Makwawia give Kikwete friend advice to save the country

H.E. Mr Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete,
President of the UR of Tanzania,
The State House,
Dar es Salaam.

Dear Mr President,
I WOULD like to take this opportunity to congratulate you, Mr President, for being re-elected president of this country for the second and, by the Constitution, last term.

But it has not been an easy vote. The spell of time prior and after the vote was a difficult one. It was marred with tension – considerable tension. For the first time as a citizen of this country I was a scared man. I feared for the worst, especially after the vote. Why?

It was obvious for every level headed person especially senior citizens of this country like me who have been privileged to be alive all the last elections after independence that there was a huge crack on the very wall of national foundation of peace and stability in this country.

For the first time in our life as a nation, religious groups were coming up with a political agenda in the run up to elections. For the first time because hitherto, mixing religion with politics was never in the political culture of our country nor was it entertained. So when these groups came up with an agenda presented ostensibly to impart “civic education” to their respective followers, some of us knew immediately that we were headed for big trouble in this country.

Now that the dust has settled, let no one come up and tell you that these classes of “civic education” in the houses of worship were about national patriotism or voter education. No! For what I know today, it was quite something else! Individual names were shouted now and again in some houses of worship as the “weapons” against perceived ills and injustices in our country, real or imaginary!

That the worst did not happen after the announcement of the outcome of the vote such as attacking each other’s houses of worship or jumping on each other’s throats is largely thanks to inborn maturity of Tanzanians; thanks to the firm foundation stone of national unity above tribal and religious divide firmly laid down by the Father of our Nation, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere.

You will recall, Ndugu President, that one of the last words of Mwalimu Nyerere, I would venture say his will to us, especially to leaders of this country, especially the top leader which is your good self - is to nurture on a permanent basis the good seed of national unity and cohesiveness above the religious and tribal divide.

Now that you have won the second term, please put this aspect of forging national unity, not sporadically like a bout of fever, but on a permanent continuous presidential agenda. For, you will agree, Ndugu President, that this country, even at 49 years independence, is still as fragile as any other. Just imagine older countries in terms of attainment of political independence such as Guinea (Conakry) are just now strife-stricken especially after elections compounded by tribalism.

There is another thing that I want to impress on you. You need to do a serious postmortem which should be joined not only by your top brass but by other members of your party from the rank and file. I hasten to alert you from the outset that if you will do the postmortem on the performance of your party confined only to the top brass of the leadership of your party, you will wind up no where. You see, Mwenyekiti - Chairman, some of us worsen in terms of intellectual mobility when old age catches up with us!

If you consult, us old people, we are bound to tell you: ‘There is nothing to worry… After all CCM is 5 million strong, so there is no problem…?’ Hahahahaha! If this is the argument, where did those guys in fatigues get all those hundreds and thousands of people, especially young people everywhere they staged a rally?

Clearly, there is a problem, Mwenyekiti! My reading of the huge crowds attending the rally by the men in fatigues is that there is clearly a vacuum, an ideological vacuum. This party has stopped to think. All it is thinking about is how to win the next election! Sorry for this brutal language, but please get ready for hard talk if you want to turn your party around! Please position yourself as if sitting in a dentist’s chair!

If it was a thinking party, it should have been able to read the moment of the hour. What are the aspirations of the people of this country? What do they see as having gone wrong? Is it a party still talking the language of workers and peasants of this country? Is it a party worried by the escalating gap between the haves and have-nots right now in this country? What about the leaders of this ruling party? Is simplicity and humility still its modus operandi?

You have seen that all along I have addressed you as ‘Ndugu President’ - very infrequently as ‘Your Excellency’ or Doctor! I believe that you yourself, Ndugu President, brought up in the ruling party and as a lieutenant of the Founding Father of this country, you feel uncomfortable to be addressed grandiosely as Dr Kikwete! But some of us have to justify our jobs by calling you grandiosely! Because simplicity is no longer the culture of our party, our officials in both the government and its ruling party prefer to don suits or top of the market blazers when facing impoverished peasants!

So you have a tall order before you, Ndugu President, not to forget the element of ethics and principles in governance and especially as a code of conduct of your party itself. Ethics and principles are clearly enshrined in the old leadership code of your party. All you need is to re-instate it with vigour. If this factor is forsaken, Mr President, future elections will be even harder to fight in the future!

Already, Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda is talking and, very early, the language of putting the peasants of this country on the front seat of the development strides of this country. Please take him on board in the postmortem towards rebuilding your party.

Finally, allow me, Mr President to suggest on an initiative that I believe will be a good and sustainable legacy you will have left the country at the end of your tenure of office. Please take seriously calls for a constitutional reform. Please let no one come up and tell you that is not “the political manifesto of CCM but of the opposition”. Consider anyone telling you this thing as myopic at best.

Multi-partyism was not something that was on the agenda of CCM but it was Mwalimu Nyerere, distinguishing himself as a leader who pushed it on the agenda. You are our leader. You are the one to show the way! So to all intent and purposes, our Constitution as it is today, needs re-writing in the interest of the present and future generations of this country.

Those in the opposition are as Tanzanian and as patriotic as any other in the ruling party. So please take them seriously and consult them – please institute a National Consultative Dialogue on a new Constitution for our country.

I should end here, Ndugu President. I hope you will find this input useful.

Makwaia wa KUHENGA is a Columnist for this newspaper and runs a popular weekly TV Show, Je, Tutafika? on local Channel Ten. E-mail: makwaia@bol.co.tz.