The social, economic and political reforms that Ethiopia has set out over the past few months have beamed a ray of hope on Ethiopians, and has begun to produce some promising results.
Particularly, subsequent to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and his cabinet commitment to peaceful coexistence – which is manifested in the peace deal with neighboring country Eritrea, the freeing of political prisoners, invitations extended for competing political parties for peaceful struggle among others – the reform has been widely applauded by many of local, regional and international observers.
A number of exiled political parties also returned to the country pledging to preserve and reinforce the recent gains that the country has made, and to take part in nation building process. In turn, most of the parties are working in line with their pledges to keep the country on the right track. Undisputedly, the process of reform cannot be thoroughly rosy.
Rather, it is gloomy; and the occurrences of undesirable incidents are always expected facts. Especially, in a diverse country where its people enjoy distinctive values, norms, religion, ethnic and cultural background, bumps on the road is an inescapable phenomenon. The good thing, however, is that submerging and overcoming the obstacles is not an insuperable task. Ethiopia is one of the most diversified countries, and home to over 80 nations, nationalities and peoples with diverse ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic backgrounds. Despite those differences, the string it ties them is deeply rooted and tightly knotted.
As Fela Durotoye, Nigerian business strategist and the well known motivational speakers once said, a nation is not defined by its borders or the boundaries of its landmass. Rather, it is defined by its diverse people who have been unified by a cause and a value system and who are committed to a vision for the type of society they wish to live in and give to the future generations to come. The same is true for Ethiopia and Ethiopians.
The people, irrespective of their differences, have their own longstanding culture, value system and national asset which unified them as one. The shared societal values and norms, the quest for common goals, intertwined fortune as well as other longstanding invaluable elements have been pillars of their strength and essence of their togetherness.
To uphold these national assets, and sustain peace and stability throughout the country, contending political parties should combine efforts and act with integrity, honesty, trust and commitment, going far from words. Wrong incidences of the past should not divide and divert us from the more pressing business we have at hand.
To this effect, the parties need to renew their vows unswervingly and work on issues that unite the people rather than divide them. It is clear that no one realizes national objective by words, but in actions. So, contending political parties and all Ethiopians, beyond words, have to be committed to act as befit to promises. Furthermore, the parties should have to develop the culture of solving differences by dialogue.
The Ethiopian Herald, February 6/2019
