February 6, 2018
We have reviewed, with great interest and care, the just released statement of the just concluded meeting of the Central Committee of the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO), the governing party in the Oromia National Regional State, and a constituent member of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).
In the statement, OPDO expressed its willingness and readiness to work with Oromo opposition groups, both inside the country and outside, in promoting the interests and wellbeing of the Oromo people and all the people of the country. Along with promises of reform and a pledge to open the democratic space, it also called on the opposition to work with it to realize a truly democratic multi-national federation in Ethiopia.
We believe the call is timely and a major step in the right direction. And we therefore wholeheartedly welcome and accept OPDO’s call. While commending and applauding OPDO for the bold move, we want to take this opportunity to express our willingness and readiness to work with it not only to realize the aspirations of the Oromo people but also to make Ethiopia’s federation genuinely democratic and multi-national, for which we have been advocating sine the founding of our organization.
To this effect, our organization and its leadership is ready to meet its counterparts in OPDO forthwith. We believe this augurs well for Ethiopia’s democratization and charts a path to ensure the age-old dreams of all the Ethiopian people for freedom, democracy and justice, for which tens of thousands have suffered and sacrificed over the decades, become a reality, once and for all.
Freedom and justice for all!
Oromo Democratic Front (ODF)