The Ethiopian prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, has repeated separate occasions that his country has a population of 120 million and that their landlocked country would not survive economically if Ethiopia does not get an ocean access. He argues that his country spends around $1.6 billion dollars for port fees, and he instead prefer to have an ocean access with or without force. Abiy’s ambition is to have a free Red Sea access to build a port and then to save the money that now Ethiopian spends.

As we all know, there are more than forty-one landlocked countries around the globe, and Ethiopia is one of them. We have never heard those landlocked countries such as Austria, Tajikistan, Zambia, Uganda, or Bolivia who complain and threaten to other countries for free sea access. Instead, all landlocked countries pay port fees with appreciation.

Every country prefers to get free resources from other countries, but that would not be possible. For instance, India and China have a population of 2.9 billion. Both countries consume twenty million barrels of oil each day, which costs them billions of dollars. India and China have never asked oil producing countries such as Russia and Saudi Arabia to get a free oil wells to save the billions of dollars that they current spend and never have complaint the huge money they spend on oil imports. Alternatively, countries can negotiate for lower port fees or commodity prices, but free is out of the topic. Does Abiy Ahmed understand that oceans are like other resources such as oil, timber, gold and diamond, copper, and iron?

Ethiopia should stop the meaningless argument, which says if Ethiopia gets a free ocean, it will become a rich country and escapes the dire poverty. Before now, Ethiopia had an ocean access (Eritrea) when the worst famine occurred in 1983 to 1985. If ocean access resolves poverty, that famine in Ethiopia would not have occurred at all.

The Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Ethiopian politicians should find better ways to improve the country’s overall economy to eliminate the poverty. One of the best methods to reduce the poverty is to invest the education of the country. Second, the population reduction is another way to lower the poverty because Ethiopia does not have enough resources, so the high population growth would increase the unemployment and poverty rate. Finally, the Ethiopian government should not think and search the ocean that it does not own for free, instead, they should improve their economy and pay port fees as other landlocked countries do.