Obama’s True Legacy: Propping Up Dictators

U.S. President Barack Obama
converses with Ethiopian Prime
 Minister Hailemariam Desalegn while
walking to board Air Force One
for his departure from Ethiopia
late last month.
(ZACHARIAS ABUBEKER/AFP/Getty Images)

August06, 2015

(Forbes) – By praising Ethiopia’s repressive regime for being “democratically elected” last week, President Obama was driving home once again something that should be abundantly clear by now: His administration marks a radical departure from previous ones when it comes to democracy promotion.

On the contrary, the Obama legacy will be one of propping up dictatorial regimes around the world. His praise for the government of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn merely took to Africa what Obama and his foreign policy team have already done on a grander scale in Iran, Cuba and Burma.

To be sure, President Obama was standing next to Desalegn at a joint press conference in Addis Ababa when he spoke. Maybe he didn’t want to be a bad guest. And the President did add that the Ethiopian government has “more work to do.” After a slew of criticism at home, he later also questioned why

If you want to lead, do better than Dr. Berhanu Nega and his compatriots

Professor Berhanu Nega,
'Patriotic Ginbot 7 Chairman

August 05, 2015

A genuine leaders is not a searcher of consensus but a molder of consensus –Martine Luther King

by Teshome Debalke

In May 21, 2011 when I wrote: ‘Why I admire Dr. Berhanu Nega?’ it wasn’t because I know the man personally. Nor it is his personality; tough you can’t help but appreciate his confidence as a true child of Ethiopia. I did care less about his background or what his profession means either. It defiantly wasn’t because he is against Woyane just for the sake of it. Nor, do I believe in personality cult that misled many from taking responsibility of their own on the important issues of our people.

Barack Obama! Tell the Truth About Ethiopia!

August 3, 2015

by Alemayehu G. Mariam

Warning!  

Stop!

Do not read further if you can’t handle the truth about Barack Obama. “Truth sounds like hate to those who hate the truth.”

“I speak my mind because it hurts to bite my tongue.”

Bite your tongue, Barack Obama!

When President Barack Obama visited Ethiopia last week, he shocked a lot of people by making the following  statement:

I don’t bite my tongue too much when it comes to these issues. We are opposed to any group that is promoting the violent overthrow of a government, including the government of Ethiopia, that has been democratically elected. We are very mindful of

Why Obama doesn’t understand the lust for power of our African leaders by Patience Akumu

Even before the dust could settle on President Barack Obama’s candid criticism of African presidents who manipulate their constitutions so that they can stay longer in power, Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni – once the west’s model of a truly democratic leader – was on his way again to contest the presidential seat he has held for 30 years. From Rwanda to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi to Zimbabwe, Africa’s big men replied to Obama: this oppression – the shackles, the poverty and indignity – are what the African people have chosen. Tedros Adhanom, the foreign minister of Ethiopia, home of the African Union, defended African leaders who cling to power, saying: “Because they made the law, they can change the law.”

Museveni was echoing the actions of Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and indeed all African leaders who have sought to manipulate the law for a chance at eternal presidency. Adhanom proposed that the extension of term limits was acceptable if it had popular support. It is this type of apologist politics that has kept Africa in its current state – a