Merera Gudina (
Oromo: Mararaa Guddinaa) (born 5 July 1956) is an Ethiopian professor and politician. He is the leader of the
Oromo People's Congress
The Oromo People's Congress (OPC) was a federalist and Oromo nationalist opposition political party in Ethiopia. It was founded in April 1996 as the Oromo National Congress by Dr. Merera Gudina, who is its chairman. However, the party licence a ...
(OPC), a political party representing the
Oromo people
The Oromo (pron. Oromo language, Oromo: ''Oromoo'') are a Cushitic people, Cushitic ethnic group native to the Oromia region of Ethiopia and parts of Northern Kenya, who speak the Oromo language (also called ''Afaan Oromoo'' or ''Oromiffa''), ...
. The organization is opposed to the previous ruling
and the current authoritarian ruling Abiy Ahmed's fake Prosperity Party. He has been described as Ethiopian "leading opposition politician".
Personal life
Merera began his college education at
Addis Ababa University
Addis Ababa University (AAU) ( am, አዲስ አበባ ዩኒቨርሲቲ) is a national university located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It is the oldest university in Ethiopia. AAU has thirteen campuses. Twelve of these are situated in Addis Ababa, ...
(AAU), but was imprisoned for seven years due to participating in protests against the dictatorship of
Mengistu Haile Mariam
Mengistu Haile Mariam ( am, መንግሥቱ ኀይለ ማሪያም, pronunciation: ; born 21 May 1937) is an Ethiopian politician and former army officer who was the head of state of Ethiopia from 1977 to 1991 and General Secretary of the Work ...
. After his release, Merera went to Egypt to complete his education at the
American University in Cairo
The American University in Cairo (AUC; ar, الجامعة الأمريكية بالقاهرة, Al-Jāmi‘a al-’Amrīkiyya bi-l-Qāhira) is a private research university in Cairo, Egypt. The university offers American-style learning programs ...
.
[Uduak Amimo]
" Profile: Ethiopia's Merera Gudina"
BBC website, 18 May 2010 (accessed 4 June 2010) Merera received his PhD in Political Science July 2002 from the
Institute of Social Studies
The International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam is an independent and international graduate school of policy-oriented critical social science. ISS was established in 1952 by Dutch universities and the Neth ...
, at
the Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...
in the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
under the direction of professors M.R. Doornbos and M.A.R.M. Salih, he completed his thesis, "Ethiopia: competing ethnic nationalisms and the quest for democracy, 1960-2000". As of 2009, Merera is an associate professor of political science at AAU. He participates in several scholarly conferences worldwide, including in the United States, concerning political and social developments of Ethiopia.
Political career
Merera founded the Oromo National Congress (ONC) in 1996, which became the largest Oromo opposition group by parliament seats after the
2005 national elections. His OFC had allied with several other parties to form the
United Ethiopian Democratic Forces
The United Ethiopian Democratic Forces ( am, የኢትዮጵያ ዴሞክራሲዊ ኃይሎቸ ሕብረት) was a coalition of several political parties in Ethiopia which combined to compete for seats in the Ethiopian general elections held ...
. Due to a court decision in 2007 which awarded the name of the ONC to a splinter group, the original ONC assumed a new name, the Oromo people's Congress.
[
Merera believes in the self-determination of Oromo people and self-rule under Ethiopia umbrella. His party also wants to make ]Afan Oromo
Oromo ( or ; Oromo: ''Afaan Oromoo''), in the linguistic literature of the early 20th century also called Galla (a name with a pejorative meaning and therefore rejected by the Oromo people), is an Afroasiatic language that belongs to the Cushiti ...
the co-official language of Ethiopia to empower Oromo people politically, socially and economically.[ Regarding Oromia secession, he opposes the idea based on mutual strategic and national interest of Oromo and other peoples. Merera has also said Oromo people have historically participated in the creation of modern Ethiopia, including the monarchy. During a parliament discussion with the ruling party, Merera made the observation, "Oromia is the stem of Ethiopia; a stem can not secede, only branches can fall off the stem."
OFC was also reported to have made an alliance with another Oromo opposition party named OFDM to form Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC).
As of January 2010, Merera is the co-chairman of the OPC and the chairman of ]Medrek
Medrek ( am, መድረክ), officially the Ethiopia Federal Democratic Unity Forum ( am, የኢትዮጵያ ፌዴራላዊ ዴሞክራሲያዊ አንድነት መድረክ), is an Ethiopian political coalition founded in 2008 by former def ...
.
Merera was detained at the Addis Ababa airport in Ethiopia upon his return from Europe in December 2016. The Ethiopian government cites charges of links to "terrorist" and "anti-peace" protests groups. On 3 March 2017, Ethiopian prosecutors formally charged Merera of supporting terrorism, in which he denied.
He was put in prison in 2015. He was released from the Kaliti Prison
Kaliti Prison'' is a maximum security prison in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Commonly referred to as a gulag, it serves as the main prison of the country. It is 11 km south of central Addis Ababa, in Akaky Kaliti, the southernmost subcity of the ...
in January 2018.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gudina, Merera
International Institute of Social Studies alumni
Addis Ababa University alumni
The American University in Cairo alumni
Living people
Oromo People's Congress politicians
1956 births
People from Oromia Region
Ethiopian political scientists