By Habte H.
Abiy’s this week’s tour to southern cities – Hawassa, Arba Minch, Sodo, and surrounding towns- unfolded like a script we have seen many times: motorcades, sweeping camera angles, and state media loops of “crowds” lining the streets. But residents quietly report a more prosaic truth: public workers leaned on to show up, offices quietly rearranging schedules, kebele leaders phoning lists, and transport organized not by enthusiasm but by instruction. The sea of flags, identical placards, and choreographed vantage points betray a central directing hand. If the gatherings were organic, what were citizens cheering- escalating prices, shrinking purchasing power, and routes that feel unsafe after dark? Gratitude does not bloom in scarcity; fear, pressure, and fatigue can, however, fill a square. The spectacle’s purpose is to harvest images, not to hear voices. When people are mobilized, not motivated, the performance might fill a frame – but it empties public trust.
Reason – Distraction and Self-Soothing
These parades serve two intertwined purposes. First, distraction. When legitimacy frays, power often turns to optics. The objective is to replace the hard questions – about rule of law, economic mismanagement, displacement, and insecurity – with soft focus montages of a leader “among the people.” The bet is simple: if the global feed is saturated with choreography, observers will hesitate, donors will defer judgment, and domestic critics will be cast as fringe. Second, self-soothing. Power isolates the powerful. Echo chambers harden; candor becomes risky; flattery becomes currency. In that environment, applause – manufactured or not – functions as a painkiller. It quiets the inner reckoning: “What did you promise and what did you deliver? What did you break that you cannot mend?” The problem is that the very act of chasing applause reveals fragility. A leader secure in consent does not need to stage it. And a government confident in its record does not fear unscripted encounters with citizens who carry receipts in their daily lives.
The Limits of Governing by Spectacle
Governing by theatre collides, sooner or later, with the undefeated fact-checker of everyday life. The price of teff and cooking oil does not obey camera angles. Transport fares, school costs, and rents cannot be edited in post-production. Parents who hesitate to let their children travel outside the area are not persuaded by drone shots of a cleared boulevard. Nor are farmers’ planting decisions synchronized to television producers’ timelines. Citizens can endure hardship if they see honesty, competence, and a credible path out- clear priorities, steady hands, and a willingness to correct course. What they cannot endure is the insult of being told that their pain is a party. When enthusiasm must be staged, it is an admission that consent is thin. And the longer coercion is used to simulate consent, the more expensive the pretence becomes: security budgets swell, cynicism deepens, and the gap between narrative and reality turns scepticism into quiet defiance. In the end, images lose to indicators; confidence is measured not by cheers but by whether people feel safer, freer, and more able to plan their lives.
The Path Beyond Propaganda
A real path exists – one that swaps performance for substance. It starts with admitting the crisis, prioritizing livelihoods over vanity, and publishing a transparent plan to stabilize prices and restore services. Independent oversight, civic space, and rule of law must be restored, with a credible roadmap for peace and inclusion. Above all, staged crowds should give way to genuine dialogue. Consent cannot be choreographed; trust is not a prop. Ethiopia needs leadership that treats citizens as authors of their future, not extras in a theatre.
Editor’s Note : Views in the article do not necessarily reflect the views of borkena.com
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