Ethiopian Prime Minister’s position on the recent repressive move on students and teachers who resisted imposition of Oromia region flag is unknown to the public.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Tuesday met with Addis Ababa City Administration in his office. However, his meeting does not seem to be over the crisis that the city has been facing for the past few weeks as the administration is attempting to impose the Oromia region flag and anthem on schools (elementary and secondary) across the city.
According to a report by EBC, state media, the meeting was rather about city administration performance evaluation for 2014 Ethiopian fiscal and for the first quarter of this fiscal year (2015 E.C.)
When he had the last evaluation in 2022, the PM criticized the administration over corrupt practices, sentiments of ethnic nationalism and parochialism.
Much of the details from today’s meeting do not seem to be released to the public.
The prime minister “gave direction for development projects in the city to be expanded and problems resolved,” said EBC, citing the office of the PM as a source.
State media also cited Adanech Abiebie, the Mayor, as saying that performance in the past five months, including in project management, is encouraging.
Her administration is making claims that projects that focus on easing the cost of living, job creation and mega projects are encouraging.
Oromia region encroachment on Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa City Administration’s repressive move to impose Oromia region flag and anthem on schools has been dominating local news outlets for weeks now.
The Mayor claimed that she had “fruitful” discussions with residents over what she described as the right of children to study in their own language when the matter that caused tension was the imposition of the region’s flag on the residents of Addis Ababa.
On Monday, Wazema Radio reported that Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed has ordered the imposition to be halted. However, none of the state-owned media outlets covered the story.
Wazema reported that there were members of the ruling Prosperity Party who demanded that the move , which can be described as a forceful Oromization of school children in Addis Ababa, be stopped.
Police, last week, disclosed that it has arrested over 97 students and children in connection with “violence” in schools. It is the peaceful resistance of students and teachers that was projected as “violence.”
There have been reports of attempts to alter the ethnic demographic composition of Addis Ababa in favor of ethnic Oromo since the aftermath of Abiy Ahmed’s take over of power as Prime Minister. There was even an open claim of exclusive ownership of the city by ethnic Oromo.
Adanech Abeibie was sworn in as Mayor of Addis Ababa sometime in September 2021. Her predecessor, Takele Uma who is now a Federal Minister for the Mining Ministry, faced resistance to his Oromization scheme, as many seem to believe, of the city that manifested itself from massive issuance of city I.D. for non-residents and the distribution of condominium units in Addis Ababa to those whose name was on the waiting list.
There were also reports of corruption in connection with land distribution.
Opposition political parties, human rights groups and the Ethiopian Ombudsman have condemned the latest attempt to impose a flag and anthem on schools.