The upsurge of TPLF led regime to power installed ethnic politics and deconstruction of Ethiopian history with corporate corruption, ultra-vires and pseudo-federalism. The misappropriations of national assets added with autocratic nature of the regime procreated erratic political oppositions and protests since the party set on to power. The political marginalization at intra-party level also created split, which brought state elites in Amhara and Oromia regions to support the acute popular protest. These political scenarios have compelled TPLF to abscond into Mekelle and the coming of reformist leaders to power in 2018. This paper thus aimed to uncover TPLF’s political strategy in post 2018 Ethiopia by employing a qualitative case study with a secondary data obtained from Mass Media, commentaries and digitized outlets. The loss of key political positions and attachment of the regime’s wrong deeds to TPLF has bugging its elites after the coming of the new premiership. As counter to the reformist leaders, TPLF undertook huge militarization, destabilization and proxies, inducing popular fear, supporting like-minded regional oppositions to propagandize sensitive political issues to regain its lost prestige. This power rivalry created political absurdism, where political decisions and policies of the reformists had continued to be officially banned by TPLF in a way that disastrously impacted the survival of the state. Thus, it is important to undertake political reconciliation to freeze the prevailing political deadlocks for the continuation of the polity.
The recognition of commercial agricultural investment unfolded the allocation of land to investors for the production of different cash and food crops in Ethiopia. But anti-expropriation voices and subsequent vandalizing of investment sites have been mushroomed and become far reminder occasions in Ethiopia. This study, thus, tried to uncover the Political-Economy of land expropriation in Ethiopia: a focus on flower farms in Amhara region. A mixed research design was employed by involving primary and secondary sources of data gathered via interview, focused group discussion, questionnaire and document review. Then, the data were presented, analyzed and interpreted through statistics-by-themes and side-by-side jointly. In the study, land expropriation was carried out without genuine public consultation, ascertaining popular consent and written notification. And, compensation was paid to evictees albeit the valuation process was full of uncertainty and jumping. Moreover, flower farms have negatively affected the livelihood and food security of peasants, which in turn brought violence, tenure insecurity and strained government-society relations. This indicated that the expansion of commercial farming was not made vis-à-vis empowering the displaced people. Thus, evictees should be part of the development process for the sustainability and success of farms.
The recognition of commercial agricultural investment led to the expansion of large-scale farms through eviction of farmers during the Derg and Ethiopian People Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) regimes. But anti-dispossession voices and investment driven violence have frequently occurred in post-Derg Ethiopia. This study thus attempts to uncover the political-economy of land acquisition and privatization of Birr and Ayehu farms. The necessary data for the study were collected through interview, questionnaire, focused group discussion and document review. The data collected through questionnaire was analyzed using descriptive statistics and the qualitative data was analyzed thematically. The findings of the study indicated that the farms were began during the Derg regime as public enterprises, and later privatized to Ethio-Agri-CEFT in a neo-patrimonial modality with a gigantic trend of land acquisition, legal distortion and violation of landholding rights. This poor and neo-patrimonial operation of farms jeopardized local livelihoods, created land use change and evoked stiff public grievance, political upheaval and polarized state–society relations. This indicated that the expansion of farms have brought lopsided development to party affiliated investors by dismantling local livelihoods. Ethio Agri-CEFT thus should respect legal frameworks and adopt inclusive developmental practices for its sustainability and success.
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