dhimma bahan yk magaalaa biraa bu’uursuuf dhoofsisuu qabu. Itt gaafatammi bulcha magaalaa Finfinnee fi magaalota Oromiyaa hundaa federaalaaf utuu hin tahin finnaa Oromiyaaf taha. Seerri ittiin bulan dhimma federaalaa utuu hin tahin kan Oromiyaatii. Haasaan waa’ee bu’aa Oromiyaan Finfinnee irraa qabduu si’ana walmaraa jiru waa’ee mirgaaf utuu hin tahin gara dabarsuu fi malaammaltummaaf kan karoorfame.’ Ibsaa Guutamaa
Ten Preliminary Measures Oromia MayTake on Addis Ababa Until the Prodigal City will Submit to the Jurisdiction of Oromia
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Until the full ownership and territorial integrity of Oromia is fully and completely restored on Addis Ababa as an Oromia city, the Oromia Regional State and the Oromo people should start taking the following preliminary measures to force the submission of the prodigal city of Addis Ababa to the full legislative, executive and judicial power of Oromia National Regional Government, with immediate effect.
1. Oromia National Regional State should immediately and unilaterally delimit and demarcate the boundary between this prodigal city and Oromia National Regional State based on the 1991 border of this city, and ban this city from collecting any form of tax outside its borders and jurisdiction.
2. Oromia National Regional State should immediately adopt Afaan Oromo as the working language for all official and business communications with this prodigal city.
3. Oromia National Regional State should stop using Addis Ababa as the market hub for all Oromia business, and relocate to Oromia cities. All Oromia markets including but not limited to grain markets, vegetable and fruit markets, meat and live animal markets, coffee markets, hid and skin markets and all other resources of Oromia should be relocated to Oromia cities. Oromia should license Oromia based exporters for all Oromia resources and products; and ban Addis Ababa-based exporters from exporting Oromia commodities, goods, and products.
4. Oromia National Regional State should immediately stop using Addis Ababa general distributors and wholesalers, and start licensing Oromia general distributors and wholesalers to distribute imported goods and services throughout Oromia. Oromia National Regional State should immediately license Oromia importers of all goods and services sold in Oromia markets.
5. Oromia National Regional State should immediately issue laws that will impose tariff, taxes and sale price on water and electricity supplies Oromia provides to Addis Ababa, and start rebuilding Oromia from these proceeds.
6. Oromia National Regional State should immediately impose a toll on all Addis Ababa licensed cars including private and commercial cars, taxis, trains and buses that use Oromia roads. The proceeds collected from these road tolls will be used to rebuild Oromia infrastructures and maintain Oromia roads.
7. Oromia National Regional State should immediately issue laws that will impose dry port service fees for all imports and exports passing through the inland dry port at Mojo to Addis Ababa.
8. Oromia National Regional State should start charging lease and real estate taxes on all Addis Ababa owned properties located in Oromia including factories, businesses, and other facilities.
9. All Addis Ababa waste disposal facilities in Oromia should be closed until the health effect and environmental sustainability of those facilities are studied and Oromia determines the appropriate cost and fees Addis Ababa should pay to continue using these facilities, if at all.
10. Oromia National Regional State should issue laws that will totally ban Addis Ababa from getting any land either in the form of a lease or sale from private or government entities in Oromia except through limited term rent!
In a tragedy akin to the Treaty of Wichale of May 2, 1889, the Ethiopian federal government is repudiating the self-governance rights of the Oromo people of themselves and their territory by trying to separate Addis Ababa from Oromia.
This is very problematic and evil by design which will undermine social harmony and peaceful coexistence among Ethiopians, and maybe even might lead to Ethiopia’s disintegration as a nation.
The issue is very simple for every living human being to understand. If Oromo lands where other Ethiopian ethnic groups settle in large number and live are snatched and taken away from the Oromo people under the pretext of Oromos have become minority in their own city or land or Oromos cannot govern other Ethiopian ethnic groups (which comes only out of the heart of a group who has extreme hatred and disrespect for the Oromo people), then, why on Earth will the Oromos allow for other ethnic groups to come and live among them in the first place?
This malicious and evil policy driven by shortsighted land grab agenda by few will force the Oromo people to adopt xenophobic attitude or not to allow anymore for other Ethiopian ethnic groups to live anywhere among the Oromo people. That is natural human instinct particularly when it is clear that the policy is not to live together with the Oromo people but to slowly take Oromo people’s land by eliminating the Oromo.
This is not nuclear science. All Ethiopians who really care about Ethiopia and harmony among Ethiopians should just close their eyes for a minute and think about it. It is a nightmarish situation. I don’t understand why EPRDF is doing this against the Oromo people and the Ethiopian people unless the intention is something evil and sinister.
I strongly advise EPRDF and the Ethiopian government to immediately restore the status of Addis Ababa as one of the Oromia cities under Oromia jurisdiction, and decide upon the special interest of the federal government in Addis Ababa.
Imagine what will happen if the same situation is contemplated on Gonder, Bahir Dar, Mekele or Awassa? Will the Amhara or Tigray people sit idle?
How long could the EPRDF continue disrespecting the Oromo people and for what end?! If the EPRDF as a group thinks the Oromo people will not assert their rights in their own country and on their own land? Then, the EPRDF has little understanding of the Oromo people and the Ethiopian history! I don’t know why this policy of mutual self-destruction become a top priority for the EPRDF when there are many other policy options available to it?
For an outsider, Addis Ababa is the seat of the Ethiopian federal government. It is also the host city of the Headquarters of the African Union (AU), formerly the Organization of African Unity (OAU), and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), and other international organizations, and diplomatic mission numbering over one hundred twenty embassies and consulates making it the diplomatic capital of Africa with the potential to become one of the leading world metropolis.
However, this very rosy picture becomes more murky and troublesome when one looks into the domestic sides of Addis Ababa. The domestic picture of Addis Ababa is in stark contrast to what it claims to portray itself nationally and globally. It is one of the most segregationist and discriminatory city in the world. It is built on evicting and dispossessing the Oromo people of their ancestral land through the war of conquest, and a predatory land grab policy that evicted and dispossessed the land belonging to the Oromo people.
In 1843, Major William C. Harris, the Head of United Kingdom’s Delegation who visited Ethiopia during that time and stayed with an Amhara warlords of the day vividly recorded in his book “The Highlands of Aethiopia (1844, Vols. I-III)” his eyewitness description of the carnage, the savagery, and the barbarity of those warlords on Oromo residents of Finfinnee. Major Harris’s Book Vol. II (p. 185-198) accounts on how tens of thousands of Oromo peaceful and unarmed residents of Finfinnee were massacred and destroyed by a European armed savages and warlords through its war of looting expeditions. In 1887, Addis Ababa was built on the graves of those brave Oromo heroes and heroines.
This agony of Oromo forefathers on whose grave Addis Ababa is built is the everyday agony and brutalizing memory every Oromo youth carries in his heart and lives with every single day. It is the cause for which every single Oromo will fight for and die for until the ownership rights of the Oromo people on Addis Ababa is fully and completely restored and respected.
Fast forward, over the last 25 years alone, Addis Ababa evicted close to one million Oromo residents from Oromo districts surrounding Addis Ababa silently and incrementally through systematic and consistent military style operations. In his Book “ The Meles Legacy: Addis Ababa, the Ownerless city”, Erimias Legesse, the Former State Minister for Ethiopian Government’s Spokesperson Office, accounted over 10 years he was in the Addis Ababa City Council alone, close to 150,000 Oromo families were evicted from their land, and their whereabouts are unknown.
When the recent French supported Addis Ababa Master Plan slated to evict twelve million Oromos in ten years’ time from 36 cities and seventeen woredas in Central Oromia zones was announced it triggered the memories of 1840- 1887 all over again. The Oromo people protested and drew the battle lines not to be played again.
2. How is the EPRDF handling question of the Oromo people over Addis Ababa?
In spite of the war of conquest partly mentioned above, no other Ethiopian regimes formally questioned the ownership rights of the Oromo people on Addis Ababa, since its creation in 1887, except the current EPRDF government of Ethiopia.
Let’s recap this. Under all previous Ethiopian regimes, including that of Emperor Menelik II, Lij Iyasu, Queen Zewiditu, Emperor Haile-Selassie, and the military regimes of General Teferi Bantii & Colonel Mengistu Haile-Mariam, the status of Addis Ababa as the seat of the central government and its status as the Capital City of Shewa Province has never been disputed or questioned or even debated!
Administratively, the Municipality of Addis Ababa was reporting to Menagesha Awraja, an area that covers pretty much the current Special Oromia Zone surrounding Addis Ababa. Menagesha Awraja in turn was reporting to the Shewa Province which in turn reports to the Ethiopian central government. At no time in its history was Addis Ababa separated from Shewa Province and placed under the political control of the Ethiopian central government let alone becoming a separate region except in the last 25 years.
The project of separating Addis Ababa from the Oromia State and that of the Oromo people started rolling as soon as the current government took the state power from the Derg Regime in 1991. As soon as it assumed the state power, the government of the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi established Addis Ababa as a separate region, calling it Region 14, by proclamation No.7/ 1992 in 1992. Article 49 sub article 5 of the current federal constitution simply adopted the watered down version of this proclamation.
To avoid immediate backlash from the Oromo people, the newly crowned rebels recognized “the political rights and special interests of the Oromo people and region 4 over Addis Ababa” under Article 65 of Proclamation No.7/1992. The political rights and special interests of the Oromo people enshrined under this proclamation has never been legal elaborated or even get discussed. In short, Proclamation 7/1992 denied the Oromo population of the former Shewa Province their city in the name of self-administration, and the entire Oromo people the right to administer one of their city and the loss of the heartland of Oromia and their capital city with stroke of a pen.
In a further strategy to weaken the Oromo people’s ownership rights on Addis Ababa and empower Addis Ababa as a colonial enclave, the EPRDF government divided and disenfranchised Shewa Oromo population in the former Shewa Province into five zones which now includes West Shewa, North Shewa, South West Shewa, East Shewa, and the Special Oromia Zone surrounding Addis Ababa. A small part of the old Shewa province is also redistricted under the Amhara National Regional State with Debre Berhan as its zonal capital.
This strategy, which seems to have worked well until the #OromoProtests, was to divide and give the OPDO boys small balls for each one of them in their respective zones so that they will take off their eyes from the bigger ball while the big guys will play the national political and economic tournament with perfection with the bigger ball in Addis Ababa. The EPRDF sold this poly of creating six zones out of the previously one and very strong Shewa province as an administrative convenience for these newly created zones. In reality, none of the newly created zones gained any politically and economic advantage in the last 25 years except being weakened, impoverished, disenfranchised and gerrymandered to benefit the predatory beasts in Addis Ababa.
The current so called “talks” on Article 49 sub article 5 of the Federal Constitution’s “special interests clause of Oromia in Addis Ababa” is sequel two of the poly of the EPRDF to finish and perfect what the 19th Century war of conquest failed to do by completely separating Addis Ababa from Oromia and the Oromo people.
3. How is Addis Ababa treating the Oromo people now?
The policies of Addis Ababa toward the Oromo people has always been predatory. Its policies are premised on evicting, dispossessing, displacing and exploiting the Oromo to benefit, make room and place for non-Oromo settlers. Over the last twenty-five years, Addis Ababa is not only displacing and evicting the Oromo people, it is also the prison and torture capital of the Oromo people where all major torture centers and hidden prisons including Ma’ikalawi are located. Some call Addis Ababa the Gitmo of the Oromo people where tens of thousands of Oromos are tortured, killed, and detained.
Politically, economically and socially speaking, except for the nominal claim that Addis Ababa is the capital city of Oromia, Addis Ababa is the antithesis of everything Oromo. There is virtually no Oromo political, economic and cultural presence in Addis Ababa. All political, economic and cultural powers are fully in the hand of the settlers. Despised, marginalized and excluded in their own land, the Oromo people are considered as undesirables and strangers not welcomed in Addis Ababa, and are openly discriminated against.
According to the Addis Ababa City Charter, Amharic is the only official working language of the city. This means Afaan Oromo is legally and factually banned in Addis Ababa. Afaan Oromo speakers neither get employment nor public services this city provides through its public institutions. Afaan Oromo speakers’ political participation in Addis Ababa is unthinkable. Instead, the EPRDF government appoints Amharic speaking Oromo with no political constituency in the city as the Mayor of Addis Ababa to serve as a rubber stamp for the wish and whim of the deep state, and cow the Oromo people through well perfected political fraud.
There is no single Afaan Oromo public school or college in Addis Ababa. There is no single Afaan Oromo print or broadcast media for Afaan Oromo speakers in Addis Ababa. All Addis Ababa-based print and broadcast media outlets, theaters, and cinema centers, youth centers, museums, and city operated social institutions are legally banned from using Afaan Oromo. With the exception occasional translation services in court hearings, there is no single entity that provides even translation or interpretation services for Afaan Oromo speakers. All legal documents and court decisions are issued only in Amharic.
In fact, since the environment of discrimination is so pervasive and heavy, almost all private businesses and social institutions including churches, banks, hospitals, clinics, hotels, cafés, retail and wholesale shops conducts all their businesses only Amharic. One hardly finds Afaan Oromo speaking businesses or churches in Addis Ababa.
For Afaan Oromo speaking citizens of Addis Ababa, Oromo refugees in New York or Washington DC or Minneapolis have more self-worth and rights than Afaan Oromo speakers in Addis Ababa. Oromo speaker in Washington DC, New York or Minneapolis can get interpretation services in hospitals and other public institutions, a right an Oromo in Addis Ababa could not even contemplate.
Although it might be unfair to blame Addis Ababa for all the misery and ills of the Oromo people, it is fair to say that all the racist and discriminatory policies and laws against the Oromo people by the Ethiopian regimes continue to be hatched and nurtured in Addis Ababa. The Ethiopian government’s monolingual language policies and systemic policies of exclusion and marginalization of the Oromo people from Ethiopia’s economically, politically and social systems are developed and executed with near perfection and exported to the rest of the country from here.
Addis Ababa is a city that aspires to become a global city before it becomes a city to its own people on whose land it is founded. Owing to this discriminatory and segregationist policies, the Oromo people’s relationship with this city is that of love and hate. They love it because they believe it is their city. They hate it because they are being segregated, discriminated and unwelcomed in it.
4. What is the demand of the Oromo people on Addis Ababa?
The demand of the Oromo people on Addis Ababa is simple and straight forward. It is the demand to right the wrongs listed above! It is the demand of ownership right of the Oromo people on their land and their city. It is the demand of the Oromo people to politically administer their city and have a part in its development. It is the demand for the Oromia national regional government to have a taxing power (the power to impose and collect tax) and police power (the power to issue laws and policies and enforce them) on Addis Ababa and to administer it.
Rejection of the Ethiopian government’s aggression and denial of self-governance rights of the Oromo people of themselves and their capital city, Addis Ababa, is at the heart of the #Oromoprotests that is going on for the last two years.
This demand of the Oromo people over Addis Ababa is best encapsulated in the single rallying cry of the #OromoProtests. It says “Finfinneen Handhura Oromiya ti!” in Oromo language. Loosely translated, it means “Addis Ababa is the heart, the umbilical cord & the center of Oromia!” It simply means Addis Ababa is the heartland of Oromia and Oromia’s capital city. The two are inseparable; one and the same! Oromia will not exist without Addis Ababa, and Addis Ababa will not exist without Oromia!
The slogan “Finfinneen Handhura Oromiya ti!” shows the undisputed ownership, full political and economic rights including the police and taxing powers of the Oromia State over Addis Ababa. The slogan shows Addis Ababa is inextricably connected with the dignity and the honor of the Oromo people.
The Oromo people have never ever lost, relinquished, nor abandoned their ownership rights on Addis Ababa, and never will! Not now! The future belongs to the Oromo people to right the wrongs and injustices perpetrated on the Oromo people in Addis Ababa and its surroundings. The OPDO has no political, legal or historical mandate from the Oromo people to sign any form of surrender agreement that undermines, diminishes, compromises or further complicates the fully political, economic and social rights of the Oromo people on Addis Ababa. Not now. Not ever!
5. Why has OPDO no legitimacy to sign the surrender agreement with EPRDF and Addis Ababa Municipality?
OPDO cannot spend the political capital it never had both within the Oromo people and the member organizations of the EPRDF. For the last 27 years of its existence, OPDO was literally homeless and never had a legally recognized capital city to govern the Oromo people.
Most people don’t know this very important fact. OPDO’s boutique offices in Addis Ababa has no legal basis to exist there. Neither the federal government’s constitution nor the charter of Addis Ababa city administration nor the constitution of Oromia recognizes Addis Ababa as the capital city of Oromia. Not even the internal party rules of EPRDF recognizes Addis Ababa as the political capital of OPDO, nominally the ruling party in Oromia.
The EPRDF, mainly the TPLF, decides where the OPDO should be in a given year depending on the political tempo of the Oromo people. Initially, in 1991, OPDO was kept in Addis Ababa because of the pressure from the OLF. Then, after the OLF got weakened, OPDO was sent to Adama. When the pressure mounted on EPRDF/TPLF from Matcha Tullama Self-Help Association, the Oromo students, and OFC, OPDO was returned from Adama to Addis Ababa where it still exists.
Now, the EPRDF and Addis Ababa city powerholders are talking to the OPDO on the “special interests of the Oromo people over Addis Ababa” because of the #OromoProtests while those Oromo leaders who voiced their concern with the Oromo people like Dr. Merara Gudina, Bekele Gerba and tens of thousands other brave Oromo leaders are languishing in prison.
For the EPRDF, OPDO, in spite of the good intentions and brave efforts of some OPDO leaders, are just a front to pursue their selfish economic, political and security interests in Oromia, and use it as a tool to appease the Oromo people when the going gets tough. All well-meaning and enlightened OPDO leaders from top to bottom knows this political reality and fact. And the Oromo people knows it very well.
Therefore, the OPDO has no political and legal mandate of its own to negotiate, compromise and agree to anything fundamental let alone sign off on the surrender agreement of any sort short of the full political, economic and social rights of the Oromo people over Addis Ababa.
If the EPRDF leadership and the powerholders in Addis Ababa want a legitimate and final solution on the question of Addis Ababa and other Oromo issues, please release the Oromo leaders in prison and negotiate with them and other rightfully designated Oromo people’s leaders.
It is important for the EPRDF leadership and the deep state in Addis Ababa to know that their political fraud of separating Addis Ababa from Oromia is dead on arrival. The Oromo people will never ever accept, negotiate or compromise on any gamesmanship and deception short of complete and clearly defined full political, economic, cultural and administrative rights of the Oromo people and Oromia National Regional State over Addis Ababa.
‘Finfinnee is an Oromo city; it is the capital of Oromia, it can not be neutral. As such, it will undergo a fundamental change. Anyone who cries foul of the ”special interest” proclamation, specially those within the federal government, should know that the simplest solution to the problem is to change the seat of federal government. How about that? Any attempt to deny or resist changes to the city might very soon turn it into a sieged Balkan town.’- Biyya Oromiyaa
‘If you want to respect the so called ‘special interest’ of Oromia in Finfinnee, start with the simple act of making the Finfinnee City Council accountable to Oromia. Formally recognize the Oromo name of the city and of its sub-cities. Declare Afaan Oromo as one of the working languages of the city. Anything less is a joke. (But then, what of politics in Ethiopia today is not a brutal joke?’ #OromoRevolution – Tsegaye Ararssa
“Ethiopian police have moved in to suppress this united demonstration of protest. Government sharpshooters are firing into crowds and killing students again.”
Protesters say the central government is trying to evict Oromo farmers from their land under the auspices of urban development, with little or no compensation, essentially turning them into street beggars and daily laborers.
Tensions rise as students in Oromia accuse government of land grab
Activists claim security forces have killed at least seven students in more than two weeks across Ethiopia’s Oromia state, where students have been protesting a government plan to expand the area of the capital, Addis Ababa, into Oromia.
Oromia police have confirmed three fatalities in what it termed provocations by “anti-peace elements.”
Images of severely injured students have been posted on social media, and hundreds of other protesters have reportedly been rounded up in a crackdown on those demonstrating against several state-led development projects.
Oromo students, the opposition and diaspora activists liken the proposed Addis Ababa and the Surrounding Oromia Special Zone Integrated Development Plan, or the Master Plan, to a land grab. They fear that it will displace Oromo farmers and undermine Oromia’s interests by expanding Addis Ababa’s boundaries.
Addis Ababa is in the state of Oromia and serves as the regional and federal capital. In theory, the Ethiopian constitution protects Oromia’s “special interest” in Addis Ababa in the provision of social services and use of natural resources and on joint administrative matters.
While the city, home to 4 million people, has experienced massive growth over the last decade, Oromo activists have long decried the lack of social facilities for its Afaan Oromo speakers, including schools, hospitals and cultural institutions.
The protests broke out in November Ginci, a town about 50 miles west of Addis Ababa. Students from universities, high schools and even some primary schools continue to stage sit-ins and demonstrations around the country.
Oromia, the largest of Ethiopia’s nine ethnically based states, is home to close to half the country’s population of 100 million. The Oromo people have long had a contentious relationship with the national government.
“Many Oromos have felt marginalized and discriminated against by successive Ethiopian governments and have often felt unable to voice their concerns over government policies,” Felix Horne, the Horn of Africa researcher for Human Rights Watch, wrote in a Dec. 5 blog post.
He called for an immediate halt to the excessive use of force by security personnel, an independent and impartial investigation into the killings and the prosecution of security forces involved in the violent crackdown.
‘Long-simmering grievance’
Protesters say the central government is trying to evict Oromo farmers from their land under the auspices of urban development, with little or no compensation, essentially turning them into street beggars and daily laborers.
The government says its plan is mutually beneficial, will enhance cooperation and will make the area globally competitive by remedying its disorganized spatial growth.
Addis Ababa serves as landlocked Ethiopia’s primary gateway to the outside world. Last year the New York–based consultancy A.T. Kearney named Addis Ababa “the third-most-likely city to advance its global positioning,” adding, “the Ethiopian capital is also among the cities closing in fastest on the world leaders.”
Modest economic growth and the lack of opportunities in rural areas have fueled massive rural-to-urban migration. The Master Plan is part of an effort to mitigate the city’s resulting rapid expansion. But critics contend that the proposal focuses mostly on attracting investors and will ensure the continued erasure of Oromos’ historical and cultural values from the city.
The Oromo students’ protests are not new. They been demonstrating against the central state for most of the last two decades.
In April and May 2014, Ethiopian security forces fired live ammunition at unarmed protesters, killing dozens of students and wounding many others. Hundreds of students were arrested and charged under Ethiopia’ssweeping anti-terrorism law, and many remain incarcerated.
A federal court last week convicted five students for participating in those protests. In the early 2000s, Ethiopia saw similar protests and violence over a government plan to move Oromia’s capital from Addis Ababa. The decision was reversed in 2005 amid a public outcry.
There has been limited media coverage of the ongoing protests. There are strong restrictions on the free press in Ethiopia, one of the most censored countries in the world, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Government critics and the independent press face increased scrutiny.
Analysts warn that continued violent responses to peaceful protesters could bode ill for Ethiopia’s future.
“The Oromo have long been humiliated with their still marginal status in Ethiopia’s power arrangement,” said Hassen Hussein, an Ethiopian-born university professor in Minnesota. “These almost annual student protests give voice to these long-simmering grievance and perhaps a harbinger of what is to come. The authorities cannot forever count on an aggrieved nation remaining docile.”
Oromo activists and community leaders in North America, Western Europe and Australia are planning solidarity rallies for next week, when more violence is anticipated.
Bonnie Holcomb, an author and anthropologist based in Washington, D.C., said the current situation mirrors the violence of 2014. “The international media were silent when Ethiopian police opened fire into crowds, killing 68, permanently disabling hundreds and arresting thousands. Now the next stage of the Master Plan is being implemented,” she said.
“Ethiopian police have moved in to suppress this united demonstration of protest. Government sharpshooters are firing into crowds and killing students again,” she said.
In this brief commentary, I will address some general conceptual issues related to resistance against development intervention and then I will proceed to the specific case about the ongoing contested master plan of Finfinne city called “integrated urban development”. This assessment is aimed to achieve multiple purposes; namely to contribute academic inputs to policy making, to clarify to the readers on the nexus between development interventions and resistance, and to indicate that the ongoing resistance from the Oromo is within the context of rights enshrined in the constitution of the country.
Like elsewhere in the modern world, successive Ethiopian governments have been engaged in translating various versions of development discourses into practice – albeit posited within different ideological orientations. The imperial and military regimes had put in place hegemonic systems in channeling down policies and programs that they also tried to sell to the populace under the buzz concepts such as ‘development’ and ‘modernization’. In this regard, historical accounts remind us the social, economic, cultural and political consequences of such modernist development discourses and practices of different groups in the country among which the Oromo were significantly affected. To mention one, the collectivization (villagization) program of the military regime disrupted social ties, economic practices and cultural connectedness of the people to their land. This hints at the repercussions of development projects that are conceived, implemented and managed within hegemonic systems of governance because absence of democratic systems opens the path to external interventions without proper consultation of citizens. Nevertheless, the post-1991 political order in Ethiopia has put in place for the first time in the history of the country a system whereby nations and nationalities are given rights of self-determination to decide on matters that affect their communities including the right to administer resources and development projects, and to promote the language, culture and history of their people to mention a few – no matter how the practical implementation is still the subject of contestation.
2. Development Interventions and Popular Resistance: An Overview
High modernist development practices all over the world entailed the exercise of top-down and expert-based scientific knowledge that considered participation of ordinary citizens and local knowledge at odds with the development visions of the state and/or non-state actors. High modernist development discourses give limited room for participatory approaches of development and government-public partnership. This approach was practiced by colonial powers and continued in the post-colonial periods as well. The general assumption behind high modernist development discourses was that few elites would plan development programs and mobilize the mass for its implementation under strict control of ‘experts’. However, as a famous scholar on peasant resistance, James Scott, has noted, the power of domination often produces the power of resistance from the group that is seemingly powerless as seen in literal conceptions of power. Since the mid-1980s, scholars began not to underestimate the agency of the “weak” who under conditions of domination can use different strategies of resistance against development interventions that they define from their own values, identity, worldviews and history.
However, it is misleading to construe local communities’ resistance against development intervention as if the people are against development – despite controversies revolving around the concept itself. Although the term can be given different meanings and manifestations according to the interest, ideology and worldviews of various actors, what local communities often resist is not the conventional understanding of the concept per se – referring to improvement in the overall wellbeing of human society and their environment. Rather, the approach, strategy and consequence of development programs, projects and practices constitute contestable meanings.
3. The “Integrated Urban Development Plan and the Question of the Oromo
3.1. Background
According to the 1995 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia (Article 49) Finfinne (Addis Ababa) became the capital city of the Federal government while at the same time it has been the seat of Oromia regional state. Finfinne is adjoined by Oromia region in all directions. Article 49.5 of the constitution gives special right for Oromia to get special benefit from Finfinne as it is the heartland of Oromia besides being its administrative capital. According to the constitution (Article 49.5), “The special interest of the State of Oromia in AddisAbaba, regarding the provision of social services or the utilization of natural resources and other similar matters,as well as joint administrative matters arising from the location of Addis Ababa within the State of Oromia, shall be respected. Particulars shall be determined by law”. Nevertheless, there are critiques that Oromia has not yet benefited from Finfinne. On this topic, because of lack of empirical evidence whether the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO) tried to utilize the constitutional rights given to Oromia in getting benefit from Finfinne or not, I would not push this assertion forward.
The plan, according to the government, is intended to create integrated urban development between Addis Ababa city administration and Oromia towns surrounding the capital city such as Burayu, Sabata, Sululta, Bishoftu, Laga-Xafo Laga-dadhi, Galan and other semi-urban centers adjoining these towns. From this perspective, the government tries to disseminate its development programs by presenting to the public the advantages of the plan in terms of infrastructural and social provisions. On the other hand, the Oromo from different walks of life, including some members of the OPDO officials are skeptical whether the Master Plan has been planned for mutual benefit of Finfinne and Oromia regional state or is just a systematic strategy of incorporating Oromia towns into Finfinne. Thus, it is crucially important to analyze some underlying reasons behind Oromo’s resistance and discontent to the Master Plan. In the following section, I will try to discuss it situating within historical experiences, political scenarios and procedural drawbacks in the planning process. However, one should boldly know that no one is against development project that changes the lives of its people if carefully planned and implemented.
3.2. Why do the Oromo Resist the Master Plan?
Memories and experiences of past evictions and dispossessions
Like other nations and nationalities in the country particularly those who faced the brutal conquest under emperor Menelik II during the late 19th century, the Oromo people have lived memories and experiences of ‘development’ induced displacement, dispossession and oppressions under the successive regimes. Moreover, the assimilationist and hegemonic systems in the past have left enduring repercussions on Oromo culture, language and identity with the case in Finfinne more appalling still today. Historical accounts of the establishment of Finfinne city in 1886 illuminate that the territory was inhabited by different Oromo clans until they were eventually displaced by the imperial regimes. The city was built on the ancestral land of the Oromo through policies of land alienation, dispossession and displacement of indigenous peoples in similar approaches to many other urban centers in the conquered regions of the South. It is, thus fair to argue that Finfinne city was established as a garrison town predominantly occupied by war generals and soldiers. There is no need to turn history books or archives to understand the displacement of indigenous Oromo communities from Finfinne and to comprehend the impacts of the assimilationist projects under the imperial and military regimes. It is rather enough to see the current ethnic composition of the Addis Ababa city where one can clearly see that people who identify themselves as Oromo are immensely few in contrast to Finfinne’s being the heartland of Oromia. Therefore, resistance against the Master Plan should be understood within the historical antecedents the Oromo experienced with regards to dispossession of their land, displacement from their ancestral land and the socio-economic, cultural and political repercussions of development interventions.
In response to the constitutional rights
The Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE Constitution 1995: Article 43.2) clearly stipulates the right of each nation, nationality and people of Ethiopia to be fully consulted and involved in development projects that affect their community. In addition, Article 39 of the same constitution gives unconditional rights of self-determination to the nations, nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia that include the right and autonomy to determine which development program to envisage and the right of self-government on territories they historically inhabited. These are a few of the fundamental principles of ethnic federalism that are enshrined in the constitution. In this specific context, Oromia regional state and the Oromo people have constitutional rights to decide on the urban development programs through democratic, transparent, bottom-up and inclusive approaches of participation. They have the right to decide whether they opt to go for the integrated urban development or not. The resistance from Oromo intellectuals, politicians, students, peasants and business people should be understood as a response to interventions that to a large extent violated their constitutional right, particularly Article 43.2 of the FDRE’s constitution – the right to be consulted and involved in development projects.
Mistrust generated from lack of genuine participation
Resistance to state development projects to a large extent reflects the nature of state-society relations, questions of legitimacy and trust. Governments have the leverage of building legitimacy and trust or become victims of legitimacy crisis based on their policies, programs and overall political systems vis-à-vis citizenship rights of the society. It has been evident from discussions during public sensitization programs on the Master Plan that the planning process was top-down and did not involve citizens who will be affected by the project. A higher official from EPRDF presumably acknowledged the importance of involving grassroots communities through bottom-up approaches though he maintained the view that there was no problem with the top-down approach in development intervention. Here comes the fundamental disparity between constitutional promises and practices.
Under such circumstances where citizens are not consulted and involved in the planning process, one should not be surprised if they resist the project because any conscious society does not accept something without knowing its benefits, impacts and implications. Therefore, resistance is a function of procedural incongruity with the constitutional promises.
Anticipated Repercussions on the identity, culture and livelihood of the Oromo
Development projects such as urban expansion, dam projects, large scale agricultural projects, and protected areas conservation have significant repercussions on the livelihood, culture and identity of indigenous peoples all over the world unless critically handled. Because of historical experiences the Oromo faced under successive regimes in Ethiopia – experiences of displacement, suppression, exploitation and dispossession – the current project is also seen by the majority of the Oromo as a continuation of the past trends. Rhetoric and discourses can’t simply convince people who have lived-in scars and experiences in their minds, around their homesteads and in their neighbors that are reflected in their culture, identity, language, economy and politics. The government can rather convince the people on the benefits they would enjoy from the project not by injecting them with high modernist discourses of development but through practical and genuine involvement of the people in the projects.
Still another challenge that awaits the government is whether it has really delivered in other areas of development, whether other development projects didn’t have socio-economic and cultural impacts on local inhabitants elsewhere in the country and whether there is independent judiciary system that citizens can use as a guardian of their human rights in cases any development program threatens their right. I leave this question open to the readers. In practice, according to those who think it would incorporate Oromia towns surrounding Finfinne city, the current Master Plan will adversely affect the Oromo by reducing peasants into landlessness and in exacerbating land expropriation under the guise of investment. Like situations in the capital city, Oromo language, culture and other related rights would be suppressed if these towns are incorporated into the city without clear negotiation on who administers these “integrated” cities.
A way forward?
The development project should not be imposed, rather it should involve stakeholders particularly local communities who will be affected by the project from inception to implementation.
The integrated urban development can serve the interest of all stakeholders if and only if it is participatory and if it doesn’t violate constitutional rights of Oromia regional state and its geographical boundaries.
Finfinne City has the potential to develop by its own given that the city administration makes inward looking to develop a system of modernizing the city not necessarily through horizontal expansion. The unanswered question is: why Finfinne city administration started this integrated plan while there are immense critiques that it is unable to solve its own municipal problems. Therefore, before launching ambitious and ambiguous projects like this, the city administration should have utilized all available opportunities within its administrative boundaries to develop and modernize the city.
The regional government of Oromia has to claim its constitutional right to get special benefit from Finfinne (if not yet).
What guarantee does the regional government of Oromia have as to whether Finfinne administration eventually incorporates the surrounding Oromia towns to its administration or not? This is critical question the federal government, Finfinne city administration and particularly the regional government of Oromia should address. More importantly, the failure to put this agenda on the front line in negotiating with the other actors will be a critical test to the legitimacy of OPDO in representing the Oromo people.
In conclusion, two fundamental issues should be made clear regarding resistance against the “Integrated Urban Development Master Plan” of Addis Ababa City:
1) It has been evident that people are not against development per se. However, where development projects are perceived to be threatening fundamental rights and needs of the citizens, it becomes a policy to be resisted rather than a program to be embraced. On the other hand, under contexts where the people are recognized as rightful citizens whose voices, views and knowledge contribute to the overall development vision through genuine participatory approaches, it would be expected, to a large extent, that development mobilizes the society towards similar goals of the state.
2) Regardless of the power of domination the intervening actor might have, development intervention faces the utmost resistance from the people whose livelihood, culture, language, identity and history will be affected. Therefore, the government should not overlook the potency of local resistance in impacting on its legitimacy and trust.
OromianEconomist 
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