Filsan Abdullahi Ahmed, is the first female in Ethiopia and in the greater Horn of Africa, to establish a TV station. ‘Nabad TV’ aptly named Nabad, which means in the Somali language ‘peace’ in a a country where males’ businesses have long predominated. Furthermore, she is among the Goodwill Ambassadors, that the government has recognized recently to further peace among Ethiopians.
Nowadays, there is no stone she leaves unturned to advocate peace all over the country, particularly among the youth. Mrs Ahmed, strongly believes in peaceful coexistence and harmony among all Ethiopians and nothing makes her happier, than to further the glory of Ethiopia…no matter what, obstacles there may be.
A lot has been written and said about the significance of peace. Just to mention a few, three great enemies to peace inhabit with us: avarice, envy and anger. If those enemies were to be banished, we should infallibly enjoy perpetual peace.
By the same token, peace does not mean an absence of conflicts; differences will always be there. Peace means solving these differences through peaceful means; through dialogue, education and humane ways.
The Ethiopian Herald has sat down with the Goodwill Ambassador Filsan who has more to tell us on the ways and means of installing lasting peace in the country. The excerpts are below.
How do you compare and contrast the Somali region today with the recent past?
It was truly a difficult and dark time, where we had rampant cronyism, nepotism and corruption was rife. But that was nothing compared to the atrocities that were inflicted on the population of the Somali region. It was for this reason, a handful of individuals in the administration had to escape the country, because they didn’t see eye to eye with the administration of Abdi Mohamed Omar.
Between the last administration and now, the difference is day and night.
There has been vast improvements in free speech, the population is not fearful of the current administration. Having said that, the new government has a long way to go, in terms of nepotism and meritocracy. Especially, in meritocracy, where the lack of representation of women in the current administration is disheartening. For example, in the current administration the executive committee has zero representation of women.
The Somali region, has the potential to boost the economy of Ethiopia exponentially and also, can play a key part, in balancing Ethiopia politically. The new political, social and economic reforms put forward by the prime minister Abiy Ahmed, are promising and I am hopeful it will reach the Somali region fully as it was intended.
What is your take on the reform surfacing nationwide?
I welcome any and all positive initiatives in political, social and economic spheres that would improve the everyday life of the ordinary Ethiopian people. And I would rather be part of the solution and where there is a need to make improvements we should try to help in any way we can, weather you are part of the opposition or just an ordinary Ethiopian who doesn’t agree fundamentally with some of the initiatives rightly or wrongly.
One needs to understand the fact that encountering challenges during a transition period is natural. They are inevitable. More often than not, they come in various shapes and sizes.
Undeniably, the transition period is not a low-hanging fruit. It needs the concerted efforts of all Ethiopians. Everybody feels oppressed. I think it is good that people express their anger in a broad spectrum of ways. As to me, they have to come to a sense that we are all Ethiopians living under Ethiopian skies. To the best of my knowledge, we’ve got to be strong. We all have to be the advocate of peace and come together putting our differences aside.
Similarly, we are responsible for Africa given that Ethiopia is leading from the front. We should not think as just Ethiopians but we should keep thinking about the rest of Africa because Ethiopia is the lighthouse for Africa. Moreover, Ethiopia is the mother of quite a lot of refugees coming from East African countries and the country always holds to put its arms around refugees.
Nowadays, conflicts are turning out to be the best items to sell. What needs to be done?
It’s a new dawn for Ethiopia as a country in terms of power dynamics and the representation of the people as a whole. A country made up of over 90 million people of various ethnic groups, which in recent years has been marred by inter-ethnic conflict and political upheaval which have had the potential to get worse.
It is crystal clear that the different Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples of Ethiopia had driven out Italians from every nook and cranny of the country by dismantling their strongholds. Hence, Ethiopians were able to pour cold water on the colonizers’ desire to establish a colonial toehold all over the country.
If the Ethiopian people continue to participate and habitually fund a dishonest political system, it will naturally, produce, a pathetic political class. And we shall reap, what we have all willingly sown.
We cannot afford to ignore nor waste, anymore time, with individuals or groups that rely on the politics of fear and division. Especially, demagogues that do not have any real political and economic solutions to offer. If they do, let them bring fourth their manifesto and plans to the Ethiopian people.
The Ethiopian people need real and tangible political, economic and social changes. These changes have to start with us, and especially, a change in our collective mindsets.
As Ethiopians, we need to draw a lesson from our forefathers who had given their all for the nation’s freedom. Additionally, they were all fighting for one Ethiopia regardless of age, sex, religion, political point of view and other related aspects. Their common agenda was driving out their common enemy from every part of Ethiopia.
Right now, as we are one of the developing countries in the world, the youth should be able to come together to fight poverty. If they return to the right path, the most challenging things will turn out to be so simple. Failure to do so will not help the country achieve its desired goals soon. But if we keep on getting off track, we will end up missing the intended target at the stroke of a pen.
The other important point is that people with different ill-conceived agendas may mislead us, taking advantage of our poverty. In other words, the youth may get themselves involved in different acts of violence for the love of getting money. Therefore, we need to mobilize young people and help them put emphasis on education and create jobs for the unemployed.
We should do more and alleviate all our social as well as economic ills.
How was the idea of establishing the Nabad Project sprang into your mind?
The Nabad project was established way before the Nabad television. At that juncture, I was living in the UK. When I returned home, the former administration of the Somali region was toppled. The situation came as a shock for everyone. The people did not believe their ears and eyes owning to the administration’s tight grip on power both in finance and military. They did not expect such a collapse would happen in their lifetime. Back in the day, there were a lot of divisions amid the Somali community as well.
I made up my mind to bring young individuals from Addis Ababa and sat down with them to discuss the way forward no matter what happened. In this fashion, we were able to make unity and reconciliation among the people of Somali. Subsequently, we headed straight to Jigjiga for the same purpose and mission and had fruitful discussions with the community.
Everyone is well aware of the fact that the former Somali regional president was arming a youth mercenary team organized in the name of “Hego.” The youth were very strong individuals and the president used them to strengthen his power. As the region’s special force was hated to death, I made an effort to communicate among the community. One thing that kept us through the dark is that we do not communicate as Ethiopians.
Be that as it may, I said to the participants in the middle of the meeting, “If the president (Abdi Mohamoud Omar) had been in power, you all would have been Hego. Most of the youth soldiers joined the army by force. For instance, if you had not stood by the side of his administration, your family and yourself would have been tortured. Therefore, we do not have to consider them as enemies. They did not do anything deliberately. Thus, my move has been to rehabilitate these young people who had been brainwashed.
We even brought the Hegos and made them confront the community. It was a strong project. Most of them came out saying I was forced, my mother was threatened, my father was arrested, and I was forced to be a Hego. This being the case, inch by inch, people started to realize that Hego was not the sole problem.
What is was desired goal of the project?
The bigger goal of the project was to bring the Oromo and the Somali community together. It was a very interesting and rewarding and mind-opening experience for me working within these two communities. I sat down with the two communities for bringing peace. It was very difficult at first. As a start, we did the Oromo- Somali peace for dialogue in Addis Ababa and then we took the campaign to Chiro, Aweday, and then went to Haramaya and finally to Jigjiga, which was very exciting because after three years of being apart all the Oromo community arrived in Jigjiga in peace for peace and reconciliation.
The target of the project is to bring peace and reconciliation among our people. These days, people are seen divided on account of their ethnic lines. Most say that they have experienced oppression because of their ethnicity. The fact is, all the different ethnic groups have been oppressed at one time or another. However, by recognizing each other’s grievances and accepting oppression as oppression, we can all heal together and learn from our past and move forward to a shared common peace.
Above and beyond, the aim and goal of Nabad is to learn from the past and build a bridge which brings peoples closer and make them say okay those bad days are over and there is a light at the end of the tunnel and never look back on what has happened. And as a youth, we can play an important role in this sort of transition period.
While on the subject, what inspired you to establish the Nabad TV channel?
The thing is, when we were advocating peace within the Somali and Oromo community, I realized there was no independent media outlets in the Somali region. NABAD TV was born out of necessity, because of the lack of independent media outlets on the ground in the Somali region.
The region needed a Somali speaking TV station, where the population can fully express themselves. We wanted to give a voice and a platform to those furthering peace, meritocracy and democratic practices in our society. Especially, those who are fighting for the empowerment of women and the youth, by creating a much needed dialogue and conversations around the topics that unite Ethiopians…rather than those that divide them.
It is crystal clear that these days the youths are partaking in ethnically motivated conflicts. Do you think the project will help reap the fruit of success?
Yes, a hundred percent because as I said we have achieved the most difficult project which was the reconciliation of Oromo-Somali peoples.
The young people have not been given the opportunity to partake in dialogue. We always give that to our elders. Young people need to take part in the transition because the youth play a big role and they are very important. If you take as for example countries like, Burundi, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and South Sudan, it is the youth that contributed a lot but here in Ethiopia, no culture brings the youth to make them feel they are leaders. Young people are the leaders of today and tomorrow.They need to take responsibility today.
We are currently
working on exciting projects and I can’t elaborate too much at the moment
however, all I can say is watch the space.
The Ethiopian Herald Friday 6 March 2020
BY ADDISALEM MULAT
