As Prime Minister @AbiyAhmedAli has stated, the historical struggle of the Oromo people was directed against unjust administrative systems, political exclusion, and failures of governance, not against Ethiopia as a nation.
At the same time, Oromo individuals and communities who participated in Ethiopia’s state formation did not set out to create, institutionalize, or perpetuate an unjust political and administrative order. Their participation was, rather, driven by the pursuit of political inclusion, justice, security, stability, and a more equitable system of governance.
The injustices that emerged through the state-formation process should therefore be understood as failures and contradictions of political institutions and systems of governance, not as the intended project of the Oromos who participated in shaping the Ethiopian state.
Recognizing this distinction is essential: the Oromo struggle for justice should not be conflated with opposition to Ethiopia itself, just as Oromo participation in state formation should not be equated with the injustices that subsequently emerged from the political order.