Ethiopian Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed has an ambitious development agenda to activate his country’s role in the African continent. The landlocked country with a population of more than a hundred million people has a great potential for growth and development, especially in the field of agriculture.
Having deep experience of the problems of his country, the prime minister has a clear vision for peace building. He began by ending the historic conflict with the neighboring arch-foe, Eritrea, and signed a historic peace agreement with Asmara under Saudi auspices.
This agreement completely turns a dark page in the history of the Horn of Africa and opens the way for the Ethiopian leadership to realize its development vision primarily around the Renaissance Dam which besides generating the electricity needed by the country would constitute a cooperation and development project between Ethiopia and the downstream countries, Egypt and Sudan, should negotiations between the Nile Basin countries make progress.
The prime minister’s vision also led to the formation of a new government where women have won 10 ministerial portfolios representing half the number of ministers, something not easy to achieve in many African countries. Speaking to the parliament, Ahmed said that women will help fight corruption because they are more efficient and” less corrupt than men.”
Ahmed assigned the Ministry of Defense to a woman for the first time in the history of his country and Africa. The veiled Muslim woman was put in charge of overseeing security and control of the armed factions that led an insurgency in the east of the country.
Well aware of Ethiopia’s problems, Ahmed sees women as less corrupt and more efficient in fighting corruption, a serious challenge to development and opportunities for briningg foreign investment.
He also cut the number of ministries from 28 to just 20 including a new Ministry of Peace, peace-making being an important issue in a country that needs internal and regional peace-building capabilities. Ahmed assigned this ministry to former speaker of the parliament, Muferihat Kamil. She was put in charge of the intelligence and security, including the Federal Police Commission.
The fact that the ministries of defense, interior and intelligence have become the responsibility of women leaders reflects the leadership’s confidence in them and their success in carrying out the tasks assigned to them. Ahmed knows well the secrets of Ethiopian politics and made sure to pick the right people for position of great strategic weight such as defense and homeland security.
Ahmed is a high-ranking Ethiopian politician and an expert on his country. He has academic, military, security and political qualification and is admired and appreciated by his supporters and by his critics. He holds a doctorate from Addis Ababa University and holds a master’s degree from the US and the UK. He has previously served as a cabinet minister where he played a key role in establishing the country’s intelligence agency so he became well aware of the dimensions of what he is doing and opportunities for realizing his vision of development.
The young Prime Minister’s experience includes his former work in the military, security, party and parliamentary institutions, so he earned the trust of the people and the leaders. He is capable of helping his nation, a regional emerging power, turn into a hub for peace and security regionally and internationally.
