Within Oromia, all sovereign authority emanates from the Oromo people, which they will exercise directly through popular participation in decision-making, or indirectly through their representatives. OFC maintains that Oromo people will be the sole, sovereign and collective authors of their destiny as a nation. In this regard, they shall exercise full authority to shape their economic organization as well as their social and cultural character. In practice, OFC works to ensure and preserve the Oromo peoples’ rights to administer their land and utilize its resources; to use and develop their language; to nurture their identity and promote their culture; and to write, narrate, and preserve their history and collective memories.
While the Ethiopian Constitution stipulates that people possess exclusive right to land ownership and grants regional states the power to control and administer land, the Federal Land Administration Proclamation (Proclamation No. 456/ 2005), makes the government the owner of rural land, authorizes the transfer of land from smallholders to private holdings. The law that authorized the dispossession of smallholder land is unconstitutional and violates the state’s jurisdiction over the administration of land. It has caused tremendous suffering in recent years. OFC will work to end this law to ensure property rights and the federal arrangement.
The regional state’s right to levy taxes should be untrammeled and unabridged.