(Blog) Ethiopia scoreboard Jimma University=One, Addis University= Zero

By Blogger Jaalala

This might be the best opportunity for Jimma University to take a quick jab at Addis Ababa University and make fun of AAU, so i am doing it for them here in my blog.

Well, the news yesterday of Dr. Gebisa Ejeta winning the World Food Prize caught me by surprise but also pride. According to WLFI media, this WFP award is considered the NOBEL PRIZE of agriculture. Gebisa is the first black man and African to be the sole winner of this award. In the award's history, only one other African man (Dr. Montey Jones of Sierra Leone) won this award but he was a CO-recipient, very different from being the sole winner.

Anyway, what matters is AAU alumni have zero WFP or Nobel Prizes but JU has one. According to the news, Dr. Gebisa was first educated in higher learning in agriculture at Jimma University's former branch. So he owes his beginnings and foundations to Jimma U.

I don't see AAU catching up to JU in the medal table or actually i don't see AAU ever getting one of these international awards. By the time AAU somehow gets one award, JU probably will have two or three. It is time to change the hierarchy and classifications in Ethiopia. Jimma University is becoming the best university in Ethiopia and soon one of the best in Africa. But all the attention is always on AAU and all the resources keep going to Mekele University of Tigray. AAU has not produced the best in agriculture, engineering or medical fields. I have seen many more JU learned doctors excelling in Ethiopia as well as outside Ethiopia in the west. JU is also the best and the first in innovative community oriented Education. JU will continue to be one of the top in health sciences but the government should not treat it as second or third best university.

Despite its many achievements, JU faces many problems. Today, at this minute, Jimma University has no electricity, no power. It has been DARK like this almost the whole week! AAU and others have generators. Why not Jimma University? The funniest part of this darkness in JU is that Tomorrow is graduation day! How are people supposed to prepare for graduation? This is a shame! The Oromia and Ethiopian government do not know their priorities.

The Second problem and most importantly, STOP BUYING JU PROFESSORS FOR MEKELLE UNIVERSITY! The number of former JU professors currently bought and tranferred to Mekele University is trully staggering! I am not saying this for politics. I am talking about just fairness. This systematic salary-based stealing of JU professors by MU must stop.

It is time for the government to give JU some respect. And oh yeah, in your face AAU!

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