Borkena
Toronto – The 7th round of tree planting campaign started this Friday. And the Ethiopian Prime Minister seems to have summoned all the regional leaders, including Tigray Region Interim Administration president Tadesse Worede. Federal government ministries also took part in the opening planting event at Gulele Riverside Project.
Nigeria’s visiting vice president. Kashaim Shemitta, took part in the first day ceremonial tree planting event. The office of the prime Minister shared a short update about it on his social media page.
“Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed together with the Nigerian Vice President Kashim Shettima and high-level Federal and Regional leadership undertook a tree-planting session this morning at the Gulele Riverside Project.”
Kashaim Shemita is cited as saying “Ethiopia is a success story worthy of emulation and a pathfinder for Africa’s renaissance.”
Abiy Ahmed’s office has announced a new label for this year’s campaign – “planting for revival.” His ruling party claims that it is taking “Ethiopia in the path of prosperity.” Yet, this week a report from the World Bank indicated that Ethiopia is one of the 39 countries across the world where poverty is worsening fast.
While the afforestation program is obviously relevant to Ethiopia, more so in the northern part of the country, the flagship “Green Legacy” project has demonstrated attributes of glorification of Abiy Ahmed as a “visionary” leader. There have been efforts to play with the number of trees planted across the country to raise the bar – not as a tool for mobilization – rather as a measure of the exception of the glorification of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
However, the claim about the number of trees ( at times about 350 million trees in a day) planted often raised questions. The government is claiming this year that the number of trees planted will be 47 billion when this years program is completed. “Added to what will be planted next year, the number of trees planted will be up to 54 billion,” the state media reported in a way demonstrating the ambition. The target for this year is to plant five billion trees. The Prime Minister called on Ethiopians to take part in the initiative.
Abiy Ahmed’s government has been suffering from chronic legitimacy crisis especially after the end of the war against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in November 2022 which is estimated to have claimed nearly one million people, according to estimate from AU officials involved in the mediation effort led to the Pretoria Agreement.
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