Abiy Ali is an Ethiopian politician serving as the 4th Prime Minister (PM) of Ethiopia’s Federal Democratic Republic since 2nd April 2018. He was the 3rd chairman of the ruling EPRDF (Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front) from the ODP or the Oromo Democratic Party. Abiy Ahmed is an elected member of the Ethiopian Parliament and a member of the Oromo Democratic Party and the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front executive committees. Abiy Ahmed achieved the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for stopping or ending the 20-year post-war territorial stalemate between Eritrea and Ethiopia.
His Personal Life
Abiy was born in the town of Beshasha, located near Agaro, Ethiopia. Ahmed Ali, his deceased father, was a Muslim Oromo, while Tezeta Wolde, his dead mum, was a Christian Oromo. Abiy’s dad was an ideal Oromian farmer and could only speak Oromo, while Tezeta Wolde was a fluent speaker of Amharic and Oromo. Abiy Ahmed is the 13th child of his father, the 6th and youngest child of his mother, and the 4th of his father’s four wives. His childhood name was Abiyot. Abiyot in English means Revolution. The then Abiyot attended the local primary school and afterward continued his studies at secondary schools in Agaro town. Abiy Ahmed was very interested in his education, and later in his life, he encouraged others to learn and improve.
Abiy Ahmed married Zinash Tayachew, an Amhara woman from Gondar while serving in the EDF (Ethiopian Defense Forces). They are the parents of more than two daughters and one adopted son.
Abiy Ahmed is multilingual and speaks Amharic, Afaan Oromo, Tigrinya language, and English. Abiy is a fitness aficionado and professes that physical health goes hand in hand with mental health, and as such, he spends time at the gym and physical activities in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. Abiy Ahmed is a devout Evangelical Pentecostal Christian of the Full Gospel Believer’s Church.
Abiy Ahmed is also a devout Protestant, born of a Muslim father mentioned earlier and n Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Christian mum. Abiy Ahmed grew up in a family of religious plurality. Abiy Ahmed and his family are regular church attendees. Abiy Ahmed occasionally ministers in teaching and preaching the Gospel at the Ethiopian Full Gospel Believers’ Church. Abiy Ahmed underscores the significance or importance of faith, and as a result, all the faith communities are enjoying greater freedom in his tenure.
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The Education of Abiy Ahmed
While serving in the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF), Abiy Ahmed got his 1st degree, a Bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from the Microlink Information Technology College in Ethiopia’s capital in 2009. Abiy Ahmed holds a Master of Arts in transformational leadership earned from the business school at Greenwich University (London) in collaboration with the International Leadership Institute in 2011.
Abiy Ahmed holds a Master of Business Administration from the Leadstar College of Management and Leadership in Ethiopia’s capital (Addis Ababa) in partnership with Ashland University in 2013. Abiy Ahmed, who had begun his Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy) work as a regular student, claims to have finished his Ph.D. thesis four years ago (2017) at the Institute for Peace and Security Studies.
Abiy Ahmed did his Ph.D. work on the Agaro constituency with the Ph.D. thesis entitled ‘Social Capital and Its Role in Traditional Conflict Resolution in Ethiopia: The Case of Inter-Religious Conflict in Jimma Zone State.’
The Military Career of Abiy Ahmed
As a teenager and in 1991, Abiy Ahmed joined the armed struggle against the Marxist-Leninist regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam after his oldest brother’s demise or death. Abiy did so as a very active member or participant of the ODP. As there were only so few ODP soldiers in the army with its core of approximately 90000 Tigrayans, Abiy Ahmed had to learn the Tigrinya language quickly.
After the Derg collapse, Abiy took formal military training from Assefa Brigade in West Wollega and got stationed there. Later on, in 1993, Abiy became a soldier in the present-day Ethiopian National Defense Force and worked in the communication and intelligence departments. 2 years later (in 1995), after the Rwandan Genocide, Abiy Ahmed got deployed as a member of the United Nations Peace Keeping Force.
In the Ethiopia-Eritrea War (between 1998 and 2000), he led an intelligence group to find or discover the Eritrean Defense Forces’ positions. Later on, Abiy Ahmed got posted back to Beshasha, his hometown, where he had to address a critical situation of inter-religious conflicts between Christians and Muslims with several deaths. Abiy Ahmed brought calm and peace in the event of communal tensions following the wars. In later years, he continued with these efforts to bring about reconciliation between the faiths or religions via the Religious Forum for Peace.
In 2008, Abiy Ahmed was one of the Ethiopian INSA co-founders (Information Network Security Agency), where he worked in several positions. For more than a year, he was acting director of the Information Network Security Agency because of the director’s leave of absence. In this capacity, Abiy Ahmed was a board participant of various government agencies working on communications and information, such as the Ethiopian Television.
Abiy Ahmed achieved Lieutenant colonel’s rank before deciding (in 2010) to withdraw from the military and his post as Deputy Director of Information Network Security Agency to become a politician.
Abiy as Ethiopia’s PM (Transparency, Foreign Policy, Cabinet Reshuffle, and Security Sector Reform)
On 2nd April 2018, the Ethiopian Parliament confirmed and swore in Abiy Ahmed as Ethiopia’s prime minister. During his acceptance speech, he promised positive political changes. He also pledged to promote the unity of Ethiopia and unity among the Ethiopian peoples.
Abiy also said that he would reach out to the Eritrean government to resolve the ongoing border conflict after the Eritrean-Ethiopian War and reach out to the political opposition outside and inside Ethiopia. His acceptance speech triggered optimism and got a positive reaction from the Ethiopian public, including the opposition groups outside and inside Ethiopia. Following his speech, Abiy’s support and popularity across the state reached a high. Some political observers even argued that Abiy Ahmed was more popular than the EPRDF, the ruling party coalition.
In 2018, to increase or expand Ethiopia’s free press, Abiy Ahmed invited exiled media outlets to return. One of the media outlets invited to return was ESAT. Since assuming office in April 2018, Abiy Ahmed had only given a single press conference where he answered several journalists’ questions. As of 21st March 2019, Abiy Ahmed hasn’t given another press conference where he hasn’t refused to answer journalists’ questions. According to the NGO’s Human Rights Watch (Committee to Protect Journalists and Amnesty International), Ahmed’s government has since mid-2019 been apprehending or arresting Ethiopian journalists and closing media outlets except for ESAT.
On foreign policy in May 2018, Abiy Ahmed went to Saudi Arabia, getting guarantees for the release of Ethiopian prisoners, including Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi, a billionaire entrepreneur, whom authorities detained following the 2017 Saudi Arabian purge. In June 2018, Abiy met with Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the Egyptian Head of State, in Cairo and separately brokered a meeting in Addis Ababa between Salva Kiir, the South Sudanese President, and Riek Machar, in an attempt to encourage peace discussions or talks.
In June 2018, Abiy Ahmed, talking to senior commanders of the Ethiopian National Defense Force, declared his intent to carry out changes or reforms of the military to enhance its professionalism and effectiveness to limit its role in the political grounds. Besides, he has also called for the eventual reconstruction of the Ethiopian Navy, dissolved way back in 1996 in the aftermath of Eritrea’s secession after an extraterritorial sojourn in Djibouti.
On 7th June 2018, Abiy Ahmed carried out a wide-ranging reshuffle of top or high-ranked security officials, replacing Samora Yunis, ENDF Chief of Staff, with Se’are Mekonnen, a Lieutenant General. He also replaced National Intelligence and Security Service Director Getachew Assefa with Lieutenant General Adem Mohammed.
In the parliamentary session on 16th October 2018, Abiy Ahmed suggested reducing the number of ministries from about 28 to twenty with half of the cabinet positions for female ministers, a 1st in the country’s history. The new cabinet restructures included the 1st female President, Sahle-Work Zewde. It also had the 1st female minister of the Ministry of Defense, Aisha Mohammed, the 1st female Minister of the new Ministry of Peace, Muferiat Kamil accountable for the Ethiopian Federal Police and the intelligence agencies; the 1st female press secretary for the Office of the PM, Billene Seyoum Woldeyes.
The Awards of Abiy Ahmed
Abiy Ahmed has achieved several awards. Some of these are the Order of the Zayed Medal, High-Rank Peace Award, Order of King Abdulaziz, 100 Most Influential Africans Award of 2018, African of the Year, and 100 Global Thinkers of 2019.
Others are Personality of the Year (1st January 2019), African Excellence Award for Gender, Humanitarian and Peace Maker Award, Peace Award for Contribution of Unity to Ethiopian Muslims, and the World Tourism Award. The Hessian Peace Prize and the African Association of Political Consultants Award are among Abiy’s most outstanding achievements.
