Bruke Lemma, PhD
“The tyrant is a child of Pride who drinks from his sickening cup recklessness and vanity, until from his high crest headlong he plummets to the dust of hope.” — Sophocles
As always, I strive to avoid subjecting myself to Abiy Ahmed’s speeches, but I couldn’t resist hearing about his recent ‘invitation’ to the diaspora to grace our country with their presence. What could be the grand purpose, you wonder? The real purpose, that is, not the nonsense about employment, investment, and other supposed magical benefits that he waffled about in his usual asinine manner.
Well, God only knows, but I’d hazard a guess that it might be to offer the diaspora a chance to witness the astonishing proliferation of concentration camps, which have been meticulously constructed by Abiy Ahmed for those audacious enough to question him, whether they are mild-mannered journalists, erudite intellectuals, outspoken opinion-makers, or even daring members of parliament who’ve had the temerity to ask him uncomfortable questions.
Abiy Ahmed wants the diaspora to know that he has spared no expense to ensure the stay of those he selected for these concentration camps is nothing short of luxurious. He’s thoughtfully introduced these ‘guests’ to various diseases, such as cholera, and provided a ‘balanced’ diet of one piece of bread a day. Their accommodations are so spacious that there’s no room to lie down, and medical treatment remains as elusive as ever. Some even find themselves acquiring new ailments, while others continue to grapple with the ones that they acquired during their previous stay at one of Abiy Ahmed’s unique facilities.
As an extra ‘special’ treat, these ‘guests’ have the ‘privilege’ of meeting Abiy Ahmed’s personal team of Oromuma tugs – he wants the returning diaspora to know – who generously assist them with a bit of ‘re-education,’ using a unique teaching method involving a generous amount of physical persuasion. Well, all these and other grotesqueries are undoubtedly part of his grand performance, his insatiable need for attention, and that utterly deluded sense of self-importance that convinces him he’s a star. So, it’s really no surprise that the clown is now calling on the diaspora; he undoubtedly wants them to witness and applaud these so-called ‘wondrous’ achievements of his – truly, the antics of a puerile man-child!
But wait, there’s more. The returning diaspora would also have the unique opportunity to witness that most of Abiy Ahmed’s ‘fortunate guests,’ including journalists, parliamentarians, opinion makers, and intellectuals, are basking in the ‘luxury’ of their stay at remote desert prisons – concentration camps strategically located far from their families, ensuring their undisturbed ‘vacation,’ all while keeping the world blissfully unaware of their condition.
What’s more, thousands of Amhara youth and others have also been swiftly herded by Abiy Ahmed’s machines mainly from the capital, Addis Ababa, and crammed into makeshift prisons and concentration camps. They, too, are being subjected to hunger and disease, with not even a dry piece of bread a day, according to reports. These once-vibrant youth have been reduced to skin and bones, enduring Abiy Ahmed’s ‘lavish’ diet.
He has ingeniously transformed schools into prisons, echoing his belief that education is obsolete in his utopia. So why not repurpose schools as prisons? Clearly, educated individuals pose a grave threat to Abiy Ahmed’s regime, though that doesn’t include Berhanu Nega, as his education is mainly in the art of being a chameleon, a power-hungry chameleon!
Moreover, as long as Abiy Ahmed grants him a bit of power, the chameleon would make himself behave as the most illiterate peasant one can find anywhere, as we have seen him do expertly so many times. His subservience to Abiy Ahmed is utterly, utterly nauseating, his bending backwards for him is a sight to truly behold! Under Berhanu Nega’s ‘leadership,’ education in the country has been led to the ground, which aligns well with Abiy Ahmed’s disdain for education, much the same as the regime before him, the TPLF.
We shouldn’t be surprised by these things, however; after all, Abiy Ahmed and his Oromuma thugs are staunch adherents of 16th-century superstitions and other outdated beliefs, utterly oblivious to the vast progress of knowledge and human development that has unfolded over the more than four centuries and more. What’s more, they harbor a deep preference for poverty and ignorance, as these conditions have proved highly lucrative for them.
Specifically, they exploit the desperately poor, introducing them to the perverse prosperity gospel, a wicked cultish religion of the worst sort, that makes it easier to steal from the impoverished, all while maintaining a deep disdain for the poor. The ‘religion’ also helps them manipulate the poor, even turning the poor against one another, leading to a triple victory of cruelty, exploitation, and division for Abiy Ahmed and his Oromuma gang of thievery.
So, why is Abiy Ahmed really calling on the diaspora to return, even though some of them may be educated? Well, there might just be a few vacant spots in those luxurious concentration camps and makeshift prisons that he urgently needs to fill. Who knows, he might also have his sights set on their possessions, especially foreign exchange, which he could confiscate and use to purchase ammunitions for the drones and other weapons for his campaign of violence and murder in the Amhara region, or perhaps even for building that extravagant palace of his.
Speaking of the campaign of violence and murder, it is truly astounding how deluded this clown must be for him to think that anyone living in the diaspora, possessing even an ounce of intelligence, would willingly return.
They’d be risking incarceration in the hellish system of injustice that Abiy Ahmed has created, under which countless exemplary, generous and selfless Ethiopians, mostly, Amharas, are either dying or on the brink of death, or acquiring life-threatening illnesses that would rob them of life and deprive the nation of its finest sons and daughters. Who, in their right mind, would consider going back under such dire circumstances? It’s a proposition that defies reason.
Who would want to go back and bear witness to the daily horrors that Abiy Ahmed has been unleashing upon the entire nation for more than five years now? Who would want to go back and silently witness the even more heartless acts of violence and murder he is perpetrating in the Amhara region for more than five months and continuing? Or speak out, knowing that doing so would lead to certain imprisonment and being subjected to extreme brutality, being made to endure the harshest conditions, and facing the living nightmare that so many are now enduring in the country—journalists, politicians, intellectuals, students, and countless others?
With all that and more, Abiy Ahmed’s call for diaspora return is mind-boggling. Does he think the diaspora are as asinine as he is, falling for the words of a lying narcissistic psychopath? Doesn’t it make sense to first release those he has unjustly imprisoned, including an eighty-year-old man like Tadios Tantu, who has been detained for months now? What about releasing Meskerem Abera, Christian Tadele, Abay Zewdu, Genet Asmamaw, and countless others who have been unjustly detained and are continually subjected to brutal treatment, and more?
As Isaac Asimov aptly put it, ‘Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent,’ and one would be hard-pressed to find anyone more incompetent and more violent than Abiy Ahmed, almost anywhere in the world. In the last five years, Abiy Ahmed, in overt and covert cooperation with so-called ‘rebels,’ OLF and OLA, conducted a campaign of violence targeting the Amhara people and Orthodox Christians, killing countless in the most gruesome manner and destroying their properties, sparing no one—women, children, the elderly, the frail, nothing.
Moreover, the death and destruction have taken on a highly mechanized form, with the national army that Abiy Ahmed turned into his own private force unleashing devastation in the Amhara region for more than five months now. These include death from the sky by drones, relentless attacks on unarmed civilians with heavy weapons indiscriminately fired at buildings and the people within them, and horrifying summary executions of farmers, the elderly, and even youths, some as young as twelve, and some who were forcibly taken from their hospital beds.
These are just some of the horrors that have unfolded and continue to unfold in the Amhara region. However, despite all of this and more, the indomitable spirit of the Amhara people has remained unbroken, and their Fanos are stronger than ever. In any case, given all the atrocities, the injustices and more, it’s truly baffling how Abiy Ahmed plans to convince the diaspora to return to the country. It would take a particularly unintelligent person to heed that call and return to the living nightmare that Abiy Ahmed has created in the last five years.
It is much more sensible, much more effective, to support those who are already in the country and are fighting against Abiy Ahmed and his extremely corrupt, violent and incompetent regime, especially the Amhara Freedom Fighters, Fanos, as they are the most likely to checkmate them, to show them the exit door, along with their perverse ideology Oromuma, ultimately liberating all Ethiopians, including the Oromos themselves, from these thugs, all of whom are using the Oromo’s names to exploit and impoverish the entire nation of Ethiopia. Thus, we should support the Fanos with all we have and muster.
Other than that, anyone considering going back to the country, thinking they will gain something, should know they risk losing everything, including possibly their lives. To witness all the injustices that are happening in the country and to say nothing is a mindset as psychopathic as Abiy Ahmed himself. However, speaking out can lead to unimaginable nightmares at the hands of the vindictive Abiy Ahmed, a very difficult choice!