Dr. Ahmed Abiy, the new chairman of EPRDF who is set to become the new prime minister of Ethiopia
The ruling party coalition in Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front, (EPRDF), has elected it’s new chairman who who will replace Hailemariam Desalegn who submitted letter of resignation several weeks ago.
The voting was made last night by the 180 members of the coalition, which has 45 senior leaders from each of the four member parties of EPRDF. The coalition has elected Dr. Abiy Ahmed of the Oromo Peoples Democratic Organization (OPDO), who most likely will become the new primer of Ethiopia.
All previous practices of the party suggests that the chairman of EPRDF become prime minister of the country by default after brought to Parliament for approval.
The 180 mebrrs EPRDF Council has been conducting it’s meeting for the past two weeks before concluding it by electing the new chairman.
Many people on social media are congratulating the Party for taking seriously the advices of many and appointing Dr. Abiy Ahmed, who is from the Oromo party in the coalition.
The move is expected to reduce or even stop the political tension in the Oromia Region, which has forced the regime to introduce a state of emergency after Hailemariam announced his plan to resign.
Meanwhile the new position is also not going to be easy for Dr. Abiy as it takes a lot of effort and the willingness of all political groups for a national consensus in a country already divided ethnically.
Who is Dr. Abiy
Dr. Abiy Ahmed is chairman of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and the current Chairman of OPDO (Oromo
Peoples’ Democratic Organization), which is one of the four coalition
parties of the ruling EPRDF (Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front).
Abiy is also currently an elected member of parliament of the FDRE (Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia), and a member of the executive committee of Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). Until 2018, he served as the head of OPDO Secretariat and Oromia Housing and Urban Development Office with the title of Deputy President of Oromia Region, one of the nine regions of Ethiopia.
He grew up in multilingual and multireligious family household where his father, Ahmed Ali, is an Oromo Muslim and his mother a Christian, according to his public profile on Wikipedia.
As a teenager in 1991, he joined the armed struggle against the Derg Socialist Regime and was a soldier in the coalition army that resulted in Derg’s fall in 1991.[7] After the fall of the Derg, he took formal military training from Assefa Brigade in West Wollega and was stationed there. His military post was in intelligence and communications.
While Serving in the military Abiy received his first degree in Computer Engineering from Microlink Information Technology College in Addis Ababa in 2001.
In 2005, Abiy completed his post-graduate advanced diploma in Cryptology, Machine Dynamics Cipher-ED Pretoria, RSA (Republic of South Africa) (AES encryption based on block cipher “the system which encrypts and decrypt a data communication between two parties”).
Abiy also holds an MA, Transformational Leadership and Change with Merit, Greenwich University, London in collaboration with International Leadership Institute, Addis Ababa in 2011. He also holds an MBA from Leadstar College of Management and Leadership in Partnership with Ashland in 2013.
Abiy completed his Ph.D. in 2017 from Institute for Peace and Security Studies at Addis Ababa University. He did his Ph.D. work on Agaro constituency entitled “Social Capital and its Role in Traditional Conflict Resolution in Ethiopia: The Case of Inter-Religious Conflict In Jimma Zone”.
