As a nation, we triumphed and peace and harmony reigned during the duration of the countdown to Polling Day and we have witnessed tranquility to this very day.
It was CCM flag bearer Dr John Pombe Joseph Magufuli who ultimately won the presidential race and is now overall in-charge of our nation for the next five years – a renewable tenure.
Dr Magufuli, now fondly referred to in some quarters simply as JPM, has been in power for only nine months but his leadership style, particularly the fact that he has breathed fresh air into the government system, has already angered corrupt and incompetent civil servants, politicians and other elements.
We are fully aware that the Opposition’s motto during last year’s General Election campaigns revolved around the need for CHANGE – change the Tanzanian people would find cause to believe in.
One could safely argue that Tanzanians in their tens of millions, including those whose allegiance lay or lies with whatever philosophies or ideologies opposition parties espoused, were fed up with corruption.
They were fed up with the frequency of unnecessary foreign trips mainly by highly placed politicians and other public officials, as it cost the country dearly.
They were fed up with the pervasive theft and misuse of taxpayers’ monies, commonly known as public funds. And they were fed up with a governance system that used to tolerate or even condone corruption, nepotism and incompetence.
Having faced cut-throat competition as a ruling party candidate in the General Election, Magufuli assumed the Tanzanian Presidency knowing very well that Tanzanians needed change – change for which they had waited for years on end but in vain.
Accordingly, he promised to deliver that very change, change the Tanzanian people had spend years wishing and praying for.
As our fifth-phase president embarks on his mission to deliver this change, he insists that his scorecard should be screened at the end of his five years at State House to determine the degree to which he will have delivered on his election pledges as per CCM’s 2015 Election Manifesto.
This is primarily because, let’s face it, what President Magufuli has done in nine months is well beyond imagination – particularly considering how rotten parts of the governance system he inherited were. Therefore, the nation would be doing him well-deserved justice by extending to him incentives to help him continue with the laudable efforts he has been making to spruce up the governance system.
We have it good authority that many Tanzanians want to see the pace President Magufuli started with in walking his election-time talk sustained and nurtured.
The aim would be to ensure that, finally, Tanzania graduates into a nation where only hard work, integrity, honesty and other positive attributes lead to a prosperous life.
The flip side of this would be that involvement in anti-social practices such as corruption and other forms of crime should attract such deterrent “rewards” as is stipulated in the country’s laws.
Surely, it is common knowledge that we have now and again witnessed a Tanzania where those who stole the government, meaning from taxpayers, were glorified by being regarded as “smart folks who know what to do to make it in life”.
Values having been turned upside-down, confirmed thieves and confidence tricksters were viewed as role models and therefore “invited to the high table”, the only explanation being that they boasted near-infinite ability to amass wealth in the strangest of means.
Muzzled democracy?
Yet, some opposition parties feel that President Magufuli has muzzled democracy and are now calling for countrywide demonstrations come September 1.
We fully understand that democracy and good governance are twins, especially in the modern world characterised by serious pushes for major political reforms since the 1990s. Accordingly, we fully respect the fundamental right of political parties to conduct their political activities in peace and without breaking the laws of the land.
But by extension, even when and where there is impeccable proof of that right being trampled underfoot by the powers that be or whoever else, protest demonstrations and rallies should come as the very last resort – that is, after all other options have been exhausted.
For instance, if the opposition parties operating under the umbrella of Ukawa (the Kiswahili acronym for the Coalition for the People’s Constitution formed during the run-up to the October 2015 General Election) feel that their democratic rights are muzzled by the State, they should advisably seek legal redress.
But, should these parties decide that the court route is not the best choice for them, then there’s a second option – and this is none other than is divine and human wisdom.
Wisdom is the ability to make judicious use of knowledge and that’s why it applies smoothly to all-knowledgeable men and women placing a premium on good judgment. At tempting times like the one our country is now in, wisdom needs to prevail beyond the sets of laws.
As a nation, we have been forced by a group of politicians to be at the crossroads. We have indeed been forced in that, for any sensible person, it’s not really necessary to call countrywide demonstrations while there are still other options that could be pursued to achieve what is known as democratic space.
Renowned Irish dramatist, critic and polemicist George Bernard Shaw, who lived between 1856 and 1950, once aptly wrote: “We are made wise not by the recollection of our past but by the responsibility for our future.”
The lesson in these words of wisdom is that Tanzanians have a moral and political responsibility to help Tanzania do the most it can to guarantee coming generations a good future.
For over five decades, peace, unity and love have been true beacons of hope and inspiration in our nation, despite the political, social and economic turbulence we have occasionally gone through.
It is noteworthy that, as Tanzanians, we are a people united not by our tribes, faiths or racial lines but by a nationhood built and nurtured by our founding leaders.
Politics may divide us during the campaign but, at the end of it all, our nationhood is stronger than any political party, other interest group or individual.
Just for the record: our laws state very clearly that every Tanzanian has the fundamental right to support any political party of his or her choice, but such move should not be the beginning of the end of our unity and nationhood.
Therefore, NEVER EVER should we, as a people sharing nationhood, allow politics, faith or race to divide us or destroy our values. The fact that we have allowed democracy to sprout and blossom should not boomerang and become our own downfall.
So, let wisdom prevail, peace triumph and love blossom ahead of the planned but already banned political demonstrations.
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