At that time, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn made the unprecedented choice to resign because things were so bad. He did this as an act of accountability and hope that something better would emerge in his place.
But the data shows that it has gotten worse. People are afraid to say this because the risk of being punished by Abiy’s regime is real. But the data is clear:
War has exploded. Mass violence is devastating several parts of the country, and atrocities are being normalized. There’s more displacement now than ever before under HMD. The basic Constitutional duty to secure the country’s stability is failed.
Hunger and malnutrition have increased. Human suffering has expanded not reduced. Food is unaffordable or inaccessible to many millions of ordinary Ethiopians.
Inflation has nearly doubled, and the birr has lost nearly half of its value. Prices of basic goods have skyrocketed. Ethiopia’s growing economy has receded.
Othering language and genocidal discourse have been normalized in public. It’s now totally common to hear “others” called “enemies,” “weeds,” “cancers,” and “demons” from top officials fueled by Abiy’s own example. He boasts a PhD in Peace Studies, but he routinely violates the ABCs of avoiding mass violence. (It is known that Abiy did not write his PhD dissertation.) Dehumanizing discourse is the proven pathway to hellish violence, and this is exactly what we see in Abiy’s Ethiopia.
Abiy has overseen all of this with his charismatic smile, striking wardrobe, and stern resolve. He has dramatically beautified Addis for the few who can enjoy it and post pictures, because they have access to the Internet.
But this is not “prosperity.” It just is what it actually is: violence, hunger, insecurity, and suffering for ordinary Ethiopians across this beloved country.
Prosperity ideology stubbornly refuses to accept basic descriptions of reality. It always magically manages to say that things are getting better, healthier, happier — can’t you see? Facts are seen as a lack of faith, and it can be a mind-bending exercise that detaches people from reality. Hannah Arendt was the most insightful interpreter of this phenomenon.
But sometimes we must allow reality — real *people* — to be speak and show itself, to be seen and heard.
Abiy’s poverty-producing “prosperity” is the mirror image of the prosperity gospel: (1) it promises everything with certainty (health and wealth!) and (2) it demands absolute loyalty (don’t question us!), but (3) it delivers little and damages much — division, hunger, inflation, hate.
This is what empty prosperity ideology produces in churches and governments. It reminds me of when a family at church lost a relative to a drowning accident in a pool. The church didn’t know how to talk about it. So that terrible suffering was suppressed, and the message of health, wealth, and happiness addictively continued.
I felt so bad for this family: their loved one just drowned and died, but their community couldn’t talk about it or comfort them because it contradicts their ideology. This is the cruelty of false prosperity.
So, the charismatic Abiy smiles, speaks confident words, and takes beautiful photo shoots in beautiful places to temporarily sustain the illusion. And suffering, the crying, the hungry, the raped are conveniently silenced, erased, and forgotten. The drowning family is left behind, and insult is added to injury.
But the price is ordinary Ethiopians’ pain.
I realize that many of my friends feel a religious devotion to Abiy. He was hailed as the messiah, and they feel like God is on his side.
But this is the same corrupt pattern we see in our churches: untouchable “men of God” praised by an entourage of fans, and exploitation and trauma for the invisible and silenced “least of these” that Jesus loved.
Four years in, the facts speak for themselves: things are worse now under Abiy than when HMD resigned due to things being so bad. The country is more violent and more insecure with more suffering than before Abiy took office.
Of course, Ethiopia’s challenges are deep and complex. They will take time for anyone to seriously address and begin healing. There are no easy answers or quick fixes. All-inclusive dialogue is needed now — not imposed “answers.”
But Abiy’s promise of prosperity sounds more and more hollow, hard-hearted, and dangerously misleading. It’s the tired, dangerous replay of prosperity TV: the studio is amazing and the testimonies are inspiring, but everyone is afraid to say what they really think and hurting in their real lives offstage.
Still, Christian leaders now have unprecedented privilege with Abiy. And they are afraid of being punished by Abiy like they were afraid of Meles. Fear produces consent to injustice.
And so the cycle of EPRDF continues unchanged: Christian leaders are silent, accept people’s suffering, and hope for something better. They walk by the man left for dead on the roadside to get to the church and palace.
At some point, Abiy will no longer hold power — like HMD, like Meles, like every ruler. And the pattern will repeat: the religious leaders will talk about how dangerous and destructive Abiy and Prosperity were, just like they did after Meles and EPRDF in 2018. Abiy galvanized support by scapegoating his former bosses and colleagues; this cycle should be noticed and stopped, but it will likely repeat.
In many ways, life under EPRDF hasn’t gone away; it’s rebranded itself and gotten worse. The fear is the same, the violence has escalated, and the delivery of basic security is less competent and more impoverishing. Perhaps this is why Abiy so ferociously demonized EPRDF. It was oppressive and brutal and unjust, but it was more competent than Abiy’s regime.
Now is the time for moral leaders in Ethiopia to speak up and demand better from Ethiopia’s public leaders, starting with Abiy. The pattern of silence can be broken, as we’re learning from our Muslim neighbors who are now loudly condemning the massacre in Gondar.
People who speak out against Abiy’s damaging leadership will be deprivileged and punished. That is obvious.
But moral leaders are called by God to be the voice of the displaced, the hungry, and the dying. They should speak clearly and publicly that smiling over violence, feasting over hunger, and luxuriating over poverty is disrespectful and harmful for real Ethiopian people who want a better life. It dishonors God.
As St Augustine said about the Roman Empire, “Let us strip off the deceptive veils.” It is time for moral leaders to raise a voice of grief for loss, compassion for suffering, and critique of injustice. The deceptive veil of Abiy’s empire must be stripped off.
Ethiopians deserve better, but things are getting worse. May God comfort the suffering, have mercy on the dead, and inspire leaders to raise their voices with compassion.
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