According to Prof. Gebissa, the MoU was part of a Big Lie by Abiy intended to beguile the people of .Et.
1. A sovereign port
Prosperity Party officials, including the prime minister, assert that Ethiopia gained a sovereign port, a claim echoed uncritically by the Ethiopian media. The Somaliland president, sitting next to the prime minister, stated unambiguously that he agreed to a land lease to Ethiopia for naval operations for fifty years in exchange for Ethiopia’s recognition of Somaliland’s statehood. He did not mention granting a port to Ethiopia. If the Ethiopians’ claim of acquiring a sovereign port is true, officials should publish the MoU that both leaders signed. That would be the standard practice to announce a genuine agreement. The inconsistency could easily be clarified by disclosing the MoU both leaders signed, but the Ethiopian government seems intent on maintaining intentional ambiguity, possibly for political gains.
2. commercial maritime access
The prime minister goes even further, claiming the MoU fulfills his promise to recover Ethiopia’s lost ports and heals the resultant broken national spirit. The assertion is patently false.
And the tools being used re: Abba Gadha?
There is something egregiously sinister behind the Prosperity Party leader’s stunt. Aware of what he was planning to unfurl with Somaliland, Abiy Ahmed corralled some Oromo Abba Gadaas ostensibly to promote traditional institutional solidarity with their Somaliland counterparts. While Abba Gadaas may have believed they were involved in a noble cause, they were unwittingly engaged in Abiy’s double-think, living in one lie, and preparing themselves for the next one, all the while imagining that somehow some greater good is being served. Somehow, they became instruments for Abiy’s maneuver aimed at creating an alternative reality in which he would exploit the historic Oromo-Somali brotherhood.
Addendum:
An argument Somalis have not thought about, but could deploy re: Somali Galbeed. Tit for tat, and a deadly dose of his own concoction.
If the Prosperity Party government deviates from this stance and recognizes Somaliland as a sovereign state, Ethiopia will be opening the proverbial “
Pandora’s Box,” weakening its own legal position of opposing claims of self-determination in its own territory. For instance, if Somalia recognizes “
Western Somalia” (one of the historical designations for an independent state in the current Somali region),
Kenya recognizes Oromia, or
Eritrea extends recognition to Tigray, Ethiopia will not be able to invoke a legal principle it violated impudently.
We live in an era known as a 'post-truth' world, where 'alternative facts' replace actual facts, and intuitions carry more weight
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