February 24, 2022
By Borkena
Demeke Zewdu, a resistance icon for Wolkait identity question and a hero, on Wednesday revealed why he and members of the Wolkait Identity Question committee came to Addis Ababa. He dismissed the rumor that they were called by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
It was the Wolkait leadership that initiated the trip to Addis Ababa, according to Demeke Mekonen.
Why did they travel to Addis Ababa this time around? What exactly did they achieve from it and What is Abiy Ahmed thinking on the question of Welkait?
Demeke Zewdu called on all Ethiopians to stand in support of the Wolkait question. He also said that the idea of putting Wolkait up for referendum is unacceptable.
Abiy has a habit of making a slippery slope argument in his public appearance when he is planning to take an action that is against the interest of most Ethiopians. Just recently, a day before his government announced the release of key TPLF leaders who were captured in military operation, he trashed the justice system, and he used to claim a fundamental reform in the sector, as corrupt and made claims that there are aged and ailing prisoners just because they do not have activists that clamour for their release. The rhetoric happened to be on the day, or the day after, he spoke to Joe Biden on the phone.
This week, he talked about referendums as a tool to resolve problems when consensus is difficult or impossible with elites. He made it hard to guess that he was talking about Wolkait as he was remarking in connection with “National Dialogue.”
As it turns out, his government seems to have a plan to resolve the Wolkait issue through referendum which is an affront to those who have been demanding an end to imposed identity on Wolkait.
Watch Demeke Zewdu’s brief remarks.