Center for Federalism and governance study of Addis Ababa University organized a debate on Ethiopian federalism under the theme “A Multinational Federalism or Geographic Federalism?” at Jupiter international hotel, Addis Ababa on May 17, 2019.

Dr. Solomon Negussie, Dean, College of Law and Governance Studies, AAU, noted in his welcoming remark that Center for Federalism and governance study is very active in debating various issues on federalism. He said, “It seems a paradox to debate on federalism while we have a federal constitution but, fortunately or unfortunately it is timely enough to debate about federalism itself”. Dr. Solomon also said that, like the center for federalism, the other two academic units also highly engage in creating dialogue about the reform process. “In that regard, we have so many faculty staff engaged in various issues of legal reform in this country and in promoting human right education and human right issues in this country”, he added. Papers presented during the debate by different scholars from AAU and renowned politicians of the country included Managing Diversity: The Integration vs. the accommodations and implications for Ethiopia; Emerging Political Reforms in Ethiopia: The case for Reformed Multinational Federalism; Genuine Multinational Federalism: viable Solution for Contemporary crises in Ethiopia?; The Practice of Ethiopian Multination Federalism and its future and What form of federal system?; and A Question Deciding the fate of our political Transition and National Integrity.

Dr. Asnake Kefale from political science and international relations of AAU, on his paper presentation, said that since the beginning of the reform, federalism has been one of the controversial issues; particularly the place that the Ethiopian federal system gave to ethnicity has been very much contested. Dr Asnake also noted that historically changing the federal systems has proven to be dangerous but, for the stability of the country, constitutional reform is very important. He further noted, “Some of the things which require the constitutional reform from the existing Ethiopian political system is removing constitutional provisions and practices that promote ethnic nationalism.

Ato Lidetu Ayalew on his part said, “For our country, ethnicity based political system is very dangerous because in the first place, it is an obstacle for national unity, it doesn’t create equality between the nations; it is a big challenge for the development of democratic systems and sustainable economic development and generally it encourages grievances and conflict between the nations, which is an obstacle for sustainable peace”.

The program was organized with the objective of gaining fruitful outputs that are essential and helpful for policy makers, reformists and political actors in the Ethiopian political scenario. Politicians and scholars attended the program.