Last Friday, the Ethiopian government declared a six-month nationwide state of emergency, invoking a grave threat to the constitutional order. The emergency, the second in less than a year, was announced a day after the resignation of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, in what he described as a bid to "smooth the path for political reform".

At the moment, however grave the political situation in the country may be, there is no imminent threat to the vital interests of the state, legitimising the declaration of a state of emergency. Consequently, this emergency, like the one before it, has less to do with protecting the constitutional order than reproducing and legitimising violence aimed at the elimination of political adversaries.

Former prime minister and chairman of the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF)Meles Zenawi was in firm control of the state machinery and institutions until his death in 2012. To this day, Tigrayan ruling elites, which represent about 6 percent of the country's population, dominate the country's political, economic, and security sectors. The Oromos and Amharas, the two largest ethnic groups that make up about 65 percent of the country's population, and that are represented by the Oromo Peoples' Democratic Organization (OPDO) and the Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM), on the other hand, have practically been subordinated. 

This emergency will serve as a legal and political masquerade behind which TPLF's domination, with all its menacing ideological complexities, will continue to function not only to repress the population into submission, but also to drive a wedge between the country's various ethnic groups. 

This state of emergency is not a security measure designed to protect the constitutional order; it is a hostile act intended to punish those voices calling for change. Although announced as a nationwide emergency, the Oromo and the Amhara regions, the hotbeds of the protests, would be affected the most. 

Megersa, a charismatic, well-spoken, and transformational leader able to entice people across nationalist divides, made a bold and positive case for Ethiopia, arguing that Ethiopian-ness is addictive and that Oromo are the quintessential Ethiopians who protected the integrity and sovereignty of the Ethiopian state with their blood. An Oromo nationalist, Megersa successfully articulated the notion that Oromo nationalism is not the anti-thesis of Ethiopian nationalism, and that being an Oromo and Ethiopian are not two mutually exclusive identities, but rather should be seen as mutually reinforcing imperatives. 

However, it is Ahmed, the technocratic, verstile, and ambitious operator of the OPDO that is most likely to be crowned as the next Prime Minister of Ethiopia.

Greater freedom means addressing the systemic and structural inequities at the core of the political order, and pursuing the public policy objectives of widening the democratic space and fostering national consensus set out by the party, under a new and visionary leadership.