Juneydi Saado, former president of Oromia regional state and cabinet minister, has recently resurfaced years after he fled Ethiopia following a fall out with authorities, and is creating a social media buzz with his interviews. Here is why I don't buy his posturing as a dissident of sorts:
1. He is presently lamenting at length about the monopoly of power by the TPLF in the EPRDF coalition but it doesn’t take decades to come to the realization that this is the case. A casual observer of Ethiopian politics can tell who the string pullers are with far less time, let alone someone who knows the inner workings of the party as much as Juneydi does. He had been a loyal servant of the TPLF for far too long and there is no way their tyrannical nature suddenly occurred to him in the twilight years of his political life with the EPRDF. He is no Young Turk.
2. In his VOA, OMN and ESAT (part 1) interviews, he wasn't taken to task for flip flopping on the issue of TPLF dominance. There is an interview of him from 2007 (listen below) where he had said such claims were totally unfounded and many more intriguing stuff. That interview alone debunks his recent declaration that he had been an advocate for change from within the party.
3. With the passage of time, memory fades but let's not forget how cruel some of his statements had been. When questioned as to why security forces shot students in the head in 2002, he'd said
“…….the two students that were shot in the head were struggling to wrestle the gun from authorities. This is illegal. They could be shot anywhere [on their bodies]. This could happen again.......anyone who tries to overtake a police officer could be shot and will be shot in the future. I want to assure you of this…….”
He made up such blatantly false accusations against innocent students for the consumption of gullible diplomats and to deceive the unsuspecting public. He was equally harsh with his statements when more than 300 Oromo Addis Ababa University students were dismissed. I watched Lemma Megersa’s round-table with elders last week. His hidden motives aside, at least Lemma treaded carefully with his words when talking about protesters.
4. Much as Juneydi now tries to appear sympathetic to the current protests, his dismissal has nothing to do with the Oromo nationalism running through his veins, as he would have us believe. In his own admission, he fell out with the EPRDF leadership for soliciting financial support from the Saudi Embassy for a project very personal to him and his family. If there is any other reason for the fall out, he has not made a convincing case for it.
5. He has not revealed anything that isn't public knowledge. As a senior politician with decades of experience under his belt, one can fairly assume that he had been privy to the corruption, nepotism, political favouritism, illicit business deals and financial activities at the top echelons of government. He has not revealed anything remotely interesting. When questioned about his own land-related indiscretions, he quickly took a leaf out of Azeb Mesfin's book and said he couldn't even pay his household utility bills. That's comedy gold.
6. He has been living in the US for close to three years now but his reasons for not speaking out at the earliest opportunity are so flimsy and inadequate. He says he had to wait until his immigration status had been sorted. In simple language he chose to wait presumably until he had been granted asylum. He didn't find all the atrocities taking place in Oromia since 2014 compelling enough to approach the media earlier than he did. Instead, he chose to remain silent calculating possible scenarios in case his application was rejected. He was already safe in the US and could speak out while his application was being processed but he waited until his safety was absolutely guaranteed with a 'resident card'. Despite overly professing possession of 'quuqama sabaa', he had been able to resist the urge to speak out (if he had any) for quite a while. It would be more understandable if he said his reasons were to protect the safety of his family back home.
7. His re-emergence from political oblivion to centre stage just in time when the Oromo protests have peaked smacks of political opportunism. He didn't need to share the spotlight with the Oromo protests or detract attention away from them. Why now? It remains to be seen if he's after a bumper book deal or positioning himself to lay a claim on the current struggle against the government. But the timing seems calculated.
In his interview with the OMN, he said he would continue to fight for the Oromo for as
long as he lived. The jury is out but it's doubtful that he came forward in good faith
or that he genuinely cares about the cause that the Qeerroo are now putting their lives on the line for. If Oromo dissidents in the diaspora are considering to extend him an olive branch and take him into their inner circle, it will be at the risk of compromising themselves. Defection from a totalitarian regime is praiseworthy but there is a gulf between
defection and opportunism.
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