Mekelle,Nairobi,Pretoria,London,March 11แก2025 (Tigray Herald)
REV. FRANKLIN GRAHAM’S VISIT TO ADDIS
The purpose of Rev. Graham’s invitation to Addis is to have access to Trump.
By Yonas Biru(Phd)
In 2018, When PM Abiy came to Washington, I proposed to organize a meeting between the PM and the President of the Heritage Foundation. The President of the Foundation was open to it.
In my letter to the PM that was sent through the Ethiopian Embassy, I stressed that the fastest way to get to President Trump was either through his daughter Ivanka or through the Heritage foundation.
The Heritage Foundation is the Conservative Think Tank that developed President Reagan’s Policies. Trump’s Project 2025 is also developed and authored under the same Foundation. The PM never responded. They tried access to Trump on their own and ended up meeting the VP, not the President.
Two years later, a conservative US Congressman and I co-authored an article proposing a US financed Marshal Plan for Africa. We proposed to start with Ethiopia. The Congressman invited the PM to give a keynote speech on the topic at one of America’s top Evangelist Universities. I forwarded the letter to the Ethiopian Embassy and directly to the PM’s office. No answer. The then Nigerian President Delivered the keynote Speech.
The same year I had a telephone conversation with PM Abiy. I told him, the US is redirecting its supply chains out of China. India, Vietnam and Malaysia were lobbying the Trump administration to bring the supply lines to their countries. Their efforts were led by their presidents and prime ministers.
I told the PM we will help prepare a proposal if he is open to lead such an effort. He told me he does not need help. He said, Ethiopia does not need to lobby them. He said, since our labor is cheap they will come to us themselves.
Little knowledge is dangerous. He did not realize there are many factors other than cheap labor that are critical to attract foreign investment.
We contacted Dr. Gedu and he assured us he would follow up. He did some investigation and found out that there were thousands of products that China is producing that Ethiopia can produce. With that information, he tried to convince the PM to no avail.
Six years later, the PM is reaching to Rev Graham for help. It is too late because the PM has lost his credibility. In 2018 and 2019, the PM was the darling of international aid. Today he is seen as a war mongering good for nothing. Sad.
