BY MELKAMU TEKLE (melkamutekle@gmail.com)
Years ago, I have thanked the Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El Sisi for promising to bring the bodies of the twenty one Ethiopian martyrs butchered in Libya by ISIS. ‘O, he is a real friend of Ethiopia.’ I said. But he has lost many opportunities in which he could have proved, he really is a friend to the Ethiopian people and government. Most of these are spinning around the Nile River and development activities on it by Ethiopia. Egypt is also mentioned to stimulate racial and religious violence in Ethiopia for hundreds of years specially now.
Recently, the president has become a diehard when we come to any issue on The River Nile. He actually has denied Ethiopia`s right for self-development in doing so.
It seems the president`s clock stops counting. This clock spins back to the colonial times. That clock counted that Egypt has God-gifted right to use about 60 percent of the River Nile water and half of that amount to the Sudan according to the 1959 agreement.
By this, his country and its leaders including him have denied source stream countries the right for development using this longest river on Planet Earth-The Nile. Worse than that is the 1902 convention (shall we call it dictation) on how to use River Nile and its tributaries with the consent of Egypt who was under the British Colony.
It is more than 110 years after this one-sided convention that Ethiopian Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed Ali visited Egypt in his very early days as Prime Minister of Ethiopia. During this visit, the Egyptian president made him promise not to harm the interests of Egyptian people on Abay which is called Nile. The PM has given him assurance not to touch Egypt`s portion of the river.
Egyptians are not satisfied with this promise which is an oral manifestation of what Ethiopia is doing on the ground. However, Egyptians have to go to the United Nations, Western governments, Arab League and so. And just this month they went to the United Nations Security Council. The issue has nothing to do with national, regional or international security concern.
Ethiopia is surprised that they went to the Security Council for complaining which seems baseless. They, the Egyptians or Sudanese, can go where ever they like. But the country doesn`t believe the issue is better solved by the Council than the African Union. Ethiopia is highly advocating African solution for an African problem if there is a problem. Where ever the two countries go they can`t stop the country completing the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
Ethiopia`s Minister of Water, Energy and Irrigation Dr. Eng. Sileshi Bekele has revealed Ethiopia`s stance once more to the world in general and for UN Security Council in particular that Ethiopia has the right for development and relieve 110 or so millions of its people out of extreme poverty generating power from the GERD.
It is after this that President Sisi said Ethiopia has the right to self-development using the rivers which flow in the country without affecting other countries. Of course Ethiopia doesn’t need to ask its right from the Presidency in Cairo or Khartoum.
The Egyptian President in April this year demanded Ethiopia to cooperate over Nile threatening “All options are open” if a single drop of water is in scarce. This time he said Nile is a Devine creation which flows from Ethiopia (and other African countries) to drench Egypt. He continued and underlined “What God created would not be changed by human beings.”I wish that remains always true Mister President. But who built High Aswan Dam? Is it made by Devine forces; angels carrying the bricks and cement directly from heaven?
Ethiopia uses its knowledge and money and has built Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). It seems the Devine Power has no objection to this. The country didn`t cease to build and fill the dam without harming your beloved country and The Sudan Mr. President. You already know this. That is why you U-turned and in Mid July 2021 you told us “We want to help Ethiopians in their development. However; Egypt`s share of The Nile is ‘red line’.
Of course this idea of him is better than his predecessor whom he deposed. The late President Mohammed Mursi proposed to bomb the GERD in a meeting he chaired. This later had a green light from former U.S President Trump who said Egypt “can blow the dam.”
It seems the serving president of Egypt His Excellency Abdel Fattah el Sisi is a bit diplomatic. He said, I quote “We talked to the Ethiopians and Sudanese of the Nile as a river for partnership and for good, and as we want the good for all of us. We stand by Ethiopians` side in using GERD as means of development in Ethiopia as well as anything for the Ethiopians` welfare…”
If he means so (as I just heard writing this) why does he knock the doors of Israel so that it mediates Ethiopia and Egypt over The Dam? Why does he repeatedly avoids African solution for African problem, if there is actually a problem? By the way I do not object Israel`s mediation though I prefer the African one first; as a citizen. Egypt doesn’t prefer so. Yet is it another U-turn from the driver`s seat of the presidency in Cairo?
Despite the so many U-turns of El-Sisi and his officials Ethiopia has continued filling of the Dam without harming the two downstream countries of Sudan and Egypt. It has just completed second round of filling the Dam.
Twitting on this occasion, Ethiopian MinIster of Water, Irrigation and Energy Dr. Eng. Sileshi Bekele said: “GERD is an Ethiopian hydropower dam and guardian infrastructure asset for Sudan and Egypt against climate change.”
His twit confirms that Egypt and Sudan don’t need to worry about the Devine gift which the President mentioned. He doesn’t need another U-turn which hampers his reputation without having effect on Ethiopia`s right for self-development.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD JULY 25/2021
