Language is one of the various federal issues that have not yet been adequately addressed and continued to be an issue of contention between the centripetal and centrifugal forces in the Ethiopian federal system. As such, it is not only the fact of multilingualism that characterizes the federal setting in Ethiopia today; but also a political odd based on language differences that needs due attention. After more than two decades of history as a federation, there is a contention regarding the working language at the federal level and a demand for the recognition of other languages at the center. In this piece it is contended that, within the context of highly institutionalized ethnic politics like the one in Ethiopia, recognizing another local language as a federal working language would not resolve the political odd surrounding language; rather it would simply lead to similar other demands that could be hardly entertained. Hence, considering an alien language, particularly English, as the working language of the federal government by revoking the language currently serving such a purpose could possibly solve the political quagmire surrounding language and would also make the country better equipped to benefit from the global capital market.