Page 40 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 14
P. 40

Leadership



                                                                                After President Lincoln affirms his
                                                                                commitment to defeat the southern
                                                                                rebels at all costs, he compassionate-
                                                                                ly pleads for peace.

                                                                                “With malice toward none, with charity for
                                                                                all, with firmness in the right as God gives
                                                                                us to see the right, let us strive on to finish
                                                                                the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s
                                                                                wounds, to care for him who shall have
                                                                                borne the battle and for his widow and
                                                                                his orphan, to do all which may achieve
                   Ethiopia and its seven neighboring countries                 and cherish a just and lasting peace among
                                                                                ourselves and with all nations.”
          outside of the box, not confined   cient birthplace of Ethiopia, must
          to geo-politics. To alleviate nations   come to end as soon as possible to   Let Prime Minister Abiy use this
          from quarreling over a limited sup-                                   overture as a prelude to lead a
          ply of Nile water, let us be bold in   prevent the loss of more lives and   healthy dialogue with the Ethiopian
          our imagination. Instead, conceive   further suffering. This laceration   people; to unite the nation around
                                             in the fabric of Ethiopian society
          of the New Nile Project by con-    should be healed, and not allowed    the preeminence of an Ethiopian
          structing nuclear powered desalina-  to propagate. Following the govern-  identity, one that supersedes ethnic-
          tion plants along the Mediterranean                                   ity.  Reformulation of the Ethiopian
          and Red Sea to create large amounts   ment’s safeguarding of the Tigray   Constitution of 1995 to emphasize
          of new potable water. These nuclear   region, an all-out mobilization   Ethiopian citizenship, which tran-
                                             must be launched, with vigorous
          plants in additional to efficient de-  international support, to rebuild   scends ethno-regionalism, should
          salination, and supplying abundant   the province, upgrading economic   follow.
          energy, would become nuplexes–
          manufacturing hubs for industrial   conditions to guarantee that every   It is in the shared, common, and
          and agricultural development.      person living in Tigray, a productive   self-interest of all Ethiopians to
                                             and dignified life.
          Some addicted to the narrow think-                                    participate in the development of
          ing of geo-politics today, will object   When the conflict in Tigray is   their society and increase the wealth
          and say it cannot be done, it will                                    of their economy for the benefit
          take too long and cost too much.   concluded, it would be appropriate   of themselves and their posterity.
          To those naysayers, I would respond   for Prime Minister Abiy to emulate   With the near future generation of
                                             the spirit of President Lincoln’s
          by asking, is it better to have water   Second Inaugural Address. It was   6,200 megawatts of electricity from
          wars among emerging nations that   delivered  on March 4, 1865, almost   the GERD, Ethiopia will bring light
          are struggling to feed their people                                   and prosperity to all its citizens. This
          laden by poverty? As populations   four years after the war began,    is cause for all Ethiopians to join
          expand, and economies grow, more   which killed hundreds of thou-     together in joyous celebration.
                                             sands of Americans, and six weeks
          water will be required. Why not use   before his enemies assassinated him.
          the urgency of resolving today’s
          combative dispute over the filling of
          the GERD, to prod our lazy minds     Eskom’s Koeberg nuclear power station today turned on its temporary mobile groundwater
          to create a solution for the future of   desalination plant, which will ease the pressure on the City of Cape Town’s water supply.
                                               Courtesy esi-africa.com)
          the Nile Basin?  Overcoming all the
          many engineering and scientific im-
          pediments to achieve our New Nile
          Project will be challenging, but this
          is the very reason we human beings
          were put here on earth.

          A Just End To A New Beginning
          The fighting in Tigray, the an-



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