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The prime minister’s applaudable Response and the 3 Fundamental Criteria Every Decision must pass.

The diaspora community has been partly in a state of  confusion and upset because of the government’s recent decision to drop the charges of criminal prisoners including Sibhat Nega,  the founder of TPLF. Prime minister Abiy has cleared up most of the confusions on Fundraising Dinner party Sunday 16, 2022.  He underscored that all of the government’s measures are expected to strictly meet the following 3 fundamental criteria.

The first of such criteria is sovereignty.  The second and the third are the national interest and honour.

Every measure or decision we make must pass the sovereignty criteria.  We never put the sovereignty of Ethiopia for negotiations no matter what prime minister underlined. We weigh up the advantages or benefits of a particular measure against its disadvantages or benefits. We as a government have maintained our integrity in protecting the sovereignty of Ethiopia as you can witnessed he added.

No decision should pose a threat to our sovereignty. Similarly,  in our second criteria or the national interest,  we analyse what national interest the decision we make will have. Or does it affect our national interest?  The third criteria is national honour.

Although Ethiopia is poor,  it is a big country with great history and culture who stayed for long honourably. So this honour  must be maintained in all our measures and decisions. There is huge difference between us as a government and TPLF but we have no difference with the people of Tigray. We have always worked hard to honour this great nation pm explained.

The prime minister’s explanation can be summarised in the following 2 major areas.

Firstly,  Abiy wants to show the public that any of his government’s decision at any time is designed to make sure that it passes the sovereignty,  the national interest and the national honour test to move forward.  Failing in any one of the criteria would mean failing in all the 3 and it would be scrapped.  The government hasn’t violated but has taken all the set criteria into account seriously on its decision to release the prisoners.  The other thing he is asking the public is to put its trust in his government. Trust is the key,  without which it is impossible to realise peace and development we desired for Ethiopia.

On the other development, there was a push to change the location of the AU summit from Addis Ababa citing COVID-19 spread and security situation. The 1 million Diaspora Homecoming has also played crucial role in changing the atmosphere and the African leaders decided to hold the AU Meeting. Recently PM Abiy lauds them for deciding to hold AU Meeting in Addis Ababa.  He appreciated the African leaders’ commitment and choice to convene the AU summit in Ethiopia.