Math Meets PP Myth: 30 Million Tree Planters PP's Logic That Got Lost in the Forest
Excerpt
The PP regime proclaimed that 30 million Ethiopians planted trees in a single day — one sunrise, one countrywide mobilisation. Our math says this is less forestry and more fantasy. After filtering out children, retirees, and the unemployed, the “pool” shrinks — then reality slashes it further: logistics, transport, tools, water, supervision. In the debut of Math Meets PP Myth [1], we run a one-sunrise sanity check and strip the leaves off the claim until only the bare arithmetic — and the absurdity — remain.
30 Million, Really?
Numbers don’t lie — but the way they’re told can make you question your sanity.
The latest gem from the PP regime’s propaganda orchard came courtesy of Faarseebulaa reporters via Hiriya Dhufera and Jawar Adam on Prime Media [2], and no doubt other mainstream PP media like ETV, Fana TV and OBN: 30 million people went out to plant tree seedlings in one day (“one sunrise” as Faarseebulaa Jawar Adam emphasized) as part of the ruling party’s “Green Legacy” now in its seventh year.
Thirty. Million. Tree. Planters.
In a single day — one sunrise to sunset.
At this rate, not only should Ethiopia be a lush, unbroken forest — the moon should be getting its first eucalyptus grove.
Wait — it gets even leafier. We’re also told that the grand total of trees planted so far is somewhere between five and seven billion. We have lost track — and apparently, so have they — so let’s be generous and settle for the lower figure: a modest five billion, even two billion for that matter.
At that rate, the country should be so thick with foliage that even Google Earth would give up trying to find the ground. You’d expect to be able to swing vine-to-vine from Finfinnee to Moyale without touching the dirt.
But here’s a wild thought: is it possible to actually inspect the trees allegedly planted 5, 6, or 7 years ago? Or have they quietly vanished into the same misty realm where last year’s economic growth figures live?
Or perhaps — and this is the more efficient theory — the same holes are reused and recycled every year. Plant, photograph, pull out, repeat. If true, this green agenda isn’t about trees at all — it’s about perfecting Ethiopia’s most circular economy yet: the perpetual tree-hole industry.
Arithmetic Biopsy
Ethiopia’s population hovers around 120 million. According to ISS African Futures, 39% are under 15 (so, no chainsaws for them), and 4% are in retirement age. That’s 43% out of the running right away — leaving us with a pool of 68.4 million possible planters.
Now, strip away the 19% who are unemployed and not exactly lining up for government photo-ops, and you’re left with roughly 55 million people.
By the way, those who actually went out to plant are the easily traceable — employees herded through workplaces, civil servants summoned by local administration offices. We’re not even sure the majority of rural residents are aware such a campaign exists, apart from the tiny fraction holding local positions.
In short, that 55-million “potential planter” pool shrinks dramatically once you remove those outside the regime’s immediate reach. In reality, the figure could easily drop below 30 million — but let’s be charitable and keep it just above, if only to sustain the PP claim rather than dismiss it outright.
Even then, it would mean that nearly the entire workforce of the empire was out planting trees — everyone, from doctors and nurses to police and security forces, from soldiers to utility crews. All hands, all sectors, all at once. Just imagine that: a country where essential services vanish for a day so the government can stage its grand numerical theatre.
One-Sunrise Sanity Check.
If 30,000,000 people really planted that day, the regime also claims they put 714 million seedlings into the ground. That’s not 10 each — that’s 23.8 seedlings per person.
Picture it: every adult, from bank clerks to bus conductors, spending their one sunrise-to-sunset shift as a turbocharged seedling machine. No lunch, no bathroom breaks — just plant, plant, plant until the stopwatch says propaganda achieved.
Now factor in supply:
At 10,000 seedlings per truck, that’s 71,400 truckloads. Sure, let’s be generous and imagine the seedlings were strategically raised in nurseries scattered across the country. But wait — does the regime really possess that level of strategic thinking and logistical foresight? We both know the answer. No need to linger on the question; the verdict was in before it was asked.
Watering just once at 0.5 litres per seedling equals 357 million litres — about 143 Olympic pools — all delivered in a single day. Let’s leave that to “rainwater.” And not just any rainwater — the kind the PP regime can apparently summon at will. Yes, seriously — Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has publicly claimed he can make it rain.
And somehow, all this happened without shutting down the economy, public transport, and half the country’s essential services. Remember 30 million on tree-planting duty!
And here’s the kicker: the claim is that more than half of the reachable planter pool — 30 million people — were out planting trees on the same day. Imagine the mayhem. Every other adult you know, gone. Buses empty, shops closed, construction sites abandoned, mothers dragging toddlers into the field, accountants swapping calculators for shovels.
This isn’t just bad math — it’s theatrical math. It’s the kind of figure you throw out when you believe the only calculator your audience owns is their imagination.
Maybe, just maybe, the intended number was 30 thousand.
But here’s the beauty: the million is glaringly stamped into the Prime Media title, paired with a rhyming simile clearly engineered for propaganda effect — bold, unmissable, impossible to overlook. There’s no way we could have mistaken it.
And tucked inside was a subtle side message, almost like an inside joke: “To Rob 30 Million Birr or to Parade 30 Million People to Plant Trees” — a line seemingly designed to take a sly swipe at a certain rumour mill.
After all, “thousand” doesn’t roll off the propaganda tongue quite as majestically as “million.” After all, the bigger the number, the greener the myth.
References
- Math Meets PP Myth: Series Launch, 11 August 2025, OROMIA TODAY.
- 30 ሚልዮን ብር መዝረፍና ፤ 30 ሚልዮን ህዝብን አሰልፎ ችግኝ ማስተከል … | ዐበይት ጉዳዮች, 4 August 2025, Prime Media, YouTube.
