Hangaasuu Bilisummaa Journal Volume 1 - ULFO

the OLF was the most ideally
positioned to catalyze the
unification process to a full
merger of all member
organizations of ULFO. It had the
most manpower, the expertise,
the organizational capacity, and
the experience in the struggle to
expedite the process of unifying
all forces to one political entity.
However, the OLF miserably
failed to use these attributes to
the advantage of uniting the
forces and giving the struggle an
edge.
For the OLF, failing to help
solidify its base by coalescing all
forces within the liberation camp
and hooping onto the Abyssinian
political bandwagon meant a
costly political miscalculation.
First thing is first. In politics, one
must first muster the support of
its own base (immediate
constituency) and then endeavors
to reach for others. The OLF,
however, put the cart before the
horse. When it should have first
put as much effort to fuse all
ULFO member organizations and
operate as one national political
force, galvanize the Oromo mass
behind it, and build consensus for
its tactical political moves, it
dropped the pressing issue of
unity of Oromo forces like a hot
potato and began dealing with
non-Oromo political
organizations. The end result
happened to be a complete
derailment from what ULFO
envisioned at the outset. Worse
off, the erroneous course the OLF
took led to its fragmentation that
is now exacting a heavy toll on
the Oromo national liberation
struggle.
The Essence of Tokkummaa Defiled VOLUME 1 SPRING 2010
With the OLF gone from ULFO,
the rest of member organizations
have attempted to salvage the
spirit of tokkummaa. In the wake
of the OLF departure, they all
convened and discussed the fate
of the union. All agreed to
maintain ULFO and work
towards achieving its grand
objectives. In due course, after
assessing the state of the Oromo
liberation struggle and realizing
the dire need for expediting the
unity process, they reached an
understanding of readily merging
all member organizations. In
December 2006, a formal merger
agreement was adopted. A newly
accepted ULFO member
organization, Adda
Walabummaa Oromiyaa (AWO),
also enthusiastically accepted the
agreement upon joining the
union.
At the time, the agreement was
well received. It was heralded as
the most constructive and timely
direction that ULFO members
could take. That piece of
agreement did console the Oromo
public that was taken aback by
the OLF gravitation towards the
Abyssinian political camp.
Unfortunately the agreement
remained on paper. AWO
retracted its agreement to merge.
Its excuse was nothing but lame
when seen in light of the ever
more escalating challenges of our
liberation struggle. It raised petty
procedural and mostly trivial
issues merely to renege its
agreement. Had it been sincere in
advancing the much needed
unification, it could and should
have worked out any problem,
not cause one, to hasten and
conclude the merger process.
All member organizations of
ULFO made concerted efforts and
addressed AWO’s concerns, but
to no avail. Despite all out
attempts made to keep it on
board, it chose not to go along
with its initial agreement.
As a result, the merger agreement
that was to take effect in the
summer of 2007 got aborted. A
whole new negotiation had to
then resume among the
remaining ULFO members. This
in itself was not an easy exercise.
The derailment of the agreement
took a heavy toll on most
organizations. It dashed their
hopes for unity. It brought the
whole idea of forming one
organization through merger
under question. It forced all
organization to take time to
reflect on what had transpired
during the merger process.
Hence, apart from OPLF and
GBO who engaged in a bilateral
work right away, they remained
in their secluded corner for over a
year before reconvening for
another round of negotiation.
In summer of 2008, ULFO called
the assembly of delegates to
conduct its usual organizational
business. During this assembly
the issue of revisiting the merger
of all organization came up.
Given what had happened in the
in December 2006 agreement,
most organizations had
misgivings about the seriousness
of organizations that
reintroduced the merger agenda.
However, all agreed to revisit the
Hangaasuu Bilisummaa 9