We Eritreans Deserve a Constitutional Republic, Not a Private Empire

19/01/2026 18:32 PM

We Eritreans Deserve a Constitutional Republic, Not a Private Empire

A Response to the January 12-13 Interview with Isaias Afwerki

by Dr. Negassi Hadgu

We Eritreans Deserve a Constitutional Republic, Not a Private Empire
by Dr. Negassi Hadgu

A Response to the January 12-13 Interview with Isaias Afwerki

On January 13, 2026, Shabait published “Highlights of Local Media Interview with President Isaias Afwerki.” In this text, the authoritarian ruler Isaias speaks not as an accountable head of state, but as if he were the chairman of a global think tank. He offers sweeping commentary on "unipolar orders," the "MAGA doctrine," and regional geopolitics.

However, we Eritreans are entitled to ask one unavoidable question: How can the authoritarian ruler who has denied us constitutional governance for more than three decades credibly present himself as a strategist for the world?

The central issue facing Eritrea is not the "global order" or foreign policy rhetoric. The central issue is the total absence of the rule of law at home, a void that has turned our people’s hard-won independence into a prolonged national tragedy.

1. The Promise of Independence Has Been Hijacked

Eritrea’s independence was won through blood and sacrifice so that citizens could live with dignity, rights, and accountable government. Instead, for decades, our nation has been held hostage by a predatory clique masquerading as a government.

The PFDJ regime of tyrant Isaias Afewerki operates less like a state and more like a criminal enterprise. It has silenced truth, exiled conscience, and fed on fear. It has systematically dismantled our societal fabric and plundered national resources. This is not merely political failure; it is an existential threat to the long-term survival of Eritrea as a viable, independent nation.

2. The PFDJ is a Phantom Party

We must speak plainly about the machinery of this repression. The People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ) is presented to the world as a ruling political party. But a real party is defined by structures, internal accountability, regular congresses, and policy debate.

None of this exists in Eritrea. The PFDJ has become a hollow shell, a banner used to justify the autocrat Isaias Afwerki's personal rule. There are no national elections, no party congresses, and no institutions that represent citizens (Freedom House, 2023; U.S. Department of State, 2024). Therefore, our struggle is not against a legitimate political organization; our struggle is against an unelected tyrant and his clique ruling by force under a defunct banner.

3. "Global Analysis" as a Strategy of Evasion

In the Shabait interview, tyrant Isaias speaks at length about the United States, NATO, the EU, Sudan, and the Red Sea. This is a deliberate tactic: talk endlessly about external forces so citizens do not talk about internal accountability.

His fixation on the "MAGA Doctrine" and memories of "constructive engagement" is not geopolitical insight; it is a desperate plea for transactional immunity. He hopes that by flattering specific U.S. political trends, he can secure a deal that ignores his domestic crimes. He treats the global order as a chessboard where his personal survival is the only objective, and the Eritrean people are merely pawns to be traded.

The totalitarian’s hypocrisy reaches its peak when he describes the Ethiopian government as a "lazy, poor, cowardly, and greedy regime" (senef, neday, ferah, sisue). It is ironic that the delusional Isaias uses the word "poor" when his own regime survives only by extorting the diaspora after destroying the domestic economy. He mocks another government as "cowardly," yet he is the one who is too terrified to hold an election, implement the constitution, or allow a single independent newspaper to operate.

Furthermore, he decries "external interference" in Sudan while his own forces have repeatedly crossed borders to wage war, destabilizing the entire Horn of Africa and beyond.

The absurdity of his priorities was laid bare at the very conclusion of the interview. When the state-media journalists indicated they had finished their questions, the dictator reportedly snapped at them in anger: "No! You should have asked me about Gaza and Somalia." He then dismissed them with a command to prepare themselves to ask him about these topics in the near future. This moment captures the tragedy of our nation: We have a ruler who is desperate to pontificate on the crises in Gaza and Mogadishu yet refuses to address the catastrophe he has created in our own living rooms.

While authoritarian Isaias analyzes the debt of the United States and issues in Europe, Sudan and Venezuela, we Eritreans are asking concrete, domestic questions:

1) Where is the constitution?

2) Where is the audit of the PFDJ’s opaque business conglomerates?

3) Where is the legislature that represents the citizens?

4) Where is the independent judiciary to protect the weak from the powerful?

An authoritarian ruler who fears scrutiny at home cannot command respect abroad.

4. Infrastructure without Rights is not "Development"

The autocrat Isaias frequently announces grand schemes, roads, dams, and mining projects, yet these plans lack transparency, public debate, or independent oversight. Development has become a yearly empty monologue rather than a concrete public contract.

The authoritarian Isaias’s mention of "nuclear energy" in his 2026-2030 roadmap is the height of delusional governance. A regime that has failed to provide consistent electricity, potable water, or basic internet to its capital city for 35 years has no business promising nuclear power. It is a hallucination meant to dazzle the gullible, while our hospitals lack medicine and our schools lack teachers.

You cannot build a modern economy by draining the country of its most valuable resource: its people. International human rights reporting has repeatedly documented how indefinite national service and arbitrary detention are driving the youth into exile (UN Human Rights Council, 2024; Amnesty International, 2025). Promises of high-tech power are an insult to a population that lives in fear of the next roundup (giffa).

5. The Diaspora Trap: Investment without Protection

In his interview, tyrant Isaias emphasizes the vital role of the diaspora in his 2026-2030 development plan. He views Eritreans abroad not as citizens with rights, but as financiers for his failing state.

He demands their capital while denying them the vote. He invites investment into a legal void where no independent court exists to protect property, and where the state can seize assets on a whim. He asks those he drove into exile to fund the very system that expelled them. This is not a partnership; it is financial entrapment.

6. From Governance to State Capture

A legitimate government serves the public under the law. It can be questioned. It is restrained by a constitution.

What we are living under is state fear, forced labor, and the pain of extrajudicial killing. Power is concentrated in one man and a small circle; decisions are made in secrecy; and obedience is enforced by intimidation rather than consent. Under this model, Eritrea is treated not as a nation of citizens, but as a private territory to be managed.

The victory of 1991 has been repurposed into a private empire where:

1) Truth is treated as treason, and independent voices are punished.

2) Conscience is exiled, as countless Eritreans are forced to flee their own homeland.

3) Fear is a governing tool, used to break civic trust and prevent collective action.

7. Isolation is a Policy Choice, Not a Conspiracy

In the interview, tyrant Isaias blames outsiders for everything, such as sanctions, "lobbyists," and foreign conspiracies. He refuses to acknowledge a simple reality: Eritrea has been pushed into isolation not by fate, but by policy.

A nation becomes a pariah when its rulers choose repression, secrecy, and the militarization of civilian life. A state that criminalizes its own citizens cannot earn legitimacy abroad.

Conclusion: Eritrea is Bigger Than One Man

The interview of January 13, 2026, will be remembered not for the tyrant Isaias’s geopolitical theories, but as proof of his total detachment from the suffering of our people.

Eritreans are not asking for the impossible. We are asking for what every free people deserves:

1) Constitutional rule in reality, not just in slogans.

2) Accountable institutions instead of one-man command.

3) A future for the youth inside Eritrea, not only in exile.

4) National service that is limited and lawful, not indefinite and life-consuming.

5) Independent courts, a free press, and protection from arbitrary detention.

Eritrea belongs to its people, not to a phantom party, not to a rogue and predatory security-apparatus clique, and not to an authoritarian ruler who governs without consent. The era of fear and extrajudicial killings must end. The era of the rule of law, dignity, freedom, liberty, and citizenship must begin.

References

1. Amnesty International. (2025). Oral statement to the UN Human Rights Council (58th session).

2. Freedom House. (2024). Transnational Repression Report.

3. United Nations Human Rights Council. (2024). Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea.

4. U.S. Department of State. (2024). 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Eritrea.

Victory to the Eritrean people.

God bless Eritrea.

A fellow Eritrean committed to freedom, liberty and justice for all,
Dr. Negassi Hadgu
14 January 2026

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