BY GEZAHEGNE GEBREMESKEL
Sudan and Egypt overtly and sometimes covertly through diplomatic maneuvers, lobbying, sometimes beating war drums, have been busy with an attempt to stifle Ethiopia’s monumental Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Project. Coupled USA’s billion dollar aid of American tax payers money is being funneled to Egypt to be applied in subversive activities in Ethiopia’s internal affairs.
Egypt injects US funds to foment internecine war forming separatist ethnic fronts, arming and financing them to kill their own brothers. Egypt funds million dollars to religious factions to instigated decimating religious war between Muslims and Christians thought that it would destabilize Ethiopia. Using America’s fund, Egypt has been greasing the palms of so called ‘cyber army’ to execute disinformation, hateful speeches, cyber attacks, money laundering, illegal ammunition trading; all such Egyptian state sponsored activities patronized by the United States makes Egypt the icon of evil in Africa.
Egypt had annexed the most resourceful ‘Halaib Triangle’, Bir Tawil and the adjoining Terra nullis which have a surface area of more than 20, 580 square kilometer that belong to Sudan. The Sudanese army should have liberated these areas from Egyptian control, but they have prioritized their own lustful interest for power than national interest. They are opportunistic and timid. While Ethiopia is being engaged in law enforcement in Tigray, they annexed the ‘Al Fashqa triangle’ which is a rich agricultural area that belongs to Ethiopian farmers which they have been tilling since centuries. I am sure that Ethiopia will reincorporate the Al Fashqa Triangle in the nearest foreseeable future.
This is what I quote from the famous essayist George Santayana to the Egyptian Trojan horse; the timid Sudanese generals. “To delight in war is a merit in the soldier, a dangerous quality in the captain and a positive crime in the statesman. It is war that wastes a nation’s wealth, chokes its industries, kills its flowers, narrows its sympathies, condemns it to be governed by adventurers, and leaves the puny, deformed and unmanly to breed the next generation.” In fire power and heroic victories, they know it from the bottom of their viscera that, Sudan is too small for Ethiopia, but we love the Sudanese people. We don’t want to go war with the people of Sudan, whom we love, but our patience is running thin and we are at the end of our tether.
Whoever is a keen observer on satellite imageries of the GERD can see dark brown arching alluvium filling the brim of the dam. It is the alluvium that the Sudanese and Egyptians used to smell. For them, the fragrance is better than a botanic garden and expensive perfume. Each year they draw cross sectional profiles to estimate the amount of sediment yield.
Egypt’s grand plan of transporting the Nile through the Al Salam Canal via the Red Sea to Sinai Peninsula was to reclaim their desert with irrigation schemes using the transported Ethiopian soil. Secondly, the plan is to export water to Israel. Egyptian evil plan of Nile water to Israel is on two accounts: First, financial interest through Ethiopian water export, secondly, to dislodge the firm and historic relation between Ethiopia and Israel which Egypt fears most.
The malicious intention of the Egyptian is that, once Israel is a beneficiary of the Nile, it will be a stakeholder in the Nile politics that Mossad according to them will serve Egypt. Though difficult to interpret it in English, the wise Ethiopian saying, “A lone standing tree has the propensity to thunder strike.” It seems important to recall here. Ethiopia should not be alone in the battle to make Nile an African river.
The Arabs had invaded North Africa from our African moors (our black brothers). For ones recollection, the Great Carthagian (Tunisia after Arab invasion) General Hamilcar Barca in 247 B.C bore a son called Hannibal who defeated the Roman army was a black African. Pharaohic Egypt with that marvelous civilization was an African civilization not an Arab. Now, they intend to invade the Nile through the Arab league. Ethiopia and its African brothers will not allow that. The Arab League has nothing to do with an African resource. I presume that Ethiopia should take the following measures.
Ethiopia must take the initiative to form an Organization of Upper Nile States (OUNS). The organization is supposed to summon periodic regional and international meetings of Upper Nile States to discuss environmental, geopolitical, economical and social issues pertaining to the Nile Basin. UNS should make strong relations with Upper Riparian power in the Near East namely Turkey and elsewhere.
1.OUNS pertaining to the Nile Basin must have a headquarter with a budget allocations supported by Upper Riparian member states and international Upper Riparian states.
2.OUNS directs research activities related to water balances, climate variability and change studies, to make predictive models, support capacity building in hydraulic engineering, Geospatial science and technology, agro-climatologic studies, pedology, hydro-politics, Environmental science related to watershed management, hydro-hazard studies, international laws, conflict management studies and the like. To realize this, a university ought to be established and recruitment of staff internationally that have high scientific reputations.
3.OUNS coordinates the establishment of a joint defense force or military pact to deter any external threat from Lower Riparian nations or any entity that poses a threat, however, OUNS shall not interfere in the internal affairs of member states.
4.OUNS will have a media outlet of its own with freedom of press. The media provide awareness on Pan Africanism, conduct exchange of information on geohazard, pandemic and epidemic disease spreading, sharing of information on hostile jihadist infiltrations.
5.OUNS conducts regional conferences of member states only and when need arises international conference consisting of the whole Nile Riparian States and the Great Powers of the world on geopolitics, health, economic and social issues.
6.Article 44 of the Egyptian constitution states that, Egypt has a ‘historical right of the Nile River’. This means Egyptians have constitutional right to exclusively own the Nile. According to this article, it disposes Egyptian to a feeling of exclusive owners and considers any claimant as enemy. Egyptians educate their children with pan Arabic sentiment exclusively Arab Nile. The Government of Ethiopia should include an article in the constitution of Ethiopia that indicates Ethiopia’s natural right of its riparian resources that can neither be violated nor denied by any entity.
7.Revision of curriculum from elementary up to tertiary education on hydrology and hydro politics and inculcate the posterity that Ethiopia’s predicament and its development is tensely related to its water resources. Moreover, inculcate Ethiopian nationalism and Pan Africanism.
8.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs ought to have a specially designated institute for hydrology and hydro-politics with high caliber engineers, lawyers, hydrologists, international relations, economists and Geospatial professionals that also closely work in collaboration with the Ministry of water and UNS.
10. Ethiopia should bench mark Israel in terms of its military capabilities to deter any external threat. It must strengthen its air and ground forces both in quantity and quality. To initiate youth military service and prepare a staunch reserve army. It must modernize its ammunition factories. Enhance medium and long range missiles, production of tanks that in peace time produce tractors enhance military engineering. Americans do not want to see a strong Ethiopia. Because of that, strengthening military cooperation with Russia, China, France, Israel and Turkey is a must.
11. Side by side with OUNS, Ethiopia must strengthen the economic, social, political and defense integrity of the horn countries. Strong Pan African sentiment must be inculcated in the horn countries. Eritrea and Ethiopia must take the initiative to make the horn a strong alliance.
The horn is very promising due to the discovery of oil in Ethiopia, Somalia; the availability of enough potamic resources; the availability of cheap electricity from GERD; the strategic position of the Red offer an eye popping possibility for growth and development of the horn countries.
The Government of Ethiopia must transfer the nation from ethnocracy to democracy. Inch-by-inch must drop parochial cadres from the political arena. Prompt revision of the existing constitution to suit the will of all the Ethiopian people.
Avoidance of ascribed positions based on ethnic line and introduces achieved position (merit based) and assigns Ethiopians of mixed ethnic origin to Federal Posts to encourage interbreeding of the different ethnic groups. New administrative boundaries based on economic, social and geographical factors rather than language based. Inculcating Ethiopianism from child hood up to adulthood from kindergarten to tertiary education; Promulgating anti defamation and hate crime laws; clear any ethnic based armed struggle from urban and rural jungles and make them culpable by law; maintain due process of law to stage and culprit before the law. Police and defense forces must be recruited from every ethnic group and must be assigned in each new administrative entity to enforce law.
The introduction of new land tenure. Avoidance of statutory ownership of land except few exceptions. Recruitment of staff both in private and government institutions must be conducted under the surveillance of commission for the surveillance of civilian equity to avoid nepotism, ethnic biases and prejudices.
It is preferable to allocate critical posts such as national security, defense, aviation, bank and insurances, telecommunication to be led by potent personnel from mixed ethnic origin at least for decades or so. Encourage mixed marriage and cultural diffusion. America is a very treacherous county. It is being led by an ‘invisible hand’ that controls their finance (IMF, World Bank, the State Treasury), media, foreign relations (Council of Foreign Affairs and Trilateral Commission), security (external CIA, internal affair FBI). In the 2020, the majority of Ethiopian voted for Biden. It is to be naïve to think that President Biden will ameliorate the US foreign policy towards Ethiopia. He will remain in the White House so long as he executes the policy of ‘the invisible hand’, otherwise, he will face the fate of President Kennedy.
I wish the Government of Ethiopia implement that I have suggested. The posterity will not have any problem. In this way we can ensure internal stability and deter the red eyes of Egyptians who are malevolent towards and are so afraid to see the growth and development of Ethiopia.
Editor’s Note: The views entertained in this article do not necessarily reflect the stance of The Ethiopian Herald
The Ethiopian Herald April 17/2021
