https://www.ft.com/content/d9982616-19c4-11ea-81f0-0c253907d3e0
Ethiopia’s challenges are much like those I faced when I became president of Liberia .
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Ethiopia’s prime minister Abiy Ahmed (left) greets Somalia’s president Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed. Mr Abiy will receive the Nobel Peace Prize on December 12 © Eduardo Soteras/AFP/Getty
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf yesterday
Eight years ago, I was where Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia’s prime minister, will be on Tuesday: accepting the Nobel Peace Prize. I said then, and it is still true now, that history will judge us not by what we say in this moment in time, but by what we do next.
Mr Abiy, who has been in office for 20 months and will face his first national elections next year, has come to embody an Africa that is hopeful for a future that lifts up all of its people. At 43, he is the youngest leader on the world’s youngest continent: the median age of its 1.2bn people is just 19. He has made peace with Eritrea, ending a conflict that lasted 20 years and killed 70,000 people. He freed political prisoners and supported the creation of a reconciliation commission to address human rights abuses. Half of Ethiopia’s ministerial portfolios are held by women. The president, Sahle-Work Zewde, and the head of its election board are women.
Some 60 years after independence, Africa’s 54 postcolonial nation states are experiencing a triple transition, building national identities, democracies and market economies. They aspire to more prosperous lives equivalent to those of their peers in more developed countries. Mr Abiy is putting Ethiopia on a path to be a genuine leader of this broad-ranging change.
Ethiopia’s triple transition is complicated by economic inequality and unequal access to opportunity, much like the challenge I faced when I became president of Liberia in 2006. Our war-torn country was facing total economic collapse, with destroyed infrastructure, dysfunctional institutions, staggering external debt, a bloated civil service, and a culture shaped by decades of desperation, violence and dependency. We understood then that the newly consolidated peace was fragile and would have to be strongly linked to inclusive growth, tolerance and freedom.
When Liberia made a successful democratic transition, with the election of my successor in 2018, we were proud that our country had made progress in every category of the Ibrahim Index of African Governance. Much of our success stemmed from changes introduced as soon as we took office. The Abiy government has similarly announced far-reaching reforms designed to accelerate inclusive economic growth. Telecoms reform and digital innovation will enhance public debate, media freedom, and spur challenging conversations about the status and welfare of refugees.
Ethiopia has experienced impressive economic growth in the past 10 years but it has not led to a substantial improvement in living conditions. Only 30 per cent of the population has electricity and 18 per cent can access the internet, well below the continental average. More needs to be accomplished, more quickly.
When the economic dividends of reform take longer than expected to appear, citizens often revert to what they know — religious, ethnic and political affiliations. I faced such discontent when we were unable to meet the high expectations of a people too long subjected to the poverty trap. One of Mr Abiy’s most immediate challenges is to manage this pressure in the lead up to national elections. A key ingredient for success would be to separate ethnic politics from electoral politics. That requires unwavering commitment to transparency and democratic reform.
Yet the global environment is unforgiving. Brexit and US-China trade tensions could slow global growth and erode multilateralism. I faced the challenge in Liberia of dealing with Ebola, and I fear global warming and climate change will present an even bigger challenge over the next generation.
Ethiopia is a test case for African countries seeking sustainable inclusive growth that embraces individual cultural and ethnic origins. Mr Abiy has proposed a realistic and forward-looking programme. I call on Africa and the international community to back him.
The writer, president of Liberia from 2006-2018, won the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize