By Staff Reporter
ADDIS ABABA – (BORKENA) – Leaders of the Interim Government of Tigray Regional State are expressing concern regarding the way the Federal Ministry of Education communicated a report on schools and status of education in areas, which have long been a bone of contention between Amhara and Tigray Regional State. It is to be recalled that these areas were annexed by Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) some 30 years back. They are now under the administration of Amhara Regional State, which claims they are its historical domains.
This time life in these areas is going on as usual under the administration of Amhara Regional state. Hospitals, factories, farm lands, schools, offices… are being run by the Amhara administration.
Now, if any offices of the federal government are in need of data, evidence, or any other pieces of information, they should forward requests to the current administration of those particular areas through the regional administration. This was what the Ministry of Education (MoE) had done before disseminating the compiled report to the public. The Ministry needed information regarding the schools or issues related to the education sector in general. It approached the current school administrators who have been assigned by Amhara Region to administer and manage the areas at this juncture. The current administrators are the only responsible and accountable bodies that can provide the Ministry with the needed information. Can there be anything wrong with this procedure? This was taken as a big mistake by the administrative bodies in Tigray.
For fearing that the report may cause disagreements, MoE tried to notify humbly that the information was collected from the current school administrators… “The…information was provided by the bodies currently managing the schools in operation, … This information will only serve to show deficiencies in the school’s infrastructure.” This is the message officially imparted by the Ministry; but it could not soften the hard-hearted officials from the other side.
By the way, how can a big nation like ours be led in such wild, brutal and backward misunderstandings?
The president of Tigray Interim Government tweeted that what had been done by the Ministry was against the Pretoria agreement and the constitution of the land. Bummm! … The former Ethiopian president Mengistu Hailemariam was quoted to say, “Comrades, where are we heading!?”
The Interim President of Tigray twitter, that the “…official report by the FDRE Ministry of Education…makes it abundantly clear that the ministry has no intention to even pretend to pay lip service to the Pretoria Agreement-much less to the FDRE Constitution-by including legitimate Tigray territories”.
The Interim president has also whipped the Amhara Region. He denounced the move taken by the region against the peace accord. (?) “…the Amhara region… In light of continued flagrant violations of the Constitution & the Pretoria agreement by the Regional Authorities over the last several months, the latest report by the Federal Ministry of Education is yet another addition to an increasingly dangerous pattern….”.
It can hardly be possible to identify any single thread that links the president’s condemnation with the report released by MoE. What does it mean? Should the Amhara Region have ignored the request of the Ministry and withheld the needed information of the schools it is administrating?
The president’s condemnation was supported by some sympathizers of TPLF. Some have gone belligerently beating the drums of war against the Amhara Region. An individual tweeted back to Getachew saying, “So, are you going to solve this issue as a president of Tigray or you will just criticize like an ordinary citizen? We demand a permanent solution on Tigray territorial integrity”. The other follower requested Getachew saying “…our people have been robbed of their land and life. This isn’t the Education Minister acting on its own”.
Others who reflected the opposite opinion said that the Interim Government of Tigray has come up with the issue of distracting the people of the region, which is in a very critical situation. The economy in that region has collapsed. Most of the schools have not gone functional. Students have not yet been to school fully. The people are suffering from lack of food. Crime is rampant in the region. Many young people are fleeing the region. Mothers are crying over their children missing in the war. Parents are still asking about their children who have not yet returned home from the war front. War veterans who have become invalid are voicing denouncement against the regional government… The interim government is lip servicing the people that they will be relocated to the place where they were displaced from. They are lolling the people that the region will re-annex Welkait-Tegedie and Raya…
This time the Interim Government of Tigray does not want to hear the ‘noise’ or what we call ‘public demands’. Therefore, it has to come up with any mechanism that can distract their attention. Anything that keeps all people calm at home is needed. They are keeping the people calm! That’s what they are doing…
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