Ethiopia is Africa’s next superpower but here are four boxes it needs to tick

Find a stipulative condition for ethnic groups to live together

Ethiopia is a country of more than 70 ethnic groups with diverse linguistic and other cultural elements. The biggest group, the Oromo, accounts for about 40% of Ethiopians.

Sculpting a nation out of this critical mass has taken all the time since World War II. The difficulty of this task is not surprising but what is is that Ethiopia has in the past rather focused on befuddling irredentist warfare against Eritrea (according to a ruling in The Hague, Eritrea was the aggressor but Ethiopia seemed to have used the war as a patriotic rallying point to unite its people).

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and his predecessors have had to contend with various degrees of ethnic insurgency in spite of the country running an essentially ethnic federal system of government. But Ahmed is hopeful and hope is a good ingredient when preparing for the future.

Ethiopia will need to have a united nation or risk implosion. This fact is even more fundamental beyond superpower ambitions.