By Mootii Baarboo
Obbo Leencoo Lata and Professor Birhanu Nega’s recent union to work in tandem to achieve their lifelong political goals seems to be a predestined marriage made in heaven. Marriages are often said to be arranged by a supernatural force and that of these individual is not different. The two interesting persons have much striking similarities as they possess differences, which make their union appealing to observers.
A neutral observer of their union would be baffled to see the common characters they possess to be suitable for the successful matrimony to occur between them. Their similarities include their deception, hunger for power at any cost and backstabbing of their comrades. The way both these grooms left their respective organizations, the OLF and Kinijt, demonstrates their true personalities. This common characteristic is unfortunately not enough for their marriage to last long
Now, a keen observer of their behaviours does not need to be a psychoanalyst to understand their personality disorders, egos and delusions. They are unpredictable in their political stance and swerve like a pendulum to fulfill their selfish, rather than their constituents’, interests. They promise their followers the earth knowing too well they can hardly deliver anything.
Their current union beggars believe because the two have irreconcilable and opposing views of the way Ethiopia should be governed. Of course Obbo Leencoo had declared his abandonment of Oromo liberation, a cause for which he scarified most of his life. Still, his current pontification of democratically based federal Ethiopian state is not what our learned Professor and his followers aspire to. For them, the solution to Ethiopia’s problems is to create a central system based on geographical, not ethnical, based government. This looks like a back door to the empire or socialist government periods of Hailesellassie or Mengistu. Surely, Obbo Leencoo, regardless of his notorious revision tendencies, would not go as far as accepting a system based on the Haile Sellassie or Mengistu. So, inevitably sooner rather than latter the matrimony will come to an end.
What puzzles me is not their union but the fact that they continue to confuse generation after generations. Good friends are there to offer advice, and if they are willing to take it I would say to them to give new people chance to take the helm and lead the organizations. They have to accept the world can exist without them being in the front seat. The ethos of democracy entails giving up power, when and as needed, and not to stick to it like the president of our recently liberated neighbor country.
The beneficiary from the would be ill-fated marriage of Obbo Leencoo and the good professor is the Woyane. For them, this is a godsend present because they can imagine that the marriage is not blessed and there is inherently little love between the grooms. In fact, it is fair to suspect if the Woyane or their agents were not the ones who facilitated the coming together of the individuals. After all rumor has it that each of these has not been far away from his so-called adversaries.
