A farewell party for Bacha Gina

March 14 , 2020

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Senior executives of the state-owned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) were asked to contribute 5,000 Br each to pay for a farewell party for Bacha Gina, gossip disclosed. Perhaps one of the very few presidents having the shortest debut in the bank's history, Bacha's time with CBE was so consequential, in less than two years, the Bank finds itself in the most precarious situation its directors now fear can spill over to a systemic and industry-wide crisis, gossip says.

Whatever the impact of Bacha's legacy will be, he will be long gone when his replacement, Abie Sano, and CBE Chairman Teklewold Atnafu fix what has been broken, claims gossip. Appointed as an emissary, Bacha will likely be sent off to Cuba to serve as an ambassador, gossip claims.

Bacha's appointment was one of the 15 made two weeks ago, of whom close to 11 of them were promoted from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. There has been an understanding reached in the Ministry about a decade ago to balance the ratio of political appointments (30pc) and promoting the careerists (70pc); it was hardly observed up until recently, claims gossip.

Another notable political appointment was made to Brehanu Tsegaye, who has served as the attorney general for nearly two years. Replaced by Adanech Abiebie, he will most likely be sent off to serve as Ethiopia's ambassador to Australia and New Zealand, where Tirfu Kidanemariam has been serving since 2016.

A rebel fighter and one of the three women to have served as a political bureau member of the TPLF, Tirfu is under hot pursuit by Prosperitians, gossip revealed. A spouse to the former chairman of the TPLF and head of the Tigray Regional State, Abay Weldu, she is one of the few exceptions among former and existing TPLF leaders - since they took power - in publicly applauding the reform agenda of Abiy Ahmed, gossip observed.

Run mainly by Zadig Abraha and Redwan Hussien, Prosperitians are now in full swing and about to enter the election trail; they are busy training their rank and file from their chapters across all the regional states, gossip disclosed. But they see little headway in breaking the hegemony of the TPLF in Tigray Regional State, despite their aggressiveness in recruiting members from Tigray to beef up their chapter in the region, gossip observed. Last week, they enlisted Nebyou Sihul, a youth political activist against the TPLF. He is now in charge of Prosperity Party's chamber in Meqelle, gossip disclosed. Nonetheless, hardly anyone would come as their biggest prize from a camp that remains their most potent contenders as Tirfu would, claims gossip.

She was one of the eight ambassadors recalled recently, including Shiferaw Jarso, from Khartoum; Dina Mufti, from Cairo; Amin Abdulkadir, from Algiers; Yeshi Tamrat, from Rabat; Asfaw Dingamo, from Havana; and Girum Abay from Brussels. It is Dina and Girum who are veteran diplomats, starting their diplomatic career with the foreign office after graduating from college in the early 1980s.

Girum was educated in Leningrad during the Soviet era. His fluency in the Russian language was an advantage while serving as an ambassador based in Moscow for three years beginning in 2015. He was known to have earned the respect of senior Russian diplomats before being assigned to Brussels as an envoy, where he had also served as a consular.

Girum is also widely respected among his peers and acknowledged for his diplomatic mastery, claims gossip. His recall from a post where he has served for less than two years may have to do with a role serving as a senior advisor to Minister Gedu Andargachew, claims gossip.

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PUBLISHED ON Mar 14,2020 [ VOL 20 , NO 1037]

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