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As a resident of Addis Abaccceba, I am at this point
disgruntled, mal-serviced and most of all, unable to
find even the remotest semblance of availability and
competence, no matter where I turn. I am afraid I am
not the only resident in our metropolis that seems
to feel this way, because positive conversation
outside of complaining has become a thing of the
past.
Panic, discontent and, for many, a decrease in the
standard of living reflect the new order of the day.
At a time when the woes of just about everyone - no
matter what echelons of life they may belong - are
feeling the brunt of all things, the time for a new
city government has come. And before us stands a
brand new stoic Mayor, with a very problematic city
to run.
Kuma Demeksa is a
choice that I have yet to make a decision on. There
are two sides to every coin, aren’t there?
When you look at the heads side of it, the newly
appointed Mayor seems like an unassuming,
no-nonsense, get things done kind of person who will
stay out of the media limelight and actually manage
to hurdle some of the catastrophic problems that are
facing our city today. Being the Minister of Defence,
in times like these, is certainly no easy task.
Given the past record of the man, I do not think
that “incompetent” would be the best adjective to
describe him, although it is perhaps the one to use
for the outgoing Mayor and his administration.
But then, when you consider the tails side of the
coin, it would be nice to have another Don Juan like
Arkebe Oqubay who could put some pep back into the
step of the residents and put a GQ face on an
administration that has, after all, not been the
best looking, to say the least. Perhaps, what the
city needs is someone that would be able to present
it with an alternative other than the one it has
been faced with for what seems like the last million
years.
Regardless of the personality of the man and his
administration, or the image that they will develop
for themselves as their term progresses, what
remains a fact is that they are going to be faced
with some of the harshest problems this city has
ever encountered. With the city machinery having
been badly neglected for the last two years
(although the civil service had begun to deteriorate
long before the Caretaker Administration came into
office), corruption has reached ridiculous levels,
where bribery has become the norm to get things done
at the kebelle and district levels.
But that is the least of the worries of the average
residents of the capital. Even those that have
gainful employment have not been able to make ends
meet with the insanely high cost of living. With
prices going up everyday and people being forced to
cut back, residents of the capital have now fallen
to a stricken state of living. This only goes on to
aggravate the already high levels of unemployment,
with manufacturers, small and micro-businesses being
forced to cut back on staff because of soaring
costs.
Adequate housing has been a headache for every
administration that has seen the insides of City
Hall, although the only mentionable attempt at
curbing the issue came during the reign of Arkebe
and his Provisional Administration. The outgoing
Caretaker Administration has made such a mess of
things that there is a lot of cleaning and catching
up that has to be done by Kuma and his lieutenants.
As nice as it is to have seen the amount of
investment that is being made in roads and housing,
the actual completion of these projects is something
that would be even more noteworthy to the residents
who have to endure the upheaval that results from
their implementation. We understand that these
things are going to eventually make our lives
easier, but we would like that time to be sooner
than later, given that everything else in life seems
to have turned prickly as well.
But most importantly, we are facing, in the 21st
Century I might add, severe shortages of water and
electricity. I appreciate that all the king’s horses
and all the kings men cannot seem to find a
solution, despite the fact that we claim to be the
capital of Africa and all that other hoopla. But, as
a tax paying public, we are entitled to the services
that we pay for, and since we are not at liberty to
change our service providers, then the least that we
could get is continuity.
With a man from a military background now handling
the mayoral reigns of Addis Abeba, I am hoping that
there will at least be some organization of the
basics. The city machinery that is run on the fuel
of the civil service badly needs to be reformed, so
maybe the military drills and a dress code approach
may not be so bad in this case. As long as there is
no change in the civil service, the city will
continue in the vicious cycle that it has been in.
The new Administration needs to restore the faith of
the public in the government. We, the urban masses,
have not been feeling the “hay days”, instead, no
matter what the conditions may be in other places,
we are feeling the “nay days”.
With the full weight of the Revolutionary Democrats
behind it, the new City Administration needs to
strap up its boots and appease us.
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