Sidama Crisis Monitor

Get up Stand up, Stand up for your rights! and the Rights of the Sidama people!

The history of the Sidama people is built on our identity as a nation and written by the blood of our heroes.  Like other indigenous Cushitic nations in Northeast Africa, the Sidama nation has adopted its own systems of governance, rules and regulations before its way of life was disrupted by the expansionist northern invaders in 1890s who settled amongst them. The settlers succeeded to subjugate the Sidama nation assisted by machine guns supplied to them by the European colonizers. The Abyssinian settlers marched to the south in the name of “conquest of the new land” (ሀገር የማቅናት ዘመቻ) and to evangelize the “pagans” as they referred to the peoples of the South. Minelik’s expansion to the south was not only copied from the European colonial conquests but it was coordinated with Europeans where the Abyssinian orthodox church, as part and parcel of African imperialism, was seen by Europeans as an equal partner to the invasion and occupation of new lands in the south. This is the point where our history and the Abyssinian imperialism intersected.

The Abyssinian imperialism as an occupying force marched under the banner of the controversial green, yellow and red flag of the Orthodox Church. This flag is seen in the south as a symbol of oppression and humiliation. Today, those who carry this flag are not only opening wounds but are stirring the country to civil war to restore their old Abyssinian order. Likewise, the government of prosperity party unleashed brutal civil wars to protect and restore unitary state imposed on the hitherto independent nations of the south by Minelik’s forces. The Sidama nation rejects in the strongest possible terms any attempt by the diehard unitarists or their prosperity party imposters to dismantle the constitution and multinational federalism and re-impose a unitary state. The Sidama people will continue their struggle until we achieve our goal and say: We are here; Multinational Federalism Is Here to Stay; This Is What We Fought For and Continue to do so for generations to come.

We are aware that Abiy Ahmed and his cronies are drafting a new constitution to dismantle the current constitution, and thus multinational federalism. He dissolved ethnic-based parties including the Sidama Liberation Movement (SLM) by bribing corrupt traitors such as Dukale Lamisso, and assassinated nationalist leaders in many parts of the country. Abiy orchestrated government led and managed conflicts between nationalities to undermine the constitution and blame it as the source of the conflict. His goal is to dismantle the multinational federalist constitution in favour of Amhara ruling elites and form an authoritarian unitarist government where he wishes to rule as a dictator king.

On the contrary, the constitutional disputes over the respective powers of the federal government and regional states led to a full-scale civil war in Tigray. Conflicts have escalated in Oromia, Benishangul-Gumuz, and other regions over the implementation of the right of nations to self-determination and seeking genuine devolution of power from the center to the respective regional states. The contentious issue between TPLF and other nations and nationalities until 2018 was the failure to implement the constitution – not the content of the constitution itself. When chosen by his EPRDF party in 2018 as prime minister, Abiy was entrusted to implement the constitution to its fullest extent, not to dismantle it.

However, Abiy’s decision to dissolve the EPRDF was a tactical move to dismantle the current constitution and multi-national federalism and re-impose a centralized autocratic unitary government. This has deepened the divide in the country where the government is standing on the side of the old ruling order (unitary state) whereas the multi-national federalist forces who stand for the rights of nations and nationalities to self-determination on the opposite end of the political spectrum. The goal of Abiy’s so-called national dialogue commission is to ensure that the current constitution and multinational federalism are dismantled altogether, paving the way for re-imposition of the unitary state.

The bogus national dialogue commission is a political ploy to prepare the country for another civil war to re-impose a unitary state. However, this is likely to backfire and precipitate the disintegration of the empire. Abiy Ahmed and his cronies have always been dishonest and continue to deceive the nations by labelling the current constitution as the root cause of the country’s multifaceted problems.

The past and ongoing war unleashed by Abiy Ahmed at multiple fronts is not a civil war per se, but rather it is an ideological war that is being fought between Abiy’s centralized and undemocratic regime versus the national liberation fronts who advocate for greater liberty and freedom for nations and nationalities. It is important to ask: Why did the so-called Ethiopian Policy Studies Institute rash to condemn the current constitution as if the ongoing war in Ethiopia is a conflict between nationalities?  Even if conflicts occur between the nations, they can be resolved through well-established constitutional mechanisms. Abiy and his unitarist cronies hoodwink the historically oppressed south as though the very constitution that granted them at least a nominal right to self-rule was their nemesis. It is worth reminding readers that Professor Beyene Petros and Dr. Adayao, both of whom are from the south, were hired by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to be used as stooges to justify the unitarist and Prosperity Party desire to change the current constitution and multinational federalism.

To pave the way for repealing the ethnic-based multinational federalism and the constitution itself, Abiy Ahmed has systematically removed or sidelined nationalist leaders from key posts at regional and federal levels, replacing them with political novices and loyalists in all of the ten regional states. Abiy Ahmed had others murdered with impunity, leaving the door wide open for political manipulation.   

Abiy and Amhara elites claim that all problems Ethiopia currently faces have to do with the current constitution that puts Amhara on equal footing with other nationalities, which they do not accept. Their nostalgia for the defunct imperial glory is a utopian desire. Imperial Ethiopia can never be revived. It is dead and buried. On the other hand, the multinational Federalist Ethiopia is the only option that can guarantee the survival of the Ethiopian empire because it is founded on the wills and interests of the nations and nationalities of that country. Any attempt to re-impose a centralized unitary state will undoubtedly orchestrate the disintegration of the Ethiopian empire.

Therefore, the Sidama Federalist Forces warns the international community, dictator Abiy Ahmed and his decaying Prosperity Party including the Amhara elite that the pre-1991 coercive central rule and the system that put our people under the yoke of assimilationist empire will never be re-imposed on us again.  We will continue our struggle for a genuine decentralization and devolution of power to regional states to address the question of identity, culture, history and religion, and improvements in local socio-economic conditions and greater political participation. Effective decentralization, delegation, and devolution of political and administrative authority and responsibility have not yet evolved in Ethiopia due to a lack of political will and bureaucratic dominance of centralized institutions that were inherited from the old Ethiopian empire and political clientelism. In addition, lobbying groups and Amhara political elites continuously agitate for a centralized system of government threatening to tear the Federalist constitution by force or through coercion. At the same time, the so-called federal government of Ethiopia led by the unpopular Prosperity Party agitates fearmongering, using slogans such as: “If multinational federalism is fully implemented in Ethiopia, it is inevitable that the country will disintegrate”. Such fear mongering does not benefit anyone, including minorities living in the south.

Finally, Sidama Democratic Forces call on the Ethiopian federalist and democratic forces to act in unison on the following:

1. Multinational federalist forces should organize to defend the constitution and the rights of nations and nationalities to self-determination. Abiy Ahmed is hell bent to deny us these rights in the foreseeable future.  
2. Reject Abiy Ahmed’s neoliberal policies imposed by foreign/international forces whom he serves. Neoliberal policies are deepening poverty and social decay in the country. Neoliberalism is dying in the world as developed countries are imposing tariffs to protect their private sector and industries. Abiy Ahmed as an oxymoron is embarking on reckless privatization of public enterprises undermining multinational federalist state-led economic development. The recent move to freely float the exchange rate of birr leading to over 100% depreciation of the currency, stoking inflation just for the sake of borrowing from IMF and World Bank to purchase weapons including drones in preparation for the multi-front civil wars is a disastrous policy. In addition, Abiy Ahmed’s regime aims to open-up the banking sector, Ethiopian Airlines, and Telecommunication to foreign investors as demanded by the creditors not dictated by the economic fundamentals on the ground. As the result of freely floating exchange rate, the prices of imported goods will dramatically go up – affecting millions and millions of households and businesses alike. These terrible economic policies will wreak havoc on the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of peoples in the country already feeling the brunt of six years of civil wars and political instability – all of which are happening under the disastrous Abiy Ahmed’s watch.
3. Recognize that the suffering of the masses of our peoples cannot be stopped without peace and political stability. The ongoing wars in Oromia and Amhara region cannot be won by Abiy Ahmed. He will never genuinely negotiate for peace. Peace can only be achieved if Abiy Ahmed and his Prosperity Party thugs are removed from power once and for all.
4. The incompetent and corrupt Prosperity Party officials have made the lives of our peoples a living hell. These mercenaries must not only be removed from their position of power, but also must be brought to justice – both domestically and internationally. Multinational federalist forces – along with peace loving people of Ethiopia – must work in unison to ensure accountability.
5. Finally, we call upon all federalist and democratic forces to come together and dislodge the gangs of foreign agents to free our peoples and the country once and for all.