Political Fatigue

Political fatigue had done a lot of damage in our country and most probably it had been like that for many years since most kings were replaced only when they die. What that had meant was if they had to die old, they would have had total control of the system until literally they can no longer lead, either because of death or incapacity. In the case of Atse Minlik, not only when he was incapacitated because of illness, but after his death the system around him was not in a hurry to name his successor. Those days were not as demanding as the present time we are in, where political fatigue could cause a lot of damage.

Emperor Haile Selassie had understood that clearly and that might have been the main reason why he changed a PM at around the time of his demise. It failed to introduce the needed knee-jerk or jolt because there was no time since there was that urgency to bring around genuine change, not a makeshift one. On the other hand, even if there had been ample time to introduce change, the attempt would have encountered failure. The reason for that being, the change at the top could only be symbolic and those who were the decision makers at the time of PM Aklilu Habtewold would have intervened in what the new PM would want to do and he would have to get their node for every measure he wants to take if he does not want to be sacked. That would stall any kind of change a presumably new blood such as Endalkatchew Mekonen would bring into a system instead of revitalizing it. A good example to cite might be when one key organ in the human body fails it will be almost impossible to save the unfortunate individual from dying by boosting the function of the other organs. The only solution is if it is possible to replace the affected organ, similar to what replacing the monarchy at least raised the hope for a permanent change that had not looked back till date.

If we look at EPRDF for example, the PM might not have an absolute decision making power, because if not the other members in the EPRDF, the inside core members of TPLF would have to agree on what kind of measures to take and introduce. Since the PM is a founding member with good standing, he can contribute to the decision making process by coming up with his own suggestions or by taking side with those he believes are correct and if that group does not win the majority of the central committee’s vote, he has no choice other than implementing what the will of the majority is. But as a spokesperson of the party he should support whatever the majority decides whenever he makes a public appearance and it is possible that many people could think that all the decisions are originating from him, because he is the one who takes all the flak direct while the others are hiding behind the scene, and that is part of his job.

There is nothing wrong with this kind of working arrangement because the nation did not have anything similar to it and it might be outright unfair to compare TPLF/EPRDF with Derg where Colonel Mengistu was the sole decision maker to the point where he had brought himself to the level of the other cult leaders such as North Korean Kim Jong, no one has right to ask what he is doing. There are many signals that reveal that is not the case particularly with TPLF, although the other EPRDF members could be outside peripherals who will receive instruction from whoever is in charge of what they are doing. This by itself is very disgusting and a very good reason why democracy should be introduced into the government system that had been hijacked by this armed regional political party.

That is what the mood will be when rage takes over, because no nation should be controlled by such a small minority that is armed to the teeth. Even that was permissible at the beginning because they had covered some distance, even if it was not enough, since what we have on our hand is a leadership that has its own brand name to tend to, namely “TPLF” that represents a particular ethnic group and would not take advice, suggestion, or consultation from any of the other ethnic groups, simply because it does not trust them in the first place, secondly the group might want grudgingly to put a Tigrean signature on everything that is taking place in the country. That should not be allowed in any country, because it is the majority of the people that should do that. Unfortunately, since the situation in the country was downtrodden, a military junta with insufficient preparation to shoulder government responsibility had managed and tried to lead the country although their luck run out and had to hit a brick-wall, instigating the coming into power of those who hold a better promise and were armed. It is possible that they were not armed better than the Ethiopian army whose main problem might have been a lack of direction, because if they had direction, the money the Colonel run away with might have been used for emergency needs, while the outsiders that had been at the scene would have given their node for the outside world to channel the same aid they had poured to the sleek guerrilla fighters, for any other group that had any sense of direction the country should take.

Therefore, it is possible to say that things had played in favor of TPLF because they seemed to have a better sense of direction and they had demonstrated that they really had that sense of direction and the knack to lead the country somewhere. That had been witnessed by the calm that surfaced and enveloped the county for many years after they took power and some kind of political movement started when the other elite started seeing some of the benefits the Tigreans were reaping and might have wanted the piece of the action or the pie. At the same time, for a proud country such as Ethiopia, when a non-existent minority group such as TPLF that came out straight from the woods accomplishes such a feat, it could end up making others look bad unless they participate in what takes place. But now other problems are surfacing too, because this vibrant group could also be suffering from fatigue similar to what the Imperial regime suffered from being on the scene for a long time and no matter how many times they try to introduce new blood of their own stock for the most part, in the decision making body, since the decision making organs are the same, it seems that their usefulness had started waning and had started approaching the end of its usefulness some time ago.

In a situation like this what comes to the rescue is democracy that allows only two terms in office, even if the second term could also be very tiring, although the reason why it is there is to enable some governments to finish what they started. Anything more than two terms would mean everyone is tired and suffering from some kind fatigue syndrome where what is reigning would be laissez faire if such tired leaders are allowed to lead and the possibility is it is an automatic pilot that would be doing the job while the leaders are snoozing. From what is taking place, our nation cannot afford the luxury of a laissez faire working arrangement, because nothing had been done yet in the nation. The government focused on agriculture on the outset claiming that nothing will save a nation like Ethiopia other than agriculture, and it flopped when it insisted that the kind of agriculture that will save the nation is small-scale farming applied using the archaic farming method.

It is not difficult to see the fatigue here because introducing large scale farming should be a job of a new government that will be ushered into office minted anew, because it will have the energy and it has to keep its promises if it had gone into office using such introduction as its platform. Tired governments would say even if we manage to introduce large-scale farming where would the citizen get the money to buy what is produced. This is really yawning, especially when we all know how price of food items had skyrocketed around the world and the world farmers might fail to provide for the rising demand, because of the various new uses that are taking grain away from its main role of feeding the public. Even if it will be tedious to cover that area here, it is not difficult to see the fatigue. There are millions of people who need food badly and a good number of them could die simply because help might not reach them on time or it could spread out thin. What is glaring at us here is the government had already run away from that responsibility because there is no new introduction it can make there other than taking away the meager money the farmers are making by selling them expensive fertilizer it has a stake in and they are also denied loan. To make things worse any new measure or introduction the government makes will backfire at its political and economic philosophy and because of that people have to die and suffer.


The new area of focus currently is construction, which is good because the swollen population needs housing. Although all the apartment buildings that are being built are not going to solve that problem effectively simply because they will be expensive for the ordinary citizens who need economically built housing badly, whose rent they can afford to pay. What is taking place now should be scaled down and the money that is being spent on the big facades should be directed in building houses for the masses if the government is claiming it is there to solve the problem of the majority of the people, not only those who can afford to pay for expensive apartments and condominiums. Economy housing also has a much better beautifying effect by creating well-maintained residential areas where it will be ideal to raise a family.

It will not be surprising if most of these new units that are being built now will remain empty and the government will be forced to rent them out with much less rent than it anticipated and in two or three years time if this government is not replaced it might also be forced to run away from this project. It does not mean it would not come up with another project that would give it breathing room for some years to come, but because of mismanagement and defective planning that are symptoms of fatigue, it is going to continue to drag its feet like this for a long time to come at the expense of the public, because there is nothing that will force it out of office, as long as it manages to come up with projects that will be short-lived. This will make it indisputable member of third world countries that are not doing enough to bring their nations and the dwellers out of the problems they are languishing in simply because they are doing things wrong. One of the reasons why governments would develop such anomalies is because of what had been scientifically proven where fatigue could lead any leadership to become stagnant. Because of that the rule of thumb is, no government should be allowed to stay in office for more than two terms, unless the general public has resigned from bringing about change and what is at the helm is a laissez faire working arrangement.