A Letter from Jigjiga

[Deeq A.]

Jigjiga ( PP  Features ) — The city of Jigjiga, the capital of the Somali region of Ethiopia, is a beneficiary of the federal system instituted by the now-defunct EPRDF during the 1990s. Insurgency led by the Ogaden National Liberation Front affected the development of the Kilil (region) back in the 1990s and early noughties. The conflict had negatively affected reconstruction and economic growth in Jigjiga. It was a missed opportunity for the Somali region whose opposition to the federal system had similarities with the Amhara opposition to the EPRDF policy. History might  be repeating itself in the Somali region of Ethiopia where the leadership backs anti-federalist and assimilationist policies of Abiy Ahmed, the Ethiopian Prime Minister.

Comparing how the Somali region is run under Derg and imperial government of Haile Sallasie with how the region has been reorganised and run after 1991 is a case study about how federalism and developmental state transformed Ethiopia from a polity based on exploitative ruling classes from Gondar to a nation state eager to rectify the past feudal and dictatorial image that made Ethiopia a byword for famine during 1970s and 1980s.

Since April 2018 Jigjiga has witnessed a massive transformation politically if not economically. The release of the prisoners and closure of Jail Ogaden are a milestone. The inclusion of the Somali region’s party in the new, but still unpopular Prosperity Party hastily formed by Prime Minister Ahmed,  is another symbolic gesture.  The Somali region  was not represented in the EPRDF coalition.

Musta Omer has been accused of condoning Amhara extremists’ supremacist ideology in favour of dismantling the Ethiopian federal system

The political headway made in the Somali region pales into insignificance if one looks at how the Somali region’s government is aligning itself with Amhara political extremists and supremacists. Mustafe Omar, the President of Somai region,  owes his ascendancy to Amhara politicians in the now defunct Oromara Alliance (Amhara and Oromo alliance against EPRDF). In July his government organised seminars about   discouraging hatred against Amhara people although the Somali region is where Amhara people have not faced hostility and where many Amhara were spared death at the hands of angry Ethiopians when the Mengistu regime fell in 1991.

 It is an open secret that Amhara media spews hatred against Tigrayans, Oromos and other Ethiopian nationalities they view to have been conquered and absorbed into Ethiopia by Menelik II.   Influential Jigjiga residents I spoke told me that Mustafa agenda is a revenge against people who were close to Abdi Mohamud Omar, his predecessor. “That is why Mustafe has even made it clear that he views Amharas as allies. Somalis do not share his opportunistic and narrow-minded outlook” says a Jigjiga resident who asked to be quoted anonymously for fear of being tracked by the Liyuu police.

 Ethiopia is undergoing political changes as forces against the federal system seek to impose a unitary system derided and opposed by Oromos, Tigrayans, Southern Nationalities and Somalis.  “Abiy Ahmed wrote a book in which he promotes a system different from the federal system that gave the Oromos the opportunity to pioneer a regime change  but he is now trying to base governance on  what many non-Amhara Ethiopians view as “Gondar pipedreams”. “Ethiopians are now defending the federalism introduced by TPLF against Amhara supremacists who would like the Ethiopian state to exploit and subjugate Ethiopian nationalities” said  Zecharias  Eshete, a Tigrayan resident in Addis Ababa.

 “The policies that the Mustafe-led government is carrying out  creates inter-ethnic animosities “says Hiil (not his real name), a teacher in Jigjiga.  When an Amhara man tried to destroy the monument of Sayid Mohamed Abdulle Hassan in Jigjiga, the Somali region government employees accused the action of a Tigrayan people person, in an attempt to direct attention from Amhara extremists who regularly provoke Somalis in Jigjiga. “Mustafe is not a politician; he is a propagandist for Ahmaha extremists” said Hiil.

  “President Mustafe Omar campaigns against the federal system to help Abiy Ahmed deepen an authoritarian system and revive Amhara supremacy is the topic of discussion in Jigjiga” said    Ilbirey (not his real name), a USA-based investor in Jigjiga. “A nominal representation in the Prosperity Party is not what the Somali region has been looking forward to. Abiy is rolling back all the political gains attained since 1991.”

 ONLF, a one-time outlawed party, is now active in Jigjiga. The ONLF is aligned with pro-federal parties whose leaders have been jailed by Abiy Ahmed for fear that federalist alliance can steal a march on Prosperity Party if elections are held.  

 The perception in Jigjiga is that the political change of 2018 has turned into a false dawn. The government of Mustafe Omar is lending credence to this perception. For Abiy Ahmed the Somali region is a smaller fish to fry. He has more challenges to deal with. His paternalistic relations to deal with Somalis in Ethiopia is not serving the Somali region well. Somali members of the new Prosperity Party coalition are expected to rubberstamp decisions by the new Ethiopian regime even if those decisions damage interests of Somalis and their coexistence with other Ethiopian nationalities. Somalis in Jigjiga are hoping that this is not another lost decade similar to 1990s.

 © Puntland Post, 2020  

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