The Ethiopian media that disseminate information relating to the Nile Basin in general and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) in particular in foreign languages ought to have the right expertise to better promote the development of the region.
Improving the content and production of messages targeting the Nile Basin and GERD will help provide adequate information both to the diplomatic community sitting in Addis Ababa and the international audience, commented Omer Redi Managing Director of Ifriqiyah Media and Communications and Political Commentator on Ethiopia, Africa, and AU.
Commending on the domestic media’s role in rallying the public behind the GERD and fostering unity and patriotism, he said the efforts are below expectations when it comes to tailoring messages to address the concerns of the international community.
“The Ethiopian media have mostly been unsuccessful mainly because their content and messaging are oriented or aligned with the local approach.” What is more, the production quality and presentation skills fail to attract audiences as compared with other high-quality international media. The Ethiopian media, therefore, need to address such issues to be effective in addressing the misinformation and some genuine concerns of people of Nile downstream countries, mainly Egypt, he says. Part of quality content and production should be, among others, on the Blue Nile, the lives of the people along the Nile River in Ethiopia, the importance and technical details of GERD, according to him. In-studio expert debates and discussions bringing experts both from Ethiopia and other Nile Basin countries including from Sudan and Egypt could help inform the global community, he adds. Informative, lively and engaging debates in foreign languages such as Arabic and English are fundamental while the media picks topics based on research, he said.
More and more contents tailored for the diplomatic corps and the audience in Africa and the Middle East are the mechanisms to let decision-makers have the right knowledge on developments along the Nile Basin. For instance, the self-financed GERD is motivation to the rest of Africa giving lessons of materializing grand projects with own resources. GERD’s importance for the sub-regional, regional and continental economic cooperation and integration particularly in terms of energy cooperation should be communicated adequately and in an appealing way. He said Cairo’s belligerent position on the GERD and its continued yet futile attempt to misinform the global community must be countered by the quality and attractive media content.
“The colonial era exclusive deals that gave Egypt veto over the waters of the Nile had gone never to return. It is such kinds of belligerent attitude that blinded Egyptian politicians from realizing times have changed. This is manifested in the unacceptable demands by Egypt— that is tantamount to asking Ethiopia to completely handover the operation of GERD to it that led to the failure of the talks in Washington DC.”
The Egyptians have been capitalizing on the twist in the Washington negotiations on the GERD in a couple of ways. First, they are trying to corner Ethiopia politically and diplomatically in the international stages alleging that Ethiopia is intransigent on Nile issues, he argues. They also present the incident as a situation where Addis Ababa politically and diplomatically collided with Washington, a major global superpower.
This means Egyptian politicians, lobbyists and propagandists are working in a coordinated fashion to portray an image of Ethiopia as a side that lacks goodwill to agree in the negotiations; hence, it should be condemned by regional and international bodies. For Egypt, it presents the same opportunity if it cooperates with the rest of the Nile riparian countries in goodwill with a sense of mutual respect and benefit. However, the current belligerent position of Cairo indicates that it is reacting, though futile, to the key message the GERD represents.
“That message is, the colonial era exclusive deals that gave Egypt veto to allowing it to pull the strings on what happens along the Nile basin, are gone never to return. It is such kinds of belligerent attitude that blinded Egyptian politicians from realizing times have changed. This is manifested in the unacceptable demands by Egypt tantamount to asking Ethiopia to completely handover the operations of GERD to it that led to the failure of the talks in Washington DC.”
Egyptian is capitalizing on the twist in the Washington negotiations on the GERD in a couple of ways. First, they are trying to corner Ethiopia politically and diplomatically in international stages alleging Ethiopia is intransigent on Nile issues. They also present the incident as a situation where Addis Ababa politically and diplomatically collided with Washington, a major global superpower. This means Egyptian politicians, lobbyists and propagandists are working in a coordinated fashion to portray an image of Ethiopia as a side that lacks goodwill to agree in the negotiations; hence should be condemned by regional and international bodies. Egypt is trying hard to take advantage of the situation to reverse the wheels of history back to the time when it enjoyed an unfair and unacceptable veto and exclusive total control on what happens, or doesn’t, along the entire length of the Nile. “In other words, Egypt is trying to cultivate division and mistrust mainly among upstream countries and Sudan from downstream, in what looks like an attempt to undo new deals and consensus enshrined in the 2010 Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA).
The CFA is perhaps the greatest success of the Nile Basin Initiative which entails the official nullification of the colonial era treaties which were biased in favor of Egypt.” Egypt is running its diplomatic and related vehicles in a well-planned and coordinated fashion in sync with its propaganda machine as well as the lobby, advocacy and research institutes like Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies (ACPSS).
These vehicles of the Egyptian state have always been prepared for such times; therefore they are recently running full-steam and wellgreased to maintain the competitive diplomatic advantage over Ethiopia mainly in the Middle East (the Arab world in general) and in the west. They are undertaking these diplomatic and propaganda works in the hope that Washington negotiations fail and the issue goes to international arbitration.
On the contrary, Ethiopia seems to be operating in a reactionary manner; it also looks to have been caught off guard on the turn the Washington negotiation has taken lately. This is a wakeup call to the Ethiopian state to build such institutions that strategize and work proactively than maintaining the reactionary modus operandi currently in play.
The Ethiopian Herald April 10/2020
BY LEULSEGED WORKU
