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Author\u2019s note<\/strong>: In my last \u201ccommentary\u201d (My Personal\u00a0Letter<\/a>\u00a0to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed), I promised to focus my future observations on issues and topics that will serve to promote peace, reconciliation, unity and the general well-being of the Ethiopian people. The time for recrimination, denunciation and diatribe is passed. The time now is to build up, to stand up and be counted, to give a hand up, to match up, to set up, to clean up, to let up, to link up, to shape up, to start up and to make up.<\/p>\n Back in my day, we used to sing, \u201cUp, Up with People<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n I am old school. After all these years, I am still signing that same old song, with only a slight change to the lyrics:<\/p>\n \u201cUp! Up with the Ethiopian people! It is time to stand up with the Ethiopian people!<\/p>\n In his inaugural speech, PM Abiy invited Diaspora Ethiopians to join him in helping address the myriad social, political and economic problems Ethiopians face and make their rightful contributions in the struggle against poverty, disease and ignorance. That is a great challenge many of us in the Diaspora are willing to accept. We are willing, able and ready to walk the talk.<\/p>\n For the past nearly 13 years, my principal concerns and efforts have been directed at improving the general human rights conditions in Ethiopia, advocacy on behalf of Ethiopia\u2019s youth, which represent at least 75 percent of the population, and promoting unity, peace and national reconciliation. We now have an opportunity for all of us to be on Team One Ethiopia.<\/p>\n As a political scientist, academic, lawyer, human rights advocate and even as a practitioner of the bureaucratic arts, I hope to share ideas in a variety of fields in my \u201cMemoranda Series\u201d. It is a professional hazard for professors to profess, teachers to teach and advocates to advocate. But my aim in the Series is not to lecture or be didactic. My aim is to provoke insightful, intelligent and critical discussions on a wide variety of subjects and topics relevant to the future of Ethiopia.<\/p>\n In Memorandum No. 1, I hope to spark thoughtful discussion and debate around the question, \u201cWhat kind of leadership does Ethiopia need today?\u201d<\/p>\n It is a timely topic because there are those who question PM Abiy\u2019s competence, fitness and sincerity to serve in office.<\/p>\n Suffice it to invoke the Amharic saying, \u201cIt is a simple thing for some one sitting down to point at the sky\u201d and declare it is easy to fly.<\/p>\n Leaders make a world \u2013 a country \u2013 of difference. For instance, as the 1994 election approached in South Africa, the country was at the crossroads. Its fate was a toss-up. White supremacists sought to spark a race war by engaging in terrorism and plunge South Africa into a destructive civil war. Ethnic factions were on the warpath. One man stood between civil war and civil peace.\u00a0 Nelson Mandela saved the day and peace and reconciliation reigned in South Africa. It is doubtful that any other person would have been able to do what Mandela managed to do.<\/p>\n Good leaders in Africa are as rare as hen\u2019s teeth. They may come once in a few generation if a society is blessed enough to have one. Many African leaders begin by aspiring to be good, fair and just. But good leaders become bad after they get a taste of power and get intoxicated. Power becomes a drug to them and they become addicted. They will do anything to cling to power. As their addiction becomes terminal, they assert absolute power. That is how power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.<\/p>\n In my study of leadership, I have learned that many new leaders begin with good intentions and in time get tunnel vision and lose sight of their original mission. They become complacent, arrogant, imperious and autocratic. The last 27 years are object lessons in this regard.<\/p>\n I have also learned that new leaders experience self-inflicted and external pressures and expectations. I believe such pressures are more intense on younger leaders. I do not believe 41-year old PM Abiy will be spared such pressures. Performing under pressure and conflicting expectations often results in mistakes, frustrations and even demoralization\u00a0 ultimately resulting in failure.<\/p>\n In offering my answer to the foregoing leadership question, I touch upon various issues, particularly those that I believe are likely to impact new leaders.<\/p>\n I am hopeful others will also address this question and share their views in the market place of ideas.<\/p>\n My blueprint for leadership in Ethiopia: The Mandela Model<\/strong><\/p>\n As I ponder over the types of leaders Ethiopia has had in the past, I cannot help but be distressed.<\/p>\n Historically, Ethiopian kings have assumed leadership by divine authority. They proclaimed they are subject to no earthly power nor will submit to any man-made rule of law because they were accountable only to divine will. They considered themselves the supreme earthly lawgivers. The common Ethiopian saying was, \u201cone cannot accuse a king or plough the sky\u201d (negus aykeses, semay aytares).<\/p>\n In recent history, military officers assumed leadership proclaiming \u201cdictatorship of the proletariat\u201d guided by the gospel and dogmas of the unholy trinity \u2013 Marx, Lenin and Engels \u2013 plunged the country into civil war and secession.<\/p>\n For the past 27 years, those in power have been preaching a sermon of leadership based \u201cnation, nationalities and peoples\u201d and used a strategy of divide and rule to cling to power. They have practiced the maxim, \u201cPolitical power grows out of the barrel of a gun.\u201d They declared, \u201cNo one will take away the power we got shedding our blood in the bush by dropping a ballot in an election box.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, we have a chance to have young leaders in Ethiopia who can break the old mold and make a new one forged out of a simple principle:<\/p>\n Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Yes, Ethiopia is blessed today to have young Nelson Mandela clones everywhere peacefully asserting their rights. They are using civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance to demand their rights and hold those in power accountable.<\/p>\n I believe PM Abiy Ahmed and Lemma Megerssa are Mandela-clones as is the million-man\/woman army of nonviolent revolutionaries.<\/p>\n My dream and wish for the past 13 years has been to see Ethiopia awash with Mandela-clones. Today, I see and hear them everywhere signing patriotic songs of Ethiopiawinet and preaching unity, peace, reconciliation, equality and justice for all.<\/p>\n My love and admiration for Nelson Mandela, the \u201csaint who was a sinner\u201d is boundless.<\/p>\n Mandela born in 1918 spent the best years of his life (1964-1990) in prison. He was in prison until he was 72 years old, when most people fade out into their golden years. Mandela never lost hope. He led South Africa to freedom, peace and democracy while he was in his 70 and 80s. It is true that age is nothing but a number.<\/p>\n Mandela had a wicked\u00a0sense of humor<\/a>\u00a0getting his message across: \u201cI went for a long holiday for 27 years\u201d he said talking about his prison days. \u201cIt was a time to stand away from myself and to look at our work although it was a tragic experience. But it was very helpful because we were able to greatly reassess our work and the mistakes that we have made, and our achievements and we came out better prepared.\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Mandela prepared South Africa\u2019s transition from apartheid to democracy while he was in prison.<\/p>\n I wish I had a chance to meet Nelson Mandela. I had so many questions to ask him, particularly about the poverty and bankruptcy of political leadership in Africa.<\/p>\n I \u201cactually\u201d met Nelson Mandela and interviewed him.<\/p>\n It was, unfortunately, in an\u00a0imaginary conversation<\/a>\u00a0I had with him on May 11, 2011.<\/p>\n That was a conversation entirely about leadership and why Africa is cursed with dictators, autocrats and despots.<\/p>\n When Mandela passed away in December 2013, I cried my eyes out.<\/p>\n I reached deep into my soul to express what he meant to me personally as a role model for a civic warrior and what he represented to Africa\u2019s youth in my \u201cFarewell, My African Prince<\/a>\u201d:<\/p>\n Nelson Mandela was a bridge builder. He built bridges across racial, ethnic and class divides. Nelson Mandela was a fireman. He saved the South African house by dousing the smoldering embers of racial and ethnic strife with truth and reconciliation. Nelson Mandela was a pathfinder. He built two roads named Goodness and Reconciliation for the long walk to freedom, and walked the talk.\u00a0 Nelson Mandela was an architect. He built a magnificent tower of multiracial democracy on the ashes of apartheid. Nelson Mandela was a magician. He pulled a white and a black dove out of a hat at once and let them fly free. Nelson Mandela was the greatest alchemist who ever lived. He transformed hate into love, fear into courage; doubt into faith; intolerance into compassion; anger into understanding, discord into harmony and shame into dignity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n As always, I frame my questions with what has become my obsession, Ethiopia\u2019s youth in particular and Africa\u2019s youth in general. \u201cWhat would the wise Lion of Africa say to the restless young\u00a0 Cheetahs of\u00a0 Ethiopia?\u201d, I\u00a0asked<\/a>\u00a0myself.<\/p>\n I believed his message to the young people would be dare to be great.\u00a0 Change yourselves first before you change society. Keep trying and never, never give up on the promise of creating a brave new Ethiopia. Come together.\u00a0 Be virtuous.\u00a0 Be patriotic.\u00a0 Be courageous.\u00a0 Dream big.\u00a0 Lead from behind.\u00a0 Expect trials and tribulations.\u00a0 Make peace with your enemy.\u00a0 Fight poverty.\u00a0 Never compromise on principles.\u00a0 Be optimistic and determined. Mandela would tell Africa\u2019s youth to be optimistic because Africa\u2019s best days are yet to come. Learn and educate the people. Never be indifferent. No easy walk to freedom, democracy, human rights. Always try to do good, to forgive, to reconcile\u2026<\/p>\n I believe the gold standard for leadership in Africa is Nelson Mandela.<\/p>\n PM Abiy and Ethiopia\u2019s Abo Shemanes: What is your blueprint for leadership?<\/strong><\/p>\n Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in an inspirational\u00a0speech<\/a>\u00a0entitled, \u201cWhat Is Your Life\u2019s Blueprint?\u201d (excerpted audio\u00a0here<\/a>) to high school students in Philadelphia in 1967 said:<\/p>\n If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.<\/p>\n Be a bush if you can\u2019t be a tree. If you can\u2019t be a highway, just be a trail. If you can\u2019t be a sun, be a star. For it isn\u2019t by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So, the question for PM Abiy Ahmed and Ethiopia\u2019s Cheetahs is, \u201cWhat should be the blueprint for leadership for a man called to be a prime minister? What should be the blueprint for leadership for Ethiopia\u2019s Abo Shemanes?\u201d<\/p>\n My quick answer is PM Abiy should be a transformational leader. Just like Nelson Mandela. The world today proclaims Mandela was the best moral and political leader just like MKL\u2019s humble street sweeper. Mandela too was a street sweeper. He swept the streets of South Africa of the curse of apartheid, racialism, discrimination and injustice. In my view, Mandela was the best street sweeper Africa ever had.<\/p>\n Let me briefly digress. If I were to answer my own question from a purely personal point of view, I would give the same answer Henry David Thoreau gave in \u201cCivil Disobedience<\/a>\u201d. \u201cThat government [leader] is best which governs [leads] least.\u201d<\/p>\n Thoreau distrusted government and had strong views on the moral obligations of the individual to determine right from wrong. He wrote, \u201cThe character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way.\u201d<\/p>\n I believe the character inherent in the Ethiopian people \u2014 their ethos, values, beliefs and practices \u2014 has done all that has been accomplished over millennia. They would have been able to accomplish so much more but for their leaders who have abused and oppressed them invoking divine right, ideological right or right by military conquest.<\/p>\n Like Thoreau, I am not for \u201cno government\u201d or no leaders, but for \u201ca better government [and better leaders]. Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it.\u201d<\/p>\n Just as Thoreau believed that the best government is one which governs least, I believe the best leader for Ethiopia is one who commands the respect of the people and leads the least. Just like Nelson Mandela who let the people lead from the front while he followed them from the rear.\u00a0He said, \u201cIt is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n I believe the best leader for Ethiopia is one who lets the young people lead in the front as s\/he follows them from the rear.<\/p>\n As to governments and leaders who do not fear their people and command their respect, I, like Thoreau, would urge civil disobedience as I have done for the past nearly 13 years.<\/p>\n So much for my personal preferences about governments and leaders.<\/p>\n The question is what kind of leadership and government could command the respect of the people of Ethiopia and earn their trust and confidence today?<\/p>\n Those of us whose professional occupation is to study government, politics and leaders know leaders come in different packages and follow different principles.<\/p>\n
\nYou meet \u2018em wherever you go,
\nUp! Up with the Ethiopian People!
\nThey\u2019re the best kind of folks we know.<\/p>\n