Arkebe Oqubay Has No Moral Authority to Lecture Ethiopia
It is astonishing to hear Arkebe Oqubay, a long-time TPLF central committee member, lecturing Ethiopians today about “international law and boundaries.”
This is the same political group—and the same generation of leaders—that engineered Ethiopia’s land-locking, the single most damaging geopolitical decision in modern Ethiopian history.
And Arkebe knows this very well.
When Eritrea seceded in 1993—without an Ethiopian referendum and without any negotiated long-term maritime arrangement—TPLF’s senior leadership, of which Arkebe was a part, signed away Ethiopia’s coastline with little transparency and zero national consultation.
That decision:
Cut Ethiopia off from the Red Sea,
Created economic dependency on foreign ports,
Cost Ethiopia billions in annual access fees,
And left over 135 million people strategically vulnerable.
To this day, Arkebe has shown no remorse or accountability for this national wound.
Yet now he suddenly positions himself as a guardian of Eritrea’s interests, pretending to speak for Ethiopia, while echoing Eritrean talking points and attacking Ethiopia’s attempt to solve the very crisis he and his organization created.
This is hypocrisy of the highest level.
If Arkebe truly understood “international law,” he would acknowledge that no sovereign nation of Ethiopia’s size, population, and strategic weight can remain permanently land-locked.
Not through aggression or expansionism, but through negotiation, mutual benefit, and regional stability—principles fully recognized in international norms.
Instead of pretending to educate Ethiopians about borders, Arkebe should be explaining:
Why TPLF leaders accepted Eritrea’s secession without securing permanent maritime rights,
Why Ethiopia was left without a treaty guaranteeing sovereign port access,
And why such a catastrophic decision was made behind closed doors with no national participation.
Until he answers these fundamental questions, Arkebe Oqubay has no moral authority to lecture anyone about Ethiopia’s national interests.
He should be expressing regret—not attacking the current leadership for trying to correct the geopolitical disaster he helped create.
The world witnessed what Arkebe and TPLF did in 1993, and today he is repeating the same posture—aligning himself with Eritrea against Ethiopia, a country he once politically dominated while pretending to serve it.
The sun has set on that era.
The game for TPLF—and for those who still cling to that legacy—is over.