Ethiopia today is a “prison of nations and nationalities with the Oromo being one of the prisoners”, proclaimed the recently issued Declaration of the Congress of the Oromo Democratic Front (ODF).
This open-air prison is administered through a system of “bogus
federalism” in which “communities exercise neither self-rule nor
shared-rule but have been enduring the TPLF/EPRDF’s tyrannical rule for
more than two decades.” The jail keepers or the “ruling party directly
and centrally micro-manage all communities by pre-selecting its
surrogates that the people are then coerced to ‘elect’ at elections that
are neither free nor fair”. Ethiopians can escape from “prison nation”
and get on the “path to democracy, stability, peace, justice, and
sustainable development” when they are able to establish a democratic
process in which “all communities elect their representatives in fair
and free elections.”
The ODF is a “new movement” launched by “pioneers of the Oromo nationalist struggle” who “have mapped out a new path that embraces the struggle of all oppressed Ethiopians for
social justice and democracy.” Central to the collective struggle to
bust the walls and crash the gates of “prison nation” Ethiopia is a
commitment to constitutional democracy based on principles of “shared
and separate political institutions as the more promising and enduring
uniting factor” and robust protections for civil liberties and civil
rights. Shared governance and the rule of law provide the glue “that
will bind the diverse nations into a united political community” and
return to the people their government which has been privatized and
corporatized by the ruling regime “to advance and serve their partisan
and sectarian interests.”




