MIZENGO PINDA SAVED HIM SELF IN DODMA

And according to the  Constitution, the prime minister’s post can only be filled in by an elected member of parliament and this rules out Ms Migiro who is not elected but nominated by the president. Now  Pinda survived ,social media rumors need not to speculate on Migiro as candidate for Prime minister.

President Jakaya Kikwete’s decision to relieve four ministers of their duties yesterday helped in defusing a crisis which could have had dire consequences on the continued existence of his government.It was very clear, from the tone of the debate in the august House in Dodoma on Friday, December 20th this year, that members of parliament could have turned on the government had the Prime Minister, Mizengo Pinda, not played his cards close to his chest! People can blame this poor lawyer for everything, including perhaps, climate change. But the fact is that his decision to get in touch with the president (presently in the United States for medical check-up), finally helped in cooling Mps’ tempers, and saved in the process, the day.The four ministers who were relieved of their duties yesterday were the Minister for Home Affairs, Mr Emmanuel Nchimbi, the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Ambassador Hamisi Kagasheki, the Minister for Defence and National Service, Mr Shamsi Vuai Nahodha and the Minister for Livestock Development, Mr David Mathayo.

What was perhaps unfortunate in the Friday’s unfolding drama was Mr Mathayo’s unconvincing attempts to defend himself  when everything had pointed to his failure to perform as minister.Fine, his ministry had repeatedly, from 2006 to date, received less than what they had sought. But what they received, if the man had priorities with his experts in the ministry, could have at least solved one of the nine directives that had been issued to him by his boss, the president!

For instance, the minister spoke about the cross-cutting nature of the problem facing livestock industry, namely livestock keepers’ tendency of herding their animals throughout the country without regard to other land users, peasants and farmers.Did the minister make any attempt to get in touch with other ministries responsible for instance, that of land, natural resources and tourism? Did he make any attempts to bring players from the foregoing to find out how they could have jointly provided demarcated areas for livestock keepers?

The fact of the matter is that he did not, and by staging the kind of defence he made in the house on Friday, the man succeeded in the process in only showing Tanzanians why he should not have been given the docket he was given! However, the president’s decision on the four ministers would not bring the desired results, given the enormity of the human right violation, if the heads of the institutions directly responsible for the atrocities continue to hold their posts!Heads of such institutions who must also go, if the firing of the four ministers is to make sense, include the Chief of the Defence Forces, the Inspector General of Police, the Director General of the Tanzania Intelligence and Security Services and the commander of the Game Wardens.The foregoing leaders headed the four institutions that were directly responsible for committing the alleged atrocities against those suspected of being involved in poaching in national game reserves.

The other issue that will have to be dealt with include revelations that some ministers used the operation in dealing with their political opponents!For instance, there are reports that it was after children of such ministers and senior government and officials had been dealt with by those entrusted with Operation Tokomeza that influential ministers and senior government officials ganged up with other Mps to call for a halt on the operation!

For those who listened carefully to Ambassador Kagasheki in the House before he said he was resigning, they would recall that he spoke about the need for thorough investigation to be conducted on the operation to find out what really happened.For according to some sources, it was after those who had been targeted, for political reasons, had raised two complaints, one that they were not involved in poaching and two, that those who had pointed accusing fingers to them their children were actually involved in poaching.That those entrusted with the task of implementing Operation Tokomeza went on and arrested the children.And some of those children were indeed found, after imspection, with elephant tusks!This is one of the things, Ambassador Kagasheki had hinted, on Friday, when he said; “I hope thorough investigations would be made on the exercise.”What the now former minister for natural resources and tourism meant is that the alleged human rights violations should not be used as a cover up to protect real culprits, the poachers, whom the prime minister said were responsible for reducing the number of elephants in the Selou Game Reserve alone from 55,000 to 13,000!

As noted by some Mps in the House, it’s our hope that the planned judiciary commission will also take a hard look at the permanent secretaries and directors in the four ministries, officials that are believed to have led the nation to this point.It is our hopes that the commission will take special interest in the bureaucrats in the  ministry of natural resources and tourism who are also reported not to have helped Ambassador Kagasheki in his work .The commission should find out why senior officials in that ministry also seem to be big-headed! Do you remember this director, in the ministry of natural resources and tourism, during the reign of Mr Luhanjo as Chief Secretary, who refused to move to another ministry after being ordered to to so?

 The commission should find out who has been pulling not only strings in that ministry, but who has also been influencing appointments in this ministry!We all know that it’s the same directors who who have been responsible for distribution of the money spinning, hunting blogs. There appears to be a lot of things in this particular ministry than what meets the eye! 

And before we forget, this is the same ministry that transported, secretly, our wild animals to the United Arab Emirates, just as top government officials were busy with preparations for the elections in September 2010.Again, it is the same ministry that created the no-go-area in Loliondo which was later parceled out to one of the prince of the UAE!Therefore this is an opportunity of life time to solve the no-go-area in Loliondo once and for all, and now. If this golden opportunity is not used now, then a day may come when the president who was around when this macabre thing was happening may be required to take responsibility!

MPs have complained on the whereabouts of our intelligence and security guys.I leave the government of the day to deal with the problem. But my question which I would like to add here is, where were our journalists when all these things were happening? Is it true that they were not aware of the commission of these atrocities as reported by the parliamentary probe committee on Friday? If they were not aware of such atrocities, then they have lost relevance in the society they are supposed to serve! And talking about journalists, why did the TBC’s news bulletin on Friday night mince words of the sacking of the four ministers? Until the end of the bulletin they only spoke about Kagasheki’s resignation, meaning that the three other ministers were still holding on to their respective dockets!(?) Why did the TBC director fear to call a spade a spade? Time will certainly one day tell. But the public broadcaster failed us!