Everybody knows he is not gaining any approval regardless of outreach. So what’s the benefit? What’s he getting out of this? I thought about this for a long time but I couldn’t figure it out. Then I asked the question from a different angle. What would he lose if he doesn’t do it the continuous way he’s doing it? I still couldn’t get it. So to answer my own question, I expanded my question.
What if I ask why Abiy does it but other rulers, say President Isayas, don’t do it. Then I immediately got the answer. Isayas already has absolute control of PFDJ, the entity behind the the bank, the army and security machinery so he doesn’t feel the need to play in endless drama to “prove” to them that he is indispensable for their own existence.
Abiy needs to constantly remind the OPDO, the ruling party, that they need him. They are his real audience of the well orchestrated town halls. He is creating an illusion for this audience that he is in charge when the same audience is constantly seeing with their own eyes the opposite is happening inside the party and across the land. It’s working for him so far. Or they are letting him believe it’s working for him until they figure a way to oust him.
If they haven’t already, it won’t be long for them to see the jig is up like Minister Taye did.
Research idea
the timeline of the Taye Dendea debacle and these town halls