ONCE in a while, a leader comes along and does the “impossible”. Abiy Ahmed Ali, Ethiopia’s prime minister, is just that leader. For 20 long years, Ethiopia was fighting a war with Eritrea.
You can say Eritrea was fighting Ethiopia too, and you won’t be wrong. Like tango, it takes two to do the war dance. And peace dance, too.
But the point is for two decades, no leader from either side was ready, able or willing to end it. Coming into office in April last year, it took Abiy only weeks to end a conflict that had eluded international peace brokers for two decades.
Many of the wars fought are about territories. Eritrea fought a bloody battle for 30 years with Ethiopia to get its independence in 1993.
It was about territory. They were fighting still when Abiy came to the political scene. Politics sometimes confers power on the right man.
Many critics question the award being given to someone who has only been in office for 18 months. Our retort is this: the prize is for a job begun, not a job done.
Well done, Abiy. Not for winning the Nobel Peace Prize. But for brokering peace. You are 43 and have “many miles to go before you sleep”, as Robert Frost penned them for another occasion.
But you chose to do it fast. To Abiy, we say: the world thanks you for this. To Eritreans and Ethiopians, we say: give peace a chance.
The world, which is already torn asunder from Syria to Sanaa, needs a man in a hurry for peace, such as Abiy. Our world is topsy-turvy. International law is neither international nor the rule of law that it should be.
Powerful nations can send armies into other independent lands to loot and lame. They even hire private military firms to kill for them.
Iraq and Afghanistan stand out as blatant examples of killing fields. Lives of the “other” is dirt cheap now. The United Nations and the International Criminal Court stand paralysed.
Thanks to the five permanent members of the Security Council, the war criminals from the permanent five saunter the Earth scot-free.
As the International Crisis Group chief executive officer Robert Malley puts it in a commentary: those who set the rules discard them when they find it convenient to do so.
This is a one-rule-for-you-one-rule-for-me world. But if you are cunning enough to align yourself with these rule-makers-cum-rule-breakers, then you may be able to do the same. Israel’s continued cruelty against the Palestinians can only be explained this way. So must Myanmar’s forced exodus of 700,000 Rohingya from their homeland.
There are many others who suffer the same fate. It is for this reason Abiy’s achievement must be celebrated.
In singing the praises of Abiy, we must not forget the other who made the peace between the neighbours possible: Isaias Afwerki, the president of Eritrea.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee put it thus: “Peace does not arise from the actions of one party alone.” We agree. For peace to be possible, every Abiy needs an Afwerki.
We hope the Suu Kyis, Netanyahus and Bashars of this world get the message.