Independence Day address rich in depth of achievements, aspirations

While in past years many in the country took the national airline as something that we can’t run and tried all sorts of formulas, now the president says we have made down payment for yet another batch of give aircraft. It is an amazing situation to add to still formidable achievements, not least of which is the surprising manner in which our hospital facilities and expertise dwarf most other systems regionally, now.

In remarks concerning the road network, the president noted that Tanzania was a large country where the tarmac road network that we have at present would for some other countries – meaning with regionally large sizes or populations comparable to ours – be the entire length of all their roads. Quite often analysts or commentators miss out this aspect, as to how difficult it is to ring a spacious country like Tanzania with a network of tarmac roads. Former President Jakaya Kikwete once narrated that the fourth phase worked to complete total regional links on tarmac.

Given the good work done by the fifth phase and continuing at present, the work now being pursued is to complete linking all districts by tarmac road, on the basis of the president’s remarks. It means it isn’t a dream that will take time to be realised but something that is being done right now. And .noticeably, the fifth phase succeeded in raising popular expectations of what the government is capable of achieving, standards that were taken up in earnest by the sixth phase, and stand to durably mark the pace of work that has improved during the past half decade. It is a modernisation of governance, greater effectiveness.

There were equally interesting aspects the president focused upon, though of varying degrees of likely appreciation, for instance that there are 17 political parties that are seeking temporary registration. That this is the case at present shows that a new sense of freedom is creeping up in society, and at the same time indicates affinities and potential alliances at the political level. Forming new political parties isn’t just an illustration that scores of people want to challenge the ruling party, but also that they don’t have as much faith in the current leading voices in opposition. It is a contentious renewal of political life as such.

Still the most remarkable achievement that we may perhaps point out for the past 60 years is fairly recent, namely the death of the president while in office, and moving to a completely smooth transition with full loyalty of state institutions. This is a remarkable testimony of the resilience and appropriateness of our constitutional structures and the wider governance framework generally, despite that considerable numbers of experts and pundits keep repeating the constitution needs to be overhauled.