Dead man walking (Truneh Girma)

Truneh Girma

Just as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, what goes up must come down. We have witnessed the rise of Abiy Ahmed, and his downfall is not far off; indeed, he has already begun this descent.

Abiy’s  attempt to craft a favorable legacy is nothing more than a sham, a fragile illusion that shatters under the weight of his tyranny, boundless tyranny. 

History will render its judgment, and Abiy will stand forever in the dock of humanity’s memory—not as a leader, but as a criminal, a bloody tyrant whose hands are soaked in blood, in the suffering of his people, in absolute betrayal. The so-called achievements he flaunted are nothing more than scraps of vanity, pitiful distractions meant to mask the truth, the glaring truth. Under his rule, lives were shattered, voices were silenced, (many including Engineer Simegnew Bekele, chief architect of the project, were silenced to the end), and an entire nation was bound in fear. That is the fact in Abiy’s Ethiopia. He breathes war as others breathe air. This pig  cannot exist without war, without conflict, he sparks war in every corner of the country. Millions have perished and Caligula is not done yet. 

His  desperate attempt to monopolize credit for the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam was not only historically dishonest—it was theatrically grotesque. He abused us all to the core. His performance, laced with crocodile tears and hollow gestures of emotion,( a man not known to have any kind of emotion) reeked of self-aggrandizement so transparent that it stirred not admiration, but nausea. He made me sick to the bone. What should have been a moment of national pride became a spectacle of personal vanity and sheer stupidity. Deceit built his small world in which he alone lived and, he saw himself as everything that counts. አህያ ስትጠግብ ሰማይ ልርገጥ ትላለች። ቅርብ መስሎ ይታያታል።   It was naivety on my part to expect anything different from this pig. 

The dam, a symbol of collective resilience and generational sacrifice, was reduced to a prop in his one-man show surrounded by  his zombi- like side kicks whose sole existence is to appease him. As he strained to summon tears that never quite fell,( some believe it was the pig’s sweat)the nation watched in collective discomfort—cringing not just at the failure of the performance, but at the erosion of dignity it revealed. People, except his ከዳሚዎች lead by his Debtra, Daniel  Kibret ( more appropriately  Daniel Kisret), felt not moved, but embarrassed for him. The sadness was not for the actor, but for the stage he had hijacked, for the people who he betrayed. In his attempt to be the sole actor, a role for which millions paid and thousands toiled, he brought nothing but shame and emptiness upon himself. As much as I detest everything he stands for, I was ashamed to be associated as an Ethiopian with this feeble creature. He yearned for and snatched  the spotlight, but his ambition was a poison that corrupted the very foundation of the project. He denied all those who emptied their pockets for this project, he denied those who worked day and night in a harsh weather, he denied Ethiopians-he robbed them of their glory, of the well-deserved recognition for their tireless efforts. 

Blinded by the glare of his own self-admiration, he denied the very existence of the Ethiopian people whose labor, money,  and sacrifice gave life to the project he now claims as his own. In his pursuit of personal glory, he erased their contributions, their rightful ownership. The Ethiopian people who gave what little they had,  the builders who raised, the thinkers who envisioned—all were cast aside, as if their sweat and spirit were expendable. But history does not forget. The true architects of progress are not those who stand in the spotlight, with fake tears or pig’s sweat, if you will,  but those who labored in its shadow. Abiy did not just misstep politically; he fractured the narrative of shared triumph and turned it into something that we will never forget, sheer madness and self-aggrandizing. 

As they say, “Negative people are only happy when they bring you down to their level.” 

Clearly,  the GERD was never the achievement of one man, but the illumination of a people’s collective will. To pretend otherwise is not just delusion—it is a dimming of the truth. GERD is Simegnew Bekele who toiled for more than a decade but was not mentioned even in passing, GERD is that Ethiopian mother who gave her last coin, GERD is all those who died for it, GERD is all the diaspora who contributed and fought for it in the international arena. GERD is us all. 

Let the record show: he betrayed his people, he betrayed justice, he betrayed the very idea of leadership. No monument he built, no speech he delivered, no crocodile tears he shed, no lie he spun can erase the rivers of blood that mark his reign. His legacy is not progress—it is pain. His memory is not honor—it is horror, it is the trauma he inflicted on the people of Ethiopia, including Oromos whom he claims to stand for. The trauma is not just physical—it was structural, emotional, and cultural etc. 

Then,  when he is gone  what will  his legacy be? His legacy is a stain on our history. 

His legacy is betrayal, displacement, war and in general national trauma. 

His legacy is leaving a failed state behind  him; failed state is defined as follows and all are applicable to our Ethiopia.

* The pig’s government cannot control its territory

* No legitimate authority 

* Inability to provide public service

* Economic collapse 

* Mass displacement and humanitarian crisis.

* Corruption and lawlessness. 

Yes, this is the legacy of Narcissist Abiy Ahmed. 

And so, when history closes the book on Abiy, it will not be with reverence, but with a single, final word: GUILTY.

YES, GUILTY as charged. 

The penalty phase will be conducted by those impacted by his unchecked authority. Yes, they are on the way to taking it to its logical conclusion. They are there to deliver the prescribed penalty. 

“When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw” 

Nelson Mandela.

                                     Check Mate

 Note

To ALL Ethiopians:

In the face of dictatorship, oppression, everyone’s voice matters. Those who are on the sidelines must join the struggle. It is everybody’s survival at stake. The path to freedom is unity, on the other hand, silence strengthens the tyrant Abiy. I ask you to stand up, to speak out and fight together with those who raised arms to redress all the wrongs. No one is free until everyone is free because true freedom is collective, that true freedom exists when everyone in our society, regardless of their ethnic background, is free from all sorts of oppression.  

Editor’s Note : Views in the article do not necessarily reflect the views of borkena.com  

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