The "Corridor Development" is a Façade of the Prosperity Party

Befekadu Hailu

I have seen a news report claiming that 40% of central Addis Ababa will be demolished for the corridor development; I am not able to confirm the validity of the news but it sounds real to me given the size of massive operations in the demolition of old neighborhoods and construction of bike lanes, green areas, and glittering street lights. I like to see some beauty added to my city but cannot help mourning the slow death of it too.

Addis Ababa was already in a huge crisis of housing and the demolition of houses is exacerbating it.

Apparently, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is eager to showcase his vision of prosperity by demonstrating how fast his administration can do magic by beautifying the front sides of the streets with lights, new pavements, and painted fences ("to fake it until he makes it" in my friend's words). Therefore, he and his party do not care about the miserable human stories behind the scenes and they will harass you if you tell it (Azeb Woku's case in point). The corridor development is a façade because, however beautiful and bright they look from the outside, there are untold, ugly, and sad stories from behind.

The new pavement down the area formerly known as Mahmoud. 

A façade is defined as "an outward appearance that is maintained to conceal a less pleasant or creditable reality", exactly what the corridor development is about.

The corridor development is happening without MEANINGFUL consultation of affected communities and experts. People are displaced without proper notice, without timely relocation or resettlement, and without a majority's consent. Experts are appalled by the recreation of the city with disregard for its history, geography, and economy. It is a spontaneous, random, copycat of foreign cities without enough planning and reasonable time of construction that compromised quality. The long-term outcome of the development activity for the city and its economy remains contested and left to fate. The corridor development prioritizes showing off glittering streets while destroying resilient communities. The neighborhoods of Addis Ababa have strong communities that function within successive and concurrent failures of regimes to alleviate poverty. The informal economies that the communities built up and helped them persevere bad days are broken overnight due to it. In the new lives these communities are forced to live, there is no social support system that they can rely on to survive the bad days as they did together before. 

I am not writing from a nostalgic point of view and no doubt that Addis Ababa and other cities of Ethiopia need infrastructural reforms. However, the corridor development is doing it wrong and it is pursuing a purpose other than development, i.e. covering the failures of the government in providing basic security and law and order. It is a project to cover the crises that Ethiopia is in with fake images of prosperity televised day and night. The lack of peace, widespread conflicts, and crimes as well as high inflation, unemployment,  and rising cost of living are not of policy agenda but urban beautification.

Many attempts have been made to understand PM Abiy Ahmed and his philosophy behind the Prosperity Party but I am not sure if any of them clearly established it. For me, Tom Gardner's attempt in "Abiy's Project" is probably the best in trying to understand it. Abiy wants to recreate everything in his own image. That is what he is trying to do by micro-managing the façade projects.

The youth are now spending weekends around new fountains and pavements, taking profile pictures, filming TikTok videos, and wondering about the beauty of all. I, myself, am getting a place for convenient walks better than before. I am happy these places served recreational purposes. This is to say that corridor development is not without merit; however, the demerits outweigh it. The way it is done is shattering lives, diverting economic and political priorities, and covering the real issues we are grappling with as societies.