Many African regimes today simply avoid the demands of good governance, ignore the rule of law and commit gross violations of human rights in the belief that Western aid will always bail them out of their chronic budget deficits. Stated simply, Western taxpayer dollars provide the fail-safe insurance policy for the survival and persistence of failed regimes in Africa. That is exactly Nana’s point.

Despite its apparently new interest in preserving democracy, for 37 years the military was an indispensable part of a fossilized oligarchy which betrayed the “revolution” and bankrupted Zimbabwe. Sadly, any post-Mugabe civilian government could only exist if it makes a Faustian bargain with the military.

What kind of a moron appoints Robert Mugabe as goodwill ambassador for health? That is what the new Ethiopian-born Director General of the World Health Organization did – sparking global consternation. The appointment, now reversed, underlines one fact: Tedros Adhanom lacks what it takes to head even a village clinic.

Unexpected political developments in Ethiopia clearly indicate that the 26-year-old tyranny is coming to an end. The people’s defiant resistance to the oppressors is relentless . What remains unclear is what happens after the regime crumbles. Ethiopia could plunge into chaos not so much because of the evil the regime has done, but because of the good the opposition failed to do.

Sai Ramakrishna Karuturi, founder of Indian agribusiness giant Karuturi Global and self-proclaimed pioneer of the cut flower revolution in the world, is leaving Ethiopia. Empty-handed. After 10 years, it has now dawned on him that the 300,000 hectares of farmland he was offered by the government was a con. That is what happens to anyone who does business with the kleptocracy in Addis.

China has literally invaded Africa with its investors, traders, lenders, builders, developers, laborers and who knows what else. The fancy phrase for that is win-win cooperation. The “cooperation” has opened up Africa as a source of raw materials for China and a dumping ground for cheap Chinese manufactured goods. It is Chinese neocolonialism.

It is ironic that those who are criticizing Trump on Africa today seemed to have taken a vow of silence when Barack Obama befriended and wined and dined the most ruthless African dictators. Obama overlooked their deplorable human rights and corruption records in the name of counter-terrorism cooperation.

What exactly is the message the U.S. and the U.K. governments are communicating by issuing travel warnings in Ethiopia? On the surface, a travel warning is just that. But does it signify something deeper about U.S./U.K. perceptions of the political situation in the country? Is there a hidden message buried in the warnings?

Shutting down and criminalizing use of the internet has become a weapon in the government’s cyber warfare strategy against the Ethiopian people, particularly the youth. The internet is making it exceedingly difficult for dictatorships to cling to power and rule tyrannically. It has created a walless, borderless, wireless, seamless, restless and fearless world.

This week 26 years ago a new regime took power in Addis Ababa. The Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) is listed as a global terrorist organization. Unsurprisingly, its scorecard in Ethiopia features endless famine, land grabs, violent repression, dictatorship and corruption – with the generous support of the US and its allies.

With perhaps 100,000 people detained in the six months of the State of Emergency declared by the Ethiopian government, it boggles the mind how Prime Minister Desalegn came up with the figure of 82 per cent of Ethiopians who want the Emergency extended. No amount of repression will permanently suppress the peaceful struggle of all Ethiopians for freedom, human rights and majority rule.

A university in Finland plans to confer an honorary doctoral degree on Ethiopian ruler Hailemariam Desalegn in May. In doing so, Tampere University of Technology will have been an unwitting partner in a sophisticated public relations campaign to legitimize, glamourize, mythologize and romanticize a ruthless and brutal dictator and his regime.

On January 18, 2017, the regime in Ethiopia signed a Memorandum of Understanding to pay SGR Government Relations, Lobbying (Washington, D.C) $150,000 per month for lobbying services for a total of $1.8 million. Why is the regime in Ethiopia spending so much money to lobby the Trump Administration, when some 20 million Ethiopians are starving?

What Trump has done in the name of “protecting the nation from foreign terrorists” is nothing new in American history or politics. It is only the latest chapter in a long train of attempts and efforts to keep out “undesirable aliens” dating back to colonial times. But this too shall pass away.

How will President Obama be remembered in Africa? In the dying days of his administration, Obama lifted sanctions imposed on Al Bashir regime in Sudan. That decision confirms to the world Obama’s true face and on which side of history he has stood in relation to Africa for the past eight years.

When the purported leaders of two neighboring countries cannot even talk in a civil, well-mannered, courteous, respectful and thoughtful manner, is there any hope?

Muhammad Ali had the courage to stand up in the face of racism, injustice, oppression and unfairness and refuse to back down come hell or high water.

The Senate Resolution states in plain words that crimes against humanity have been committed in Ethiopia under T-TPLF rule and that there must be a full, credible, and transparent investigation into the killings and instances of excessive use of force that took place as a result of protests in the Oromia region and hold security forces accountable for wrongdoing through public proceedings.

More than 10 million Ethiopians are currently facing famine in what some media outlets misleadingly describe as “the worst drought in five decades”. But the famine is not a merely a result of drought. It is a governance issue. And the millions of dollars USAID and other donors are sending in humanitarian aid will probably end up in the pockets of the greedy fat cats of Addis.

The destiny of Ethiopia is in the hands and feet of all Ethiopians. They have the power to pick her up or to drop her and shatter her like glass. They can walk with her on the long road to freedom or they can leave her in the wheelchair built for her by the current dictatorship.