Poet Calls on Political Parties, Ethiopians to Prioritize Dam

Addis Ababa, May 27/2020(ENA) Prioritizing national interest over conflict among local political parties is crucial for the realization of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), an Ethiopian poet said.

The poet, Tagel Seifu told ENA that “we have an inclination of politicizing all activities of the government. A few years ago, some campaigned against artists who held performances in support of  the GERD mobilization campaigns.”

For the poet, the trend of politicizing and opposing all activities of the government or other actors should end for good.

“We have to avoid this trend of personalizing or associating national issues such as the GERD with PM Abiy and or the late Meles. We have had this attitude of mixing national interest with local politics in the past and the trend is still continuing today. Herein lies our problem.  Hadn't that being the case, GERD would have been completed earlier.”

Egypt's internal agents have been busy undermining our project by campaigning against our securing loans from foreign countries and international organizations, the poet stated.

Most pro-GERD Ethiopians were attacked for supporting the dam, the poet noted, adding that “ we should learn from our mistakes. Otherwise we will repeat them.”

The journalist and author, Tibebu Belete said on his part that Egypt has been using various mechanisms, including supporting opposition political parties and influencing the international community in various ways in order to fully control Abay.   

Egypt's main researches, studies and other educational activities have been mainly focused on how to control the source of Nile River and destabilizing Ethiopia by all means, he added.

“One of their strategy is disrupting peace and creating instability. There are different agents, internally or in foreign countries, that execute those strategies. Various internal conflicts were  hatched by Egypt so as to control Abay from its origin,” the author stated.

Ethiopia's major problem is poverty, according Tibebu. So, Ethiopian political actors should sit together and discuss about the major national interests.

The diversified cultures and language differences in the country should be unifying factors not causes of conflict, he noted.

In the past, he said that “there was a tendency to consider you as supporter of the political establishment when you make Abay your agenda. This  was of course partly due to the fact that some of the politicians took Abay as their fingerprint and victory. But this was long exposed.”

The Government of Ethiopia has reaffirmed that it will stick to its plan to start filling the dam beginning in July.