Dr. Abiy Ahmed Ali has worked for more than a year to bring peace both within Ethiopia and with Eritrea, introducing new reforms to the Ethiopian regime and battling regional disputes in order to move Ethiopia into the future.
“He spent his first 100 days as prime minister lifting the country’s state of emergency, granting amnesty to thousands of political prisoners, discontinuing media censorship, legalizing outlawed opposition groups, dismissing military and civil leaders who were suspected of corruption and significantly increasing the influence of women in Ethiopian political and community life.” said Berit Reiss-Andersen, chairperson of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee.
Dr. Abiy Ahmed become the prime minister of Ethiopia on 2 April 2018. Right of his appointment, he made it clear that he was going to change the status quo, bring down the old system and breathe new life into it. This unexpected movie garnered him the vote of the people but it earned him the animosity of those who were set to lose everything.
In his brief tenure as prime minister, he has brought an end to the decades old conflict with Eritrea, brought down the hegemony of EPRDF, loosened restrictive laws and actions on the freedom of speech, reorganized institutions to better adapt the ever changing world, ended media censorship, etc.
However, all these changes have come at a cost. Though the old system is being replaced there is much to be desired, nationalist movements are trying to stake their claim whether in peace or in violence, the remnants of the old rule are still fighting even in the face of defeat and the prime minister has faced three major coups d’état in his short rule.
Dr. Abiy Ahmed has paved the way for Ethiopia into the new world but the way is fraught with danger. The country itself stands at a precipice, either it survives as one nation or it falls into tribal conflicts and annihilate itself. However, the prime minister seems intent on forging the way forwards.
