May 15, 2026
Editor’s Note : Views in the article do not necessarily reflect the views of borkena.com
Nigatu Wolde
Ezema’s Deputy leader
Seven years ago, the idea of creating a party that has a wide tent to accommodate varieties of ideas was conceived. The former Ezema leader on his remark at the event that marked the 7th anniversary of the party took a verse from scripture and quipped “በመጀመሪያ ቃል ነበረ” to mean there was an idea of creating a national party anchored in three distinct concepts: social justice, citizen-based politics and democratic federalism.
The coming into being of Ezema has its own story as shared by founding senior party leaders, at the event. One senior leader was quoted as saying “we wanted to get rid of words such as “Ethiopia”, “democratic”, etc. from the nomenclature of the would-be party conceived under a project name “big national party”. The reason behind was far from disliking the very words-rather experience showed them that parties carrying the mentioned names do not necessarily reflect the ideals the names represent in practice. But the general assembly would have none of it and organizers were obliged to add “Ethiopia” to the proposed “Citizens for Social Justice”, becoming “Ethiopian Citizens for Social Justice”. For a national party, dropping the name “Ethiopia” would have been weird to many of us. Ezema was born out of such debates by the beautiful minds.
Ezema was founded on May 9 and 10, 2019, by dissolving 10 parties including, among others, Arbegnoch Ginot 7, Ethiopian Democratic Party (EDP), Semayawi Party, and onboarding prominent political figures such as Girma Seifu, who is one of the leading figures in the conception of “big national party” project and its evolution to Ezema, and Andualem Arage. Since its establishment, the party introduced several novel ideas in political party formation to the Ethiopian political landscape including creating constituency based political organization with dual structure: leader wing (which charts strategic direction of the party and run for public office during election while mirrors government ministerial portfolios through its shadow cabinet in times of election loss; and chairperson wing which leads the day-to-day functions of the party.
This dual structure makes Ezema unique as it departs from the traditional party structures that dominated political organizations, which failed to detach from legacies of the highly centralized socialist party tradition. This made governing parties and governments two sides of the same coin and perpetuated consolidation of power through use of public property in the hands of the governing party and its cliques.
For the political culture that used to be formed from top-to-down, constituency-based politics along NEBE’s electoral districts, turned the status quo on its head-creating uneasiness which kept some of the old guards off guard as the party starts its mazy journey. This form of organizing denied the old guards party ownership which used to be the case in the otherwise accultured top-down party formation effectively putting an end to splitting or dissolving the party at will.
Such was the genius of the founders that protected the party from splitting following the conclusion of the party’s first general assembly, where several prominent founding political figures and members left the party, after their defeat in the leadership contest. The leadership contest was exemplary in many ways, except it could have effectively dissolved the party had it not been for the constituency-based party organization. The two groups publicly presented their position, debated their vision for the party and campaigned in town-hall meetings across constituencies, issued manifestos outlining their vision. But all was not well as the election date approached, uncharacteristic allegations and counter allegations were traded, which somehow made the process tense and left the electorate uneasy inside the Eliana Hotel hall.
The manifestoes tried to show: one the party is drifting from its original mission and increasingly co-opted by the governing party-hence put forth campaign message “for Ezema’s objective through Ezema’s brand/identity”; while the second leadership group identified the party’s ailment in the lack of unity of purpose and dysfunction in the party’s leadership, and run on “civil politics and aligned leadership”.
In a way, many have portrayed the election as a referendum on the two views. In a highly contested internal election, the leadership led by the party’s stalwart-Berhanu Nega prevailed by decisively defeating the team led by Andualem Aragie.
While detractors, including those who joined the bandwagon after their defeat, may would like us to believe Ezema as compromised by the governing party and worked hard to cement this view inside the party as well as by the public, the internal feud has been decisively put to rest. Nevertheless, the party continued to ail because of the raging ethnic politics where some of its members failed to keep their ground and wanted to climb two trees: swaying between ethnic politics and politics of Ethiopian-ess. Failing to ride the two horses and trying to feed the ethnic horse, the second cohorts of members have departed.
As expressed by Berhanu’s remark at the party’s 2nd congress, where the organization wing leadership led by Dr Mulualem Tegegnework was elected in 2025, despite the past trying years-he declared-the party had withered its challenges posed by ethnic politics and opened the door to remnants to leave-Ezema is not for proponents of ethnic politics-Ezema is home for Ethiopians.
The party’s extraordinary assembly held on March 1st 2026 at Adwa Memorial Museum Hall marked an important milestone. The general assembly cordially paid farewell to the party’s stalwart, founding leader-Berhanu Nega and elected leaders of the post-revolution generation.
The party’s founding leader passed the torch to leaders who started party politics in Ezema. In essence, Ezema has evolved out of assortments of parties and leaders from all walks of politics and gave birth to its own new leaders.
As we celebrate the 7th anniversary, Ezema has stood on firm ground-true to its ideals, disproving its doubters, advancing social justice, where it has become the political lingua franca of the day for the ruling as well as other parties. Whether they really mean what we mean may be something else. Nevertheless, our engagement with the government has given us some leverage to impart our thoughts and shape public policies. Of course, we are aware of the other side of the argument, i.e. engagement with government facilitated the cooptation of Ezema to the extent of foregoing its ideals. However, this argument has no merit when put to the test of facts.
While celebrating our achievements in the past seven years is necessary to sustain them, we also need to be in a reflective mode-what could have been done differently? What has gone wrong? How can we right the wrongs? Where did we stumble? These should be guiding soul-searching questions that would help us chart the future. The dust has settled; the building blocks are laid down firmly; the tough task ahead is finishing the structure towards its ultimate height and it is doable.
Happy 7th Anniversary!
Editor’s Note : Views in the article do not necessarily reflect the views of borkena.com
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