Addis Fortune (Addis Ababa)
Omer Redi
10 June 2008
Addis Ababa — Berhane Deressa is a man with a colossal wealth of experience as a diplomat, as a civil servant and in international organizations that spans a period of more than two decades.
After two retirements, he went on to become something he had never dreamt of being in his entire life, a Mayor. He is famous for his remark that refers to himself as a "firefighter" mayor. After graduating from Addis Abeba University back in 1962 with a Bachelors Degree in History, he then went on to achieve a joint Bachelors in Economics and Political Science from Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs in 1995. His Masters Degree in International Law and Organizations was obtained from the same university. Just a week after his two-year stint as the Mayor of Addis Abeba ended owing to elections, resulting in the handing over of the mayoral key to the newly elected Kuma Demeksa, Berhane sat down with Omer Redi, Fortune Staff Writer in an interview, highlighted below, that touched on his personal and professional life.
Earlier in your life you were working at the UN, World Bank and as a diplomat for previous Ethiopian governments. Tell me a little bit more about those times.
In the early sixties up to 1969, I served as Ethiopia's diplomat at the UN. I started from the lowest diplomatic rank of Third Secretary then rose up the ladder to Second and First Secretary before becoming Counselor. By the time I left, I was the Charge De Affairs of Ethiopian Mission to the UN. During that period, I also served, both as a diplomat and expert, in several UN committees and fact-finding missions, including the De-colonization Committee, or the Committee of 24 and the Committee on Prevention of the Flow of Refugees. My service at the UN stretches over a period of almost a decade. Then I left the UN system and the diplomatic service and joined Columbia University where I was a Research Fellow for a programme established by the Carnegie Foundation.
That means around the beginning of 1969, right?
Yes. After that, around 1971, I returned for a short period to the Foreign Ministry in Addis Abeba where I worked for a while. Then I took a job with the World Bank as Technical Advisor to the Executive Director for Africa and some countries in the Caribbean. Following the 1974 revolution, I was called back to Addis and served at the Foreign Affairs Ministry as Head of Americas Department and then as Head of International Organizations Department.
After that, I was purged out of the diplomatic service for reasons no one knew for sure, but I think the excuse given was my family background and western orientation. Then I was transferred to the then Ministry of Domestic Trade, a ministry which I really didn't have any idea about, following which I joined the state Ethiopian Household and Office Furniture Enterprise (ETHOFE) as a salesman of television sets, home equipment, used cars and so on.
Was it in your own interest?
No. I was moved out of the Domestic Trade Ministry and put into this state enterprise. So basically I became a furniture salesman and believe it or not, it was an enjoyable new area of work for me. That gave me a new horizon and field of experience. It sounds funny now, but I enjoyed being a salesman, a super one, in Addis. And then, one fine morning, I was called back into service and was assigned as Deputy Commissioner for the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission. This was at the height of the Ethiopian famine.
I'm interested in the period you worked as a salesperson, a super one as you described yourself. Didn't you, at that time, feel anything bad and consider leaving the country like most people did in those days?
Not really, for two reasons. I will be honest with you. First, the remuneration in state enterprises was better than government salaries. Perks, such as a government vehicle, which most senior government officials didn't have, were also made available to me. There was less tension because it was almost a private sector kind of job. Nobody from the then ruling party was there to bruise your neck. We just sold furniture. More than that, the fact that it was a new profession for me - I lived all my life as a diplomat and after 11 years in New York I came back to Addis and literally sat in ETHOFE office and sold television sets, knives, forks, and bedding, among other things - was quite fascinating for me.
That particular business related experience; did it have any impact in terms of tempting you to start a business? Do you have one right now?
No. I don't have a business, neither do I have any inclination to get into business. Basically, I'm a technocrat.
Let me take you back one month or so before you became Mayor of the Addis Abeba Caretaker Administration and your life prior to that. That is, before you were informed that you had been chosen as Mayor. Had you ever dreamt of becoming a mayor one day?
No, not at all. In fact, if anybody had suggested that to me at a time of peace and tranquility, I would not only have frowned at it, but also run away because the last job I ever wanted was being involved in a city government of any kind. Especially the Addis Abeba municipality, in my days, was famous for its archaic way of doing things, for its bureaucracy and so on. The municipality was known to be a place where files and people got lost. So it had a bad reputation during the emperor's time and during the Derg regime it was a place where the 'Red Terror' was organized. One of the leaders of that campaign was allegedly the then Mayor of Addis Abeba. I say allegedly because I don't know that for sure. But the popular view was that it was a terrible place to work. But then I was asked to be Mayor right after the 2005 elections.
I remember the time and the situation after the May 2005 elections during which you came to the municipality office. It was a time of violence, a time when the government machinery in Addis Abeba had totally stopped. The city was in a critical situation in many aspects. There were clashing political views among people and among political parties. Under such conditions, I imagine it was a risky business to get in to. Didn't it appear that way to you?
Yes, definitely. The atmosphere was very tense. The opposition and ruling parties were at loggerheads. There was the smell of burning tyres in the streets and demonstrations took place. Very strong emotions were expressed on both sides. But when I was asked, at first I thought that I was going to lead a group of people who would work on calming the situation. Then I realized that what they really wanted was someone who would actually takeover the day-to-day running of the city as a Mayor. The word for mayor in Amharic, Kentiba, as you know, is a magical word here. In the past, it was really giant men who took that job, especially during Menelik's and Haileselassie's times. It was a job given to people of high stature and their role was very, very important. So I thought it was a joke; I didn't even take it seriously when they asked me to be a Mayor.
Who exactly informed you that you had been chosen to be Mayor?
Well, first there were a series of discussions and negotiations during which nobody mentioned that I had been chosen to be Mayor. But then emissaries of the Government, whom I had never seen before, came to me and said the city needed someone of my background, someone who was elderly who would be able to lead a new group that - as the parliament has decided to have a caretaker government - would take over the city's administration.
So you were informed after parliament had made the decision?
Yes. A decision to have an interim, Caretaker Government.
After that decision, the Prime Minster came up with a list of names, including yours, of cabinet members of the City Administration. Did you know the PM was going to mention your name at Parliament?
Yes, at that point because it was after discussions with my colleagues and I that he mentioned nine names, including mine, of those who would be members of cabinet.
Did the PM discus this with you before that time? Did he talk to you?
Yes, we talked at length. So it was like a call of national duty. I come from a family whose members were called to duty to defend the country and to go on peacekeeping missions in Korea and Congo. So it was a national service, which you cannot resist. That is how I looked at this job. So I said 'yes' to the PM, who asked only for one year of my life. I had retired from my job with the Ethiopian government 10 years earlier and from the World Bank 5 years before that. So it was after I had retired twice that this offer came.
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