Monday, July 7, 2025

O-Dispatch #17 - An Urgent Call to Oromo Loyalists: Oromia’s Future Is Not Inside Ethiopia’s Geographic Prison

 By Bantii Qixxeessaa

🎧 Listen to the Audio Version (8 minutes)



To my Oromo brothers and sisters who still place hope in the Ethiopian state, I write with urgency and sincerity. I understand your desire for peace, your hope for reform, and your fear of renewed conflict. But let me speak plainly: what is now being proposed in the name of “geographic federalism” and “economic integration” is not unity, it is Oromia’s political burial.

 Our nation did not struggle for generations to be renamed, redistricted, and reduced to an economic zone on someone else’s blueprint. Oromia is not a province. Oromia is not an economic corridor. Oromia is a nation. And nations have the right to self-rule, to define their destiny, and to stand free.

Geographic Federalism: A Blueprint for Dispossession

Those pushing “geographic federalism” speak of rivers, roads, and economic clusters—but say nothing of our rights, our history, or our justice. They seek to carve Oromia into meaningless zones that serve investors and central planners, while stripping the Oromo people of political power.

Today they redraw maps in the name of efficiency. Tomorrow they will sell our land to the highest bidder. Without sovereignty, economic promises are hollow. They will develop Oromia, but not for us—for others.

The Ethiopian State: Repackaging Domination

For over a century, the Ethiopian state has changed its clothing—from empire to republic to federation—but its core remains unchanged: domination by a privileged few over the oppressed majority. Today’s proposal of “geographic federalism” is merely the latest disguise.

This new scheme seeks to erase Oromia’s national identity and fragment our homeland into so-called “development corridors,” “river basins,” and “economic clusters.” It is an effort to place Oromia’s fertile lands, rivers, coffee fields, and mineral wealth under the control of a federal state that has never respected the Oromo people’s right to govern themselves. It is an attempt to dissolve the legal recognition of Oromia’s nationhood in the Constitution and replace it with powerless geographic zones that report to Addis Ababa, not to Oromia.

Make no mistake: geographic federalism is nothing but the old imperial map, redrawn for the 21st century.

Even Government Surveys Confirm the Oromo People’s Will

Despite being conducted by a government-affiliated body whose very purpose was to justify constitutional reform, a 2022 study by the Federalism and Diversity Management Policy Studies Center found the Oromo people’s will unmistakably clear.

The study revealed that 91% of Oromo respondents supported keeping the current ethno-territorial federal structure intact rather than dismantling it (FDRE Constitution After Three Decades, 2022, p. 61). Oromo and Somali respondents strongly opposed removing Article 39, the constitutional provision guaranteeing the right to self-determination and secession. In fact, they expressed strong support for retaining this right (FDRE Constitution After Three Decades, 2022, pp. 59–61).

If even a biased government study could not conceal the Oromo people’s demands, how much clearer must the truth be?

Oromo loyalists in the Prosperity Party, in the federal bureaucracy, and beyond, you cannot claim to represent the Oromo people while rejecting what nine out of ten Oromos have clearly and consistently demanded.

Staying Loyal to a Sinking Ship

Some of you argue that remaining in Ethiopia offers stability and economic opportunity. But I ask you to reflect honestly. Has the Ethiopian state protected Oromo children from poverty, violence, and displacement? Has Addis Ababa respected Oromia’s right to govern Finfinnee, our historical capital? Has the federal government defended our language, safeguarded our farmers, empowered our workers, or invested in our youth?

The answer is a resounding no.

What we have today is a federation in name but a prison in practice. And now, with efforts underway to remove Article 39 and redraw Oromia’s administrative boundaries, they are preparing to strip us of even the illusion of autonomy.

If we accept this new geographic arrangement, we will be reduced to second-class citizens in our own homeland. Our wealth will be extracted for others’ gain while we are left with token representation and no real control over our destiny.

Independence: The Only Guarantee of Freedom

Federalism has failed us. Reform has failed us. Dialogue has failed us. How much longer will we deceive ourselves into believing that we can fix an empire that was built on our oppression?

The only path to Oromo freedom, dignity, and prosperity is an independent state of Oromia. In an independent Oromia, Afaan Oromoo will no longer be treated as a mere regional dialect but will serve as the language of government, commerce, and education. In an independent Oromia, Oromo farmers will own and control their land, free from the interference of federal ministries or foreign investors. In an independent Oromia, Finfinnee will finally be recognized as the capital of Oromia, not as a federal enclave surrounded by Oromo suffering. In an independent Oromia, the Oromo people will set their own foreign policy, establish their own economic priorities, and determine their own national destiny.

This is not extremism. This is not isolationism. This is the right to self-determination, enshrined in international law through the United Nations Charter (1945, Article 1(2)) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966, Article 1). It is a right once promised in Ethiopia’s own Constitution (FDRE Constitution, 1995, Article 39).

A Final Appeal to Oromo Loyalists: Choose Your Legacy

To Oromo loyalists in the Prosperity Party, in the federal bureaucracy, in the armed forces, and elsewhere, I ask you: where does your loyalty truly lie? Is it with a state that has declared war on Oromummaa—your very identity? Is it with a regime that imprisons and kills your people for speaking the truth and fighting for their rights? Is it with a system that denies your people the ability to govern their ancestral homeland?

Or is your loyalty to the Oromo nation, whose survival and future hang in the balance?

No one will remember the salaries you earned or the titles you held within Ethiopia. But your children will remember whether you stood with your people when it mattered most.

The Future Is Sovereign

Let us be clear: we are not opposed to unity among nations. But unity cannot be built on the erasure of our identity or the theft of our homeland.

The choice before us is clear. If we remain in Ethiopia, Oromia will be carved into economic zones controlled from Addis Ababa, and our people will be reduced to mere laborers in an economy designed for others’ benefit. But if we stand for independence, we will have the opportunity to build a free, just, and prosperous Oromia for all who call it home.

The time for illusions is over. The Ethiopian state has shown us its true face. Oromia’s future lies not in endless promises of reform, but in the pursuit of freedom.

Oromia shall be free. Oromia must stand as a nation among nations.

 

6 comments:

  1. The national struggle for democracy just got started for real and the people of Oromia are given no choice but to be vanished as a Nation or fight back for the independent Republic of Oromia. This is a blessing in disguise!!!!.

    Cornering the people of Oromia will adversely deliver colonial system of Ethiopia a heavy blow that they will never recover from.


    Oromia shall be free with the sole purpose and sacrifice of Qeerroo/Qarree - the independence generation of Oromia.
    Long live WBO/OLA.

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  2. Excellent message!!!

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  3. Ethiopia federalism is under the dominance of ‘’ One Nation, One Religion & One language ”for almost 150 years. Oromia Under the colony ‘’ politically, Economically & Socially.
    Assimilation deliberately done with Oromo people, come into political power by the name of Oromo. Oromo never come to political power in Ethiopian History, Assimilated people with Oromo are playing the political game against Oromo.
    Oromo language & Oromo culture must be the Federal Language & federal Culture, then the freedom of Oromo realized.
    The present Situation worse for Oromo in comparism to the Past

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  4. This is absolutely true and amazing article. We need this true should be well-known by international community. Anyone who is loyal to Oromo, loyal to truth, loyal to everlasting peace in the horn of Africa should advocate on this issue. Please speak this again and again, until independent Oromia is established! Thank you very much for articulating this truth so that it minimize delusion and daydreaming of immature political activism.

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  5. Interesting wake up call for the greater Ormia nation!

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  6. The failure today has been contributed to by the lack of organizational commitment, visionary leadership, and coherent and sustained political strategy. The real illusion is thinking that the Ethiopian political actors are delivering independence to Oromia.

    ReplyDelete

O-Dispatch #18: You don’t get what you don’t demand: Why Tactical Silence on Independence Is a Risky Gamble for the Oromo Liberation Movement

( Don’t wait to demand independence until you are strong. Become strong because you demand independence.)   By Bantii Qixxeessaa 🎧 Li...