Abiy Ahmed Biography
Abiy Ahmed Ali is an Ethiopian politician and the fourth and current prime minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia serving since 2 April 2018. The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2019 to Abiy Ahmed Ali. The committee cited Mr. Ali’s efforts to resolve the border conflict with neighboring Eritrea and also his overall effort to achieve international peace and cooperation as the main reasons for honoring him.
Ahmed remains chairman of both the ruling EPRDF (Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front) and the ODP (Oromo Democratic Party) (which is one of the four coalition parties of the EPRDF). He is also an elected member of the Ethiopian parliament and a member of the ODP and EPRDF executive committees. Abiy who is a former army intelligence officer, since becoming prime minister, has launched a wide programme of political and economic reforms, which have however been met with controversy.
Abiy Ahmed Age
Abiy Ahmed Ali was born on 15 August 1976Beshasha, Jimma Zone, Socialist Ethiopia. He is 42 years old as of 2019.
Abiy Ahmed Wife
Abiy is married to his wife, Zinash Tayachew, an Amhara woman from Gondar, the two met while both were serving in the Ethiopian Defense Forces. They are the parents of three daughters and one recently adopted son.
Abiy Ahmed Salary and Net Worth
Ahmed receives a monthly salary of $300. His career as a politician has lead him to accumulate a good net worth which is estimated to be of $2.5 million dolars.
Abiy Ahmed Nobel Prize Winner
The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2019 to Abiy Ahmed Ali, Ethiopian Prime Minister. The committee cited Mr. Ali’s efforts to resolve the border conflict with neighboring Eritrea and also his overall effort to achieve international peace and cooperation as the main reasons for honoring him.
Ethiopia and Eritrea, longtime foes who fought a border war from 1998 to 2000, restored relations in July 2018 after years of hostility. In a statement, the Nobel Committee said, “Abiy Ahmed has sought to mediate between Kenya and Somalia in their protracted conflict over rights to a disputed marine area. There is now hope for a resolution to this conflict.”
The committee also mentioned his efforts in brokering the South Sudan peace deal. However, he does have his critics. Many of them say the Ethiopian leader relies on bold personal initiatives and charisma to drive change instead of working through government institutions. And ethnic clashes including in his native Oromiya region have however undermined Mr. Abiy’s record at home “None of Abiy’s promised transformational reforms are going to have any solid foundations unless he works through the institutions,” said Comfort Ero, Africa program director at the International Crisis Group think tank.
“In the first six or seven months, Mr. Abiy undercut the institutions … The institutions were either not working or working against his agenda,” said Jawar Mohammed, an Oromo activist and informal adviser to the prime minister. The Nobel Prize, worth around $900,000, will be presented in Oslo on Dec. 10.
Abiy Ahmed Religion
Abiy is a devout Evangelical Pentecostal Christian of the Full Gospel Believers Church. Abiy is multilingual and speaks Afaan Oromo, Amharic, Tigrinya and English. He is a fitness aficionado and professes that physical health goes hand in hand with mental health and as such, he frequents physical and gym activities in Addis Ababa.
Abiy Ahmed Photo
Abiy Ahmed Family
Born in the town of Beshasha in the historic Kaffa Province (in the present day Jimma Zone, Oromia Region), Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed is the son of a deceased father, Ahmed Ali, was a Muslim Oromo (and had four wives) and a also a deceased mother, Tezeta Wolde, was an Orthodox Christian Amhara. Abiy is the 13th child of his polygamous father and the sixth and youngest child of his mother.
Abiy Ahmed Education
Abiy received his first degree, a Bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from the Microlink Information Technology College in Addis Ababa in 2001 while he was serving in the Ethiopian National Defense Force.
He holds a Master of Arts in Transformational Leadership earned from the business school at Greenwich University, London, in collaboration with the International Leadership Institute, Addis Ababa in 2011. Abiy also holds a Master of Business Administration from the Leadstar College of Management and Leadership in Addis Ababa in partnership with Ashland University in 2013.
Abiy, who had began his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) work several years ago as a regular student, completed his Ph.D. in 2017 at the Institute for Peace and Security Studies, Addis Ababa University. Abiydid his Ph.D. work on the Agaro constituency with the PhD thesis entitled “Social Capital and its Role in Traditional Conflict Resolution in Ethiopia: The Case of Inter-Religious Conflict In Jimma Zone State”. As a follow-up to his Ph.D. thesis, he published a research article on de-escalation strategies in the Horn of Africa in a special journal issue dedicated to countering violent extremism.
Abiy Ahmed Prime Minister of Ethiopia
Abiy was confirmed and sworn in by the Ethiopian parliament as Prime Minister of Ethiopia on 2 April 2018. During his acceptance speech, he promised political reform; to promote the unity of Ethiopia and unity among the peoples of Ethiopia; to reach out to the Eritrean government to resolve the ongoing Eritrean–Ethiopian border conflict after the Eritrean–Ethiopian War and to also reach out to the political opposition inside and outside of Ethiopia.
Abiy’s acceptance speech sparked optimism and received an overwhelmingly positive reaction from the Ethiopian public including the opposition groups inside and outside Ethiopia. Following his speech, his popularity and support across the country reached an historical high and some political observers argued that Abiy was overwhelmingly more popular than the ruling party coalition, the EPRDF.
Abiy Ahmed Political career
Abiy began his political career as a member of the ODP (Oromo Democratic Party). The ODP is the ruling party in Oromia Region since 1991 and also one of four coalition parties of the ruling coalition in Ethiopia, the EPRDF (Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front).
Abiy became a member of the central committee of ODP and congress member of the Executive Committee of the EPRDF – in quick succession. During the 2010 national election, Abiy represented the woreda of Agaro and became an elected member of the House of Peoples’ Representatives, the lower chamber of the Ethiopian Federal Parliamentary Assembly.
Abiy became the Ethiopian Minister of Science and Technology (MoST) in October 2015,, a post which he left after only 12 months. Abiy served as Deputy President of Oromia Region from October 2016, as part of the team of Oromia Region’s president Lemma Megersa while staying a member of the Ethiopian Federal House of Peoples’ Representatives
Abiy as the head of ODP Secretariat, from October 2017, he crossed over religious and ethnic divides to facilitate the formation of a new alliance between Oromo and the Amhara groups, both making up two thirds of the 100 million Ethiopian population.
Abiy Ahmed EPRDF leadership election
Due to three years of protest and unrest, the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, announced his resignation on 15 February 2018 – meaning that he also resigned from the post of EPRDF Chairman. As an unwritten rule in Ethiopian politics, the incoming EPRDF Chairman has to be the next Prime Minister. The EPRDF Chairman on the other hand is one of the heads of the four parties that make up the ruling coalition: ODP, ADP, SEPDM and TPLF.
Hailemariam’s resignation triggered the first ever contested leadership election among EPRDF coalition members for his replacement. A lot of political observers made Lemma Megersa (the ODP Chairman) and Abiy Ahmed the front-runners to become the Leader of the ruling coalition and eventually Prime Minister of Ethiopia. Despite being the clear favourite for the general public, Lemma Megersa was not a member of the national parliament, a pre-condition to become Prime Minister as required by the Ethiopian constitution.
Therefore, Lemma was excluded from the leadership race. Lemma’s party, ODP, called for an emergency executive committee meeting on 22 February 2018 and replaced Lemma by Abiy as Chairman of ODP. Abiy had the advantage of being a Member of Parliament in contrast to Lemma. A lot of observers saw that as a tactical move to promote Abiy to become Prime Minister.
The 180 EPRDF executive committee members started their meeting to elect the leader of the party on 1 March 2018. Each of the four parties sent in 45 members. The contest for the leadership was among Abiy Ahmed of ODP, Demeke Mekonnen, ADP leader, Shiferaw Shigute as Chairman of SEPDM and the Deputy Prime Minister and Debretsion Gebremichael as the Leader of TPLF. Despite being the overwhelming favorite by the majority of Ethiopians, Abiy faced major opposition from TPLF and SEPDM members during the leadership discussions.
A few hours before the beginning of the leadership elections on 27 March 2018, Demeke Mekonnen, who had been seen as the major opponent to Abiy, dropped out of the race. Many observers saw this as an endorsement of Abiy Ahmed. Demeke was then approved as Deputy Prime Minister and got another term in that post. Due to Demeke’s exit, Abiy received a presumably unanimous vote from both the ADP and ODP executive members, with 18 additional votes in a secret ballot coming from elsewhere.
By midnight, Abiy Ahmed was declared Chairman of the ruling coalition in Ethiopia, the EPRDF and was considered as the Prime Minister Designate of Ethiopia by receiving 108 votes while Shiferaw Shigute received 58 and Debretsion Gebremichael received 2 votes. Abiy was elected as Prime Minister of Ethiopia by the House of Representatives on 2 April 2018 and sworn in.