Taye Dendea had worked as Communication Head at Oromia Justice Bureau, and the Federal Attorney General. He had also worked as a lecturer at Rift Valley University. Now he works as a Public Relations Head at the office of Oromia Region Prosperity Party. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Law.
Taye has recently approached with the Ethiopian Press Agency (EPA) and discussed on the impact of COVID-19 on the agricultural productivity in the region. Taye also discussed the responsibility of all stakeholders in developing the River Nile over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. In addition, the Ethiopian Press Agency has also discussed economic issues focusing on the implication of transitional justice and its implementation in Ethiopia. Here are the Excerpts:
EPA: Countries which have made inclusive reform, like Ethiopia, are observed implementing transitional justice. What does the concept ‘Transitional Justice’ refer to? Do you think transitional justice is well implemented in Ethiopia?
Taye: Transitional justice refers to all the wrongdoings committed before the reform. There are many people who have been mistreated, and there are also abusers. It is a system in which the abuser will be accused and prosecuted for the wrongdoing he made; while the ill-treated person will also obtain some advantages of compensation.
In this regard, some progress is well practiced in Ethiopia. A commission is established to bring national reconciliation. Of course, it also enables us to avoid conflicts among ethnicities remembering the past mistakes committed by the previous generations. Reconciliation is the preeminent measure taken by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, to bring real and sustainable transformation in the country. If it was not manifested in this way, there may be many transgressions that would have huge impact on the socioeconomic development of the country. Hence, the excuses of the government for the past mistakes can be considered as compensation by itself. In fact, there are many families who lost their children; and there are also peoples whose properties are fully or partially damaged during the protests occurred some years ago. The government asks for forgiveness for all the wrongdoings committed due to the corrupted system. Thus, timely forgiveness would therefore able to improve things before going to severe conflicts and chaos.
Moreover, the complete closure of the major penitentiary, which was epicenter for torching protestors, gives some relief and justice for youths. In relation to this, bring those who were abusing human rights, and exploiting the nation’s resources in front of courts will imply the exact application of transitional justice at hand.
Of course, there are many innocent people who lost some parts of their body, and urged to leave their homes. It is good if these innocent victims could get some compensation considering their economic and physical damages.
Unless the victim gets compensation through affirmative action, his bad feeling will not leave him easily. I hope the National Reconciliation Commission is greatly working on bringing change in the justice sector. The process will help us to move forward taking yesterday’s mistakes as a lesson other than considering them as a lasting incarceration.
EPA: Obviously, now is the time for harvesting agricultural products. Above all, the spread of coronavirus is increasing from time to time. Therefore, how is the regional government moving ahead to protect the pandemic together with executing agricultural activities?
Taye: Yes, it is a decisive question. COVID-19 is a threat not only for health, but also for the economy. Unless we do what we should do to harvest more agricultural productions, we might not able to survive from the possible shortage of food much greater than the pandemic. It is necessary to deepen the awareness among the people to boost agricultural productivity as much as possible.
If hunger exists, there will not be any mechanisms to handle the problem since donor countries are now busy with their own burden. Perhaps we may not get wheat either through support or donation. Therefore, we need to put all our efforts to capitalize the production of agricultural yields; because, we should not face shortage of food rather than other supplementary things.
In this regard, a guideline has been forwarded for all state and federal governments to develop any kind of agricultural lands. Fertilizer and other agricultural inputs should be delivered to farmers as quickly as possible. All zonal, woreda and kebele officials need to participate in harvesting crops. In this case, officials at all levels are participating to implement the directives. Oromia President, Shimels Abidissa is also monitoring whether the directives are cascaded at the ground level or not. Currently, farmers are busy on their plots of farm lands; and agricultural experts are also there supporting farmers. The regional government is now providing inputs such as fertilizer, select seed, and other materials. If the trend continues as it is, no doubt that our desires will be fulfilled soon.
EPA: Ethiopia planned to launch the filling of the Grand Renaissance Dam (GERD) as of the upcoming July. On the other hand, Sudan and Egypt are forwarding different calls for international mediators so as to force Ethiopia to quit its effort. How do you explain the situation in this regard?
Taye: The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) has still been constructed at the expense of billions of dollars from the pockets of every Ethiopians. We all spend our money since it is useful for our survival. Obviously, Ethiopia is known for hunger and extreme poverty. After this onwards, we should not remain poor from now a day. We should not inherit poverty for our children. That is why we give the name ‘Prosperity’ for our party. Though we extremely hate poverty, we planned to bring prosperity and defeat poverty from the grassroots level. Therefore, there are some strategic goals set to defeat poverty; which one is access to electric power.
We live now in a situation where some towns and cities get electricity infrequent shifts. If it is required to install three large factories in a single state, the power being generated at national level would never be sufficient at all. Unless we provide electric power, we will not defeat poverty as expected level. If there is no power, the community could not produce more than enough. We could not curb inflation and would also face a huge number of unemployment.
From now onwards, agriculture needs power as irrigation could be effected through motorbikes. In sum, the overall economic development needs power. Therefore we need to provide adequate electric power to generate bumper productivity.
We want to generate power, not to harm Egypt and Sudan. We need to finalize the construction of GERD so as to get out of poverty as soon as possible. All countries need to understand that we construct the Dam to redress national problems such as poverty and to achieve prosperity. As we respect their rights to develop the Nile, they should also respect our prosperity journey.
Thus, we will start filling the dam by the upcoming July despite lots of challenging approaches are flowing from Egypt and Sudan. Indeed, there were multiple campaigns against Ethiopia to stop the filling of the Dam. Apart from the informal diplomacy, they were also threatening Ethiopia using supper power countries and organizations.
Besides, they had the intention to control the source of the River Nile. They frequently pronounce that Ethiopia should not use a drop of water from the Nile. All these tactics are old fashioned; and, has no base at modern international diplomatic spheres.
In fact, the River Nile has more than an adequate amount of resources for all three countries. Therefore, we need to develop the River Nile together inconsistent with supporting the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
More than 70 percent of the Ethiopian people use firewood to cook food. This will cause severe devastation of the environment. While we engaged in cutting trees for daily use of firewood, the water that is required by Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia will totally be lost.
Having all these in mind, the people need to continue supporting the construction of the Dam in terms of finance and showing fervent desire to complete the project effectively. Ethiopians who are living abroad need to promote Ethiopia’s national interest and its intention to use the River to achieve prosperity. They should tell the international community about Ethiopia has no intention to put significant harm over lower basin countries. Nationalities at home should also stand together and provide their relentless support to finalize the project and generate the required power resources.
EPA: Thank you very much for dedicating your precious time for us.
Taye: Thank you.
The Ethiopian herald June 13,2020
TRANSLATED BY ZELALEM GIRMA
