Yonas Biru, PhD
In a rather twisted way, Abiy Ahmed has become the reincarnation of Miguel de Cervantes’ 16th century masterpiece Don Quixote. Don Quixote is the story of a man by the name of Alonso Quixano who has read so many books on the knights of the Middle Ages and eventually started to believe he is a real knight.
Convinced of his Knighthood, he christened himself with a new name (Don Quixote de la Mancha), wore a rusty suit of armor, and recruited a poor peasant (Sancho Panza) to be his arms bearer. Sancho Panza volunteered for the job hoping that his new master would reward him with an island of his own to rule. Together they started an expedition in search of an epic adventure to fulfill the Master’s rite of passage to Knighthood.
The Master’s quest of validation for Knighthood made him do things that are out of the ordinary, in the foolhardiest sense of the term. For example, he fought with a windmill believing it was a giant and married a poor peasant girl that he mistook for a princess. This, in a nutshell, is the story of Don Quixote.
The story of Sancho Panza is just as disheartening. One thing that most literary commentators agree on is that he is a delusional sidekick of his Master in the most authentic and down-to-earth sense of the term “useful idiot”. As much as Don Quixote wanted to be an absolute Knight, Sancho Panza wanted to assume the role of an absolute squire.
After following Don Quixote for some time, Sancho Panza started to realize his master’s foolishness. Eventually he came to grips with the fact that his master’s quest for Knighthood was leading them into a string of frivolous escapades. But by that time, he has become obsessed with his master and has reached a point of no return. He continued to serve him both to quench his curiosity and honor his misguided loyalty.
Abiy Ahmed believes he is anointed by God to guide Ethiopians navigate through a safe passage to the promised land. In his mind he is akin to Moses who stretched out his hand and ordered the waters of the Red Sea to divide into two parts to allow the Israelites to cross to the Holy Land.
As the French flagship newspaper Le Monde noted, Abiy is building an opulent palace glamoured up with a waterfall, three artificial lakes, a zoo, and luxury villas rivaling Dubai. It is “pharaonic taken by delusions of grandeur,” as Le Monde noted.
He is building a Naval force for a landlocked Ethiopia and delusionally claims seaports of neighboring nations. Ethiopia has neither legal grounds nor military power to annex a seaport from Eritrea or Somalia. His MOU with Somaliland was a testimony for his idiocy and ignorance of geopolitics. It is energized by a delusional conviction of quixotic proportion.
Just this week his Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a botched press release (botched in language and substance) that seems to threaten Egypt for providing weapons to Somalia.
The Boy King does not understand Ethiopia has neither the power nor the leverage to be a regional player. He has himself to blame. He has eroded the nation’s military capabilities appointing a Sancho Panza as a Field Marshal, used it as his personal imperial guard and alienated his government from the population. If he could not decisively win against TPLF or Fano or OLA (aka Oromo-Shene), he must be delusional to threaten Egypt.
His futile strategy is to win the support of Ethiopians. The way I see it, he is a far more existential threat to Ethiopia than Egypt or Somalia. Ethiopians will be stupid to play the role of Sancho Panza de la Mancha for the psychopathic Don Quixote wannabe. Let him get his coteries of Sancho Panzas, including the Field Marshal, the Muaz (the Ethiopian Mulah) and Professor Al of El Panza California.
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