Daniel Alemayehu
The decision reached through Ethiopia’s National Dialogue was clear: Addis Ababa is to remain a self-governing administrative entity whose accountability is to the federal government.
Yet, after the conclusion of the national dialogue, the Oromo-led regime has reportedly sought to impose an entirely different political agenda by adding the demand that “Addis Ababa must belong to Oromia.”
This raises a fundamental and deeply troubling question: If the government was unwilling to respect the outcome of the dialogue, why did it convene the dialogue in the first place?
The regime reportedly gathered approximately 4,000 participants under the banner of a national dialogue, most of whom were government supporters, while only a limited number were drawn from broader sections of society. For forty days, these participants were expected to deliberate on nationally designated issues and reach consensus.
They did exactly that.
But when the outcome did not serve the interests of the regime, the government intervened and sought to overturn the very decision produced by the process it had itself organized. Such interference fundamentally undermines the credibility, legitimacy, and purpose of the entire national dialogue.
A national dialogue cannot be meaningful if the government reserves the right to enter the process at the end, reject the participants’ decisions, and replace them with its own political preferences. That is not dialogue. That is political manipulation disguised as consultation.
Addis Ababa is the capital of Ethiopia and, like Berlin or Washington, D.C., is a distinct administrative entity with a direct relationship to the federal government. Its constitutional and administrative status cannot legitimately be altered simply because a particular ethnic group happens to control the central government at a given moment.
The attempt to absorb Addis Ababa into Oromia on the basis of ethnic or political dominance is not a solution to Ethiopia’s political problems. On the contrary, such a move risks deepening ethnic polarization, provoking widespread public anger, and creating conditions for prolonged and potentially devastating conflict.
No government should be permitted to use political power to rewrite the outcome of a national dialogue after the fact. No government should be above the process it created. And no political authority has the right to transform the capital of a country into an exclusive possession of one ethnic group.
We therefore call upon the international community, democratic governments, international institutions, and human rights organizations to closely scrutinize these developments and to oppose any attempt to undermine the outcome of Ethiopia’s national dialogue through unilateral political intervention.
We urge the international community to stand with the Ethiopian people, defend inclusive political dialogue, respect the rule of law, and reject attempts to impose unilateral ethnic or political ownership over Addis Ababa.
Ethiopia needs genuine dialogue, not predetermined outcomes. It needs constitutionalism, not political coercion. It needs national unity, not ethnic domination.
Addis Ababa belongs to the people of Addis Ababa, it does not belong nor has it ever belonged to a single ethnic group, the Oromo.
The future of Addis Ababa and the future of Ethiopia must be determined through legitimate, inclusive, and lawful processes, not through the unilateral will of those currently holding political power, Oromos.
Editor’s Note: Views in the article do not necessarily reflect the views of borkena.com
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