Self- government is an important subject in the politics of most capital cities. ‘Local self-government denotes the right and the ability of local authorities, within the limits of the law, to regulate and manage a substantial share of public affairs under their own responsibility and in the interests of the local population. In Ethiopia context ‘Every Nation, Nationality and People in Ethiopia has an unconditional right to self-determination, including the right to secession. It is provided in the FDRE constitution that the residents of Addis Ababa shall have a full measure of self-government. The very important question that should be raised here is that are self-determination and self-government one and the same? It seems that the constitution is not considering them as one and the same. The general objective of this research was to critically analyze the trends that erode the self-governing natural right of Addis Ababa city residents. Accordingly, the Specific objectives were: Discussing the concept of a self-government; Examining the level of the self-government right of Addis Ababa city residents; Identify barriers that hinder the full measure of self-government of Addis Ababa; and Assessing how much the city charter, other legislations and, administrative and political decisions are eroding the self-ruling rights of the city residents.rnIn order to address the research objective the research used mainly legal analysis. Accordingly, the research concludes that the FDRE constitution doesn’t address equally the Addis Ababa residents as compare to ethnically defined communities who resides in regional states. Secondly , as the research finds out the charter failed to address and erodes the self-governing right of Addis Ababa residents that are enshrined in the constitution. Thirdly, other laws, administrative practices and court decisions have the pattern of eroding the self-governing right of Addis Ababa city residents. Overall, the constitution and the tendency of the federal government’s legislative, executive and judicial bodies, showed that the natural right of self-governing right of the Addis Ababa city residents is being overlooked in many ways.