Content: Fineline

Abiy Ahmed (PhD) may not be the youngest politician to rise to power in Ethiopia. But gossip observed that he is probably the first to have won such a popular acceptance and adoration crossing many dividing lines in Ethiopia`s rather polarised society. The overwhelming reaction to his inaugural address before parliament is almost too good […]

It is not an easy task to decipher what just happened in the world of the Revolutionary Democrats` last week. It is too early to pass the verdict on whether the ascendance to power of Abiy Ahmed (PhD) signals the end of democratic centralism within the EPRDF or ushers a new era of inner-party democracy, […]

On Monday comes a day of reckoning for the Revolutionary Democrats, gossip says. They may have had a couple of such moments in their history of nearly 30 years. But none could parallel the kind of fragmentation and paralysis in leadership they have been going through over the past five years. It may have come […]

There is sometimes a bright side to severe crises, even the kind which the Revolutionary Democrats are confronted with, gossip observed. They can draw a sense of pride in their accomplishments in making the public, including their friends and foes, captivated by their internal organisational affairs and by the manner in which they elect their […]

It is a rarity for a developing country like Ethiopia to host foreign ministers from three countries within a week, unless they gather for a state conference of sorts. When two of these ministers are among the most powerful contending powers in the world, the purpose of their visits is a subject of intense speculation […]

The delicate state of affairs in the Revolutionary Democratic camp is becoming more obvious in the leadership`s indecisiveness to hold the series of meetings of the Front according to their regular schedule, according to gossip. Gossip also has it that realism dictates upon them to make postponements of the order of the day. First was […]

In the nearly 30-year history of the Revolutionary Democrats, they have been through the thick and thin. Theirs have been a history of mostly triumph and few periods of tribulations. One of the rare but consequential moments are just around the corner, gossip foresees. Another moment of reckoning has arrived, following the expected but surprising […]

Last week would pass as the most consequential time in Ethiopia`s political history since the mid-1970s right before the deposition of Emperor Hailesellasie`s government. So much happened within a few days; from the release of prisoners to the resignation of the Prime Minister and the reinstatement of a state of emergency. Gossip foresees many dramatic […]

For a change, a component body of the ruling EPRDF concluded its top leadership meeting last week, issuing a communiqué whose content shows a significant departure from tradition, gossip noted. If judged only by the letters in the statement, the OPDO is becoming a force for reform in the Revolutionary Democratic camp, claims gossip. The […]

No doubt this year will pass as a time of endless marathon meetings by the ruling party’s rank and file, while the public discontent will have no reason to subside, gossip foresees. Taking the recent high-level “criticism and self-criticism” sessions of the TPLF as a standard bearer, each party in the ruling coalition is going […]

In all these years of the EPRDF rule, there are a few controversial subjects as much as the history and role of the endowment companies that are active in the national economy, claims gossip. Beginning with the Endowment Fund for the Rehabilitation of Tigray (EFFORT), which was established in the summer of 1995 with seed […]

The TPLFites have congregated, once again, up in Meqelle, a town many of its residents fondly call the Northern Star. It is a meeting of the mid-level and senior cadres of the TPLF, a force to reckon with by the top leadership of the party. It is this constituency, no larger than 600 of the […]

Coming out of longer than two weeks of ordeal by the Executive Committee members of the EPRDF, the Revolutionary Democrats have begun the struggle to meet the tall order of inflated public expectations, gossip observed. To a somewhat animated public, at least in the urban centres, attritional statement at the end of the unusually long […]

It is an understatement to describe the expectation as tremendous but held by many across the capital on the ongoing Executive Committee meeting of the EPRDF. The longing is that it would conclude with decisions no less perceptible in their consequence, gossip observed. Indeed, many within and outside the ruling party agree with the scale […]

It would be expected of the heads of multilateral finance organisations to be concerned of macroeconomic stability in member countries. They have to ensure the money they lend in generous terms, collected from the international community, would be paid back, if not in time. But the kind of stability issue, or lack thereof, that has […]

History, to Oscar Wilde, is “merely gossip.” And here is a little gossip about the historical roots of the recent high-level meeting by the TPLFites, whose original aspiration was to establish a socialist order before they abandoned it in 1991. Their founders, no more than 11, took up arms to topple up a military junta […]

If politics is the art of compromise, that is what happened in the town of Meqelle last week. Senior leaders of the TPLF, the principal partner in the ruling EPRDF coalition, have managed to reshuffle their leadership, in the manner that is a compromise of forces on both sides of the aisle, claims gossip. Those […]

Yet another week, the TPLFites have mustered in Meqelle trying to sort out what ails their leadership. Resumed last Tuesday, the meeting by members of its Central Committee focuses on “criticism and self-criticism,” of its senior leaders, a leftist tradition of individual redemption through pulling the plug on someone and confession. So far, the process […]

For the first time in a long while, the political bureau of the TPLF issued a communique late last week which frankly and candidly represents the internal dynamics of a political force that has claimed centrality among the Revolutionary Democrats for over two decades, gossip claims. Released at the conclusion of the Front’s marathon meeting […]

The first troubling signs that Mohammed Ali Al-Amoudi (Sheikh) may, after all, have faced trying times was on November 4, 2017. It was mid-day on Saturday when the newly built headquarters of the Dashen Bank, where some of his companies own majority shares, was to be inaugurated, graced with the presence of President Mulatu Teshome […]

In the nearly 20-year history of Ethiopia’s parliament, a show of defiance and public expression of dissent is a rare occurrence. That is except for the few opposition MPs who employed the legislative platform to bite on the most powerful incumbent. A few times there was dissent from within when an MP from the Somali […]

It is one thing to have a palace staff getting off the rail in New York. It is a whole different ballgame to deal with a series of resignations by veteran Revolutionary Democrats, whose places in the EPRDFites have so much to reckon with, claims gossip. And when one of these attributes his resignation to […]

Ever since the impeachment of Tamrat Layne, an EPRDFite who had served as a Prime Minister during the transitional government, Ethiopia’s House of Peoples’ Representative has been devoid of drama. It has had speakers who believed Parliament is not a place of squabbles, but a place for serious business of the public’s undertaking. Lately, though, […]

The rank and file of the Amhara Peoples’ National Movement (ANDM) concluded its congregation two weeks ago. Gossip sees it as a defining moment for the party since its rebranding in the early 1990s, from its original form as a leftist guerrilla movement fighting a military junta, in the 1980s. Debating on issues of “ideological […]

The Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM), the ruling party in the Amhara Regional State, has completed its conference in the town of Bahir Dar for middle and high-ranking leaders. It was one of a kind in a way; the agendas tabled at the conference were far from listening to the general progress and performance reports […]