“I was happy to take pictures with him [Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed] and to talk to him like a normal friend. Not just me, but everybody else [got to experience that],” said Ali Hussen a guest who attend Gebeta Sheger dinner which was served by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
He felt proud to be able to help his city: “I don’t know how much money they collected [from the dinner]. But I am ready to pay again and again to complete the project”, Hussen said. The guests described the food as traditional. “There was raw meat. And I appreciate the way they prepared it. There was Tej (honey wine), coffee, very special coffee,” Hussen said.
Businesswoman Solome Tadesse said PM Abiy was making the rounds to the tables, encouraging people to eat. According to her, the prime minister did not sit in a special place but sat among the guests and ate and drank with them. “We were satisfied by a lot of things, not just the dinner. I came out with hope,” Tadesse told to BBC. Following the footsteps of his forefathers, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has served his guests in the well-furnished hall found in Menelik palace.
Keeping his words, he did it after the renovation work of the hall is completed. The large banquet hall was built 100 years ago by King Menelik II. The hall is part and parcel of the Menelik’s palace which contains several residences, halls, chapels, and working buildings. More recently, the Ethiopian government is vigorously working to make the premises of the palace a tourist attraction. The palace’s mastermind, King Menelik II, reined from 1889 to his death in 1913.He is known for his state formation which ends up creating modern Ethiopia.
Besides, most notably, he is remembered for leading Ethiopian troops in a decisive victory at the Battle of Adwa against forces of fascist Italy in the First Ethio-ItalianWar. Emperor Haile Selassie also used the compound to preside over judicial issues. Mengistu Haile Mariam, whose party took over after Haile Selassie was overthrown, used the palace grounds as a prison to house many notables of the imperial government including the Emperor himself. Mengistu, who is now in exile, built his office within the compound. More recently, Gebeta Sheger – an expensive dinner was held last Sunday in the compound.
The program started as early as 9 GMT by visiting Emperor Menelik’s palace. Over 200 guests drawn from various organizations have bought the entrance ticket at a cost of five million Ethiopian birr which is an equivalent to 174,000USD. It is a fund-raising drive to finance the country’s ambitious project of beautifying the capital Addis Ababa by treating waters of rivers crossing the city and developing riverside for recreational purpose which covers 56 kilometers.
The project is estimated to cost 29 billion Ethiopian Birr ( about 1.1 billion USD) and is expected to be completed in three years. Earlier during the day, Abiy Ahmed participated in a city cleanup project which he initiated and ordered to be a nationwide periodic campaign. The nationwide cleaning campaign is motivated by not only concern for sanitation and the environment but also by the idea of getting across a political message deemed to be relevant in terms of creating awareness along the line of conflict mitigation.
The new Abiy Ahmed’s administration is seizing the environmental cleanup project as a strategy to reach out to Ethiopians in different parts of the country to mobilize for unity and against radicalism with the message “clean the environment, clean thoughts of hate and discrimination.” Over 2 million Ethiopians are internally displaced due to radicalization and ethnic-based violence. Such sort of fund raising program should be continued to clean up Addis and create jobs for millions.
The Ethiopian Herald May 23/2019
BY GIRMACHEW GASHAW
