The Federal Government of Ethiopia didn’t sideline the people of Tigray from federal government ministerial positions and has no intention to do so in the future, said Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia.
He made the response this afternoon responding to a Member of Parliament at the session broadcasted live on the state broadcaster – ETV. Responding to an allegation that Tigray officials are being sacked from federal government posts. Prime Minister Abiy noted that his administration didn’t and has no intention at all to sideline the people of Tigray from federal government senior posts.
There are still over ten state ministers and officials who are from Tigray, according to PM Abiy. One minister is sacked from a position…But the number of people Tigray is still the same …He stressed that Prosperity Party is the legal inheritor of the dissolved ruling coalition Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). Likewise he said, in Tigray Region because TPLF has the majority vote, TPLF is the ruling party.
He also indicated that had Prosperity Party considered the TPLF as an opposition, it has the right to appoint any other person for any position. But he said, there is no intention by Prosperity Party to sideline the TPLF from the federal government senior positions.
The allegations of deliberate sidelining of people from Tigray region from federal high ranking positions has been circulating over the past few days after he recently sacked the Minister of Trade of Ethiopia who was from Tigray Region.
After the EPRDF, which was the brain child of the TPLF, has elected the reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed from Oromo ethnic group about two years ago, TPLF has been acting as an opposition party within the coalition almost criticizing every decision of Abiy’s regime. Abiy who admitted engagement of the ruling coalition in terrorist activity and apologized immediately after taking the office, has began cracking the old TPLF dominated regime, which he characterized today as era of state capture, which is the major causes for most of the problems Ethiopia is facing today.
When the EPRDF formed the Prosperity Party dissolving three of the four members of the coalition, (TPLF) has decided to isolate itself from the Prosperity. Following that TPLF, has launched a new ‘forces of federalist’ involving similar minded hardliners from different ethnic groups.
As the country is preparing to hold its general election sometime this year (around July 2020 tentative schedule), Prosperity Party, the opposition coalition known as, EZema led by Dr. Berhanu Nega, the in the making hardliners and ethnic politics promoters front that includes the TPLF, Oromo Federalist Congress, which is recently joined by the popular Oromo activist Jawar Mohammed, are expected to be the three major competitors.