Dr. Merera Gudina is a professor and politician in Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

. He is the leader of the Oromo People's Congress

Oromo People's Congress

The Oromo People's Congress is one of the major opposition political parties in Ethiopia. It was founded in April 1996 under the name of Oromo National Congress by Dr. Merera Gudina, who is currently its chairman...

 (OPC), a political party based on the Oromo people

Oromo people

The Oromo are an ethnic group found in Ethiopia, northern Kenya, .and parts of Somalia. With 30 million members, they constitute the single largest ethnic group in Ethiopia and approximately 34.49% of the population according to the 2007 census...

 which is opposed to the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front

Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front

The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front is the ruling political coalition in Ethiopia. It is an alliance of four other groups: the Oromo Peoples' Democratic Organization , the Amhara National Democratic Movement , the South Ethiopian Peoples' Democratic Front The Ethiopian People's...

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Merera began his college education at Addis Ababa University

Addis Ababa University

Addis Ababa University is a university in Ethiopia. It was originally named "University College of Addis Ababa" at its founding, then renamed for the former Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie I in 1962, receiving its current name in 1975.Although the university has six of its seven campuses within...

 (AAU), but was imprisoned for seven years due to participating in protests against the dictatorship of Mengistu Haile Mariam

Mengistu Haile Mariam

Mengistu Haile Mariam is a politician who was formerly the most prominent officer of the Derg, the Communist military junta that governed Ethiopia from 1974 to 1987, and the President of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia from 1987 to 1991...

. After his release, Merera went to Egypt to complete his education at the American University in Cairo

American University in Cairo

The American University in Cairo is an independent, non-profit, apolitical, secular institution of higher learning located in Cairo, Egypt...

. Merera received his doctorate July 2002 from the Institute of Social Studies

Institute of Social Studies

The International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam in The Hague is a unique, independent and international graduate school in the social sciences...

, at the Hague

The Hague

The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...

 in the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

. Under the direction of professors M.R. Doornbos and M.A.R.M. Salih, he completed his thesis, "Ethiopia: competing ethnic nationalisms and the quest for democracy, 1960-2000". As of 2009, Merera is an associate professor of political science at AAU. He participates in several scholarly conferences worldwide, including in the United States, concerning political and social developments of Ethiopia.

Political career

Dr. Merera founded the Oromo National Congress (ONC) in 1996, which became the largest Oromo opposition group by parliament seats after the 2005 national elections. His ONC had allied with several other parties to form the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces

United Ethiopian Democratic Forces

The United Ethiopian Democratic Forces is a coalition of several existing political parties of Ethiopia which combined to compete for seats in the Ethiopian General Elections held on May 15, 2005....

. Due to a court decision in 2007 which awarded the name of the ONC to a splinter group, the original ONC assumed a new name, the Oromo people's Congress.

Dr. Merera believes in the self-determination of Oromo people and self-rule under Ethiopia umbrella. His party also wants to make Afan Oromo

Oromo language

Oromo, also known as Afaan Oromo, Oromiffa, Afan Boran, Afan Orma, and sometimes in other languages by variant spellings of these names , is an Afro-Asiatic language, and the most widely spoken of the Cushitic family. Forms of Oromo are spoken as a first language by more than 25 million Oromo and...

 the co-official language of Ethiopia to empower Oromo people politically, socially and economically. Regarding Oromia secession, he opposes the idea based on mutual strategic and national interest of Oromo and other peoples. Dr. Merera has also said Oromo people have historically participated in the creation of Modern Ethiopia, including the monarchy. During a parliament discussion with the ruling party, Dr. Merera made the observation, "Oromia is the stem of Ethiopia; a stem can not secede, only branches can fall off the stem."his layer

As of January 2010, Dr. Merera is the co-chairman of the OPC and the chairman of Medrek

Medrek

Medrek is an Ethiopian opposition political coalition founded in 2008 which contested the Ethiopian general election, 2010. In that election, Medrek won a single seat in the Council of People's Representatives, representing an electoral district in Addis Ababa. This was allegedly due to lack of...

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