Excitement fills the air in Addis Abeba. News headlines compete to capture the feeling and essence of the project. Comparisons with shelved projects across the Sub-Saharan Africa are being made to further the magnanimity of the accomplishment. It all seems like there is nothing better happening in Ethiopia, a nation often portrayed as a hotbed of humanitarian crises. At the centre of all this is the newly operational Addis Abeba Light Rail Transit (AALRT) system, a 475 million dollar project.
Surely, there is much to be excited about. The AALRT is a welcome addition to the essential infrastructure that the city, long plagued by a chaotic public transportation system, has been vying for. It has come at the right time, if not a bit late, to have crucial economic impact on the growth of the city as well as the whole nation. Indeed, Addis Abebans have a reason to be enthused as they now have the AALRT system as an alternative to the mini-buses, buses and contract taxis.
Ever since the plan of the AALRT system was announced, many were skeptical about its realisation. Some were even overly pessimistic, considering it as one of the projectised mega beasts the statists on the throne would use to divert public attention and amass as much populism as possible. The dominant feeling at the start was suspicion.
For the Developmentalists in power, however, the plan was a fait accompli. They rightly knew how they would realise it and they even had a clear understanding on which doors to knock for financing it. Thanks to the partnership they have established with the Chinese, having a fat pocket of money and the expertise – the right ingredients were there to realise the first light rail system in East Africa.
It is not that other countries did not have similar plans. Many African countries, from Kenya to Nigeria, had the plan to have a light rail system in their overcrowded mega cities decades before. However, these plans did not go beyond the dusty shelves of policymakers. No one seems to have any idea about what happened to the plans of these countries.
The case of the Ethiopian state was different as there seems to be a growing ambitiousness in the state when it comes to developmental projects. And surely, the inclination is even more aggressive when it comes to infrastructure.
Ever since it attained policy clarity, after risky internal twists and turns, the ruling EPRDF has developed a strong affinity for infrastructure development. Not only has it rightly captured the economics of it, but it seems to have grasped its politics. A result of this closer love affair between the EPRDF and infrastructure development is the astounding expansion in key economic and social infrastructure, including roads, railways, airports, irrigation schemes, schools, health centres and so on.
At the resource side of the equation, the infrastructure expansion has boosted capital investment. A major chunk of the national budget goes to infrastructure development. This is complemented with a huge inflow of aid and external loans. The outcome is a nation witnessing historic expansion of infrastructure left and right, to the extent that Addis Abeba, the political and economic capital of the nation, is often described as a “construction site”.
It takes nothing more than fundamental understanding of political economy to judge that the ruling EPRDF is standing on the right side of history when it comes to unleashing the growth potential of the nation through infrastructure investment. It is one (if not the most important one) of the policy stances of the government, under the leadership of the EPRDFies, that no good opponent could dismiss as irrelevant, unjustified or uneconomic.
But the AALRT is even more than just another project. It is an important landmark that shows the pragmatism of the ruling EPRDFites. It shows not only how determined they are to push the walls, even when the wind is blowing against them, but it also bears witness to how self-confident they were to do some soul-searching.
Due to both internal policy confusion and external factors, such as the global power dynamics, the EPRDFites were adamantly against big infrastructure projects in the 1990s. Whenever the options of commercialised agriculture, large scale irrigation schemes, big hydropower projects and mass transit systems were raised, the ruling elite were quick to bash them as neoliberal recommendations. Their argument was that such projects could not live up to the reality on the ground. Their preference at the time was smallholder agriculture, small scale irrigation schemes, medium sized hydropower projects and bus services.
Times have changed and so have the ruling EPRDFites. Slowly but surely, the Developmentalists have obtained policy clarity and adjusted themselves to the demands of the time. Their pragmatism has placed them in a unique position to guide the local environment and optimise the benefits from the globalised one. It is this very hardheadedness that is seen in the realisation of the AALRT.
Now that the AALRT has started operations, the world has witnessed that the EPRDFites are indeed committed enough. They not only know what to do and when, but they have a clarity of purpose regarding why they are doing it and how to do it.
Even then, as they often say themselves, they are not a club of saints absolved from erring. They do err, and sometimes with huge margins, but they also get the job done.
Needless to say, many of the errors they commit relate to their statists inclination. They often provide inadequate attention to the human element in their plans. They overemphasise the economic impact and sideline the social aspects. In their journey to pick the economic fruit, they trample over key humanistic elements.
But if the job is infrastructure, they often get it done. And that is exactly what happened with the AALRT. The EPRDFites made many mistakes, from design to completion, but they got it done.
For Addis Abeba, the new LRT system is going to have huge benefits. It will reduce transport waiting time, facilitate business, ease mobility, positively impact settlement and considerably enhance connectivity. It is such a great reason to be excited.
There cannot be any better reason for Addis Abeba and its residents to be happy. As the saying goes, “patience pays duly”. Residents of the capital have waited, albeit painfully, and their waiting seems to have paid off.
Regardless of the errors such as the accurate nomenclature of stations, which can still be corrected, the Ethiopian Railway Corporation (ERC), the authority responsible for the LRT system, ought to be proud of its accomplishment.
Everyone involved in the AALRT system deserves applause. Let recognition go to all those who deserve it, from residents of the city to politicians, from contractors to consultants, from hardworking daily labourers to project managers and from financers to marketers. Their hard work has transformed a dream into reality. It is now time to dream more and do more!
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