It has been customary for this column during every month of October like this one, to make certain select presentations in commemoration of Mwalimu Nyerere’s death on 14th October, 1999; as one way of facilitating general public remembrance of his major contributions in laying the firm foundations for the proper management of the affairs of our nation. In line with that little ‘tradition’, I will, in this article, make a similar presentation, that relates to one of Mwalimu Nyerere’s historical contributions in the particular area of elections, following last week’s article, in which we discussed the issue of Mwalimu Nyerere’s absolute disenchantment in the matter of TANU’s parliamentary election candidates being elected unopposed, for the reason that such outcomes were disenfranchising the voters in the affected constituencies; which led him to devise some constitutional corrective measures to resolve what he considered to be a major democracy problem, because it deprived the people affected of their democratic right to freely choose their leaders. In this article, we will focus on Mwalimu Nyerere’s successful initiative in creating the Constitutional limitation of only two terms in office, for Tanzania’s Presidents.
This is important because, for the lack of this information, Tanzania’s younger generation may not be in a position to realize that to a very large extent, our country’s continuing happy state of national unity, stability, and peace, is actually grounded on this firm foundation, which was laid by our departed Father of nation Mwalimu Julius Nyerere. And the resulting national peace and tranquility has no doubt been the “greatest good for the greatest number” of the people of Tanzania. Even that alone, provides a good enough reason for this particular contribution to be given a prominent place in the compendia of his legacy to the nation, which it richly deserves.
Nyerere’s initiative on this matter.
In one of my series of such articles in October last year, I explained this important issue at rather great length. This is because of its lasting importance and great significance. I had the good fortune of participating personally in the CCM National Executive Committee meeting which made the basic, enabling policy decision, that was subsequently implemented by way of a Constitutional Amendment in 1984; that introduced this (seemingly controversial) provision of a maximum of two terms for our Presidents to stay in office. In the absence of verbatim records of meetings of the CCM National Executive Committee, I can only attempt to paraphrase what Mwalimu Nyerere said at that meeting, as follows:- “It is in the nature of the political man who, having acceded to power, wants to retain that power, especially when he is so encouraged by his greedy officials (who will normally have their own personal interests to protect), and will therefore conspire or connive, to convince their leader by deliberately misinforming him that “this is the wish of the majority of the people” ! He continued as follows: “It has been rightly said by some wise man, that ‘power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’. Thus, because power corrupts, the leader who becomes victim of such corruption will readily succumb to that temptation. But woe to that nation if their corrupt leader subsequently turns dictator, and starts inflicting serious harm on them. Obviously, such people will have no remedy whatsoever. Thus, in order to guard against such an eventuality, it is of vital importance that this sensitive, but crucial decision to quit office, should NOT be left to the individual President who holds that office. Instead, that decision should be made for him by the Constitution”. This powerful argument by President Nyerere, plus his unique personal powers of persuasion, are what brought about that Constitutional amendment, in 1984.
Mwalimu Nyerere’s efforts were soon vindicated.
Mwalimu Nyerere’s successful efforts were soon vindicated, when the attempts to violate this Constitutional provision were made during the second term of Mwalimu Nyerere’s immediate successor, President Ali Hassan Mwinyi (1985 – 1995). That is when some elements in the President’s official group of adviser, both in the Ruling party CCM and in the Union Government, devised a strategy (which apparently convinced him), to agree to a proposal to amend the Union Constitution in order to enable him to vie for a third term in office. Fortunately, Mwalimu Nyerere quickly got wind of this ‘plot’ to violate the Constitution, and immediately set to work to frustrate it. Working through the CCM National Executive Committee, and on President Mwinyi himself, he did indeed succeed; as a result of which, two senior advisers to President Mwinyi, the then Prime Minister John Malecela, and the CCM Secretary General, who was also a Minister in the President’s Office Horace Kolimba; suddenly lost their jobs. The full story of this episode is succinctly told in Mwalimu Nyerere’s book titled “Uongozi wetu na Hatima ya Tanzania”.
Some time later, similar attempts were also made in Zanzibar, when a group which identified itself as representing “the voice of the Zanzibar people”; made attempts to secure a third term for the then President of Zanzibar, Hon. Salmin Amour (1990 – 2000), who was then serving his second and final term. This attempt was also defeated, because of decisive action taken by the CCM Central Committee, which was then under the chairmanship of President Benjamin Mkapa, the CCM national Chairman at the time.
These two separate but related incidents, will serve to provide ample proof that CCM, the Ruling party, has the capability required to overcome such disruptive attempts to violate the country’s Constitution, which are usually based on purely personal. or even group, “vested interests”, in favour of the public interest.
The unreasonableness of such attempts
Our readers are presumably aware of the recent attempts by some adventurers within the Ruling party, Chama cha Mapinduzi, to extend President Magufuli’s terms in office. The proponents of such attempts have always based their arguments on “the excellent performance and delivery, of the incumbent President”. But this argument has certain distinct weaknesses, which were raised by Mwalimu Nyerere in his powerful arguments quoted above, namely the inescapable factor of the “power corruption”; plus the real possibility, that the electors, perhaps unwittingly, could elect the wrong person for that job, who subsequently makes himself “unwanted” by becoming an unbearable dictator “who inflicts serious harm on his people”.
Indeed, examples abound around the world, of Presidents who, initially, were excellent managers of the affairs of their nations, but who subsequently turned into ugly dictators, obviously as a result of the influence of having been corrupted by power which they held for too long a period of time. But by then, the affected people have no remedy whatsoever except, perhaps, resorting to the risky strategy of ‘mass demonstrations’, which can be brutally suppressed by their oppressive authorities who want to forcibly remain in power .
But on the other hand, in cases where the Presidential term limits are prescribed by Constitutional provision, and that Constitution is dully respected and implemented, that is what will be the guaranteed savior of such desperate people. For it will give them the needed relief of getting rid of such unwanted dictator smoothly and absolutely effortlessly on their part, when he quits office at the expiry of his prescribed term in office.
Unfortunately, this is an Africa-wide problem.
It should be noted, however, that such desire to change the Constitution in order to remove, or increase the Presidential term limits, has not been Tanzania’s problem alone. Information that was availed by the CITIZEN of Saturday, 19th October, 2019, quoting the Africa Center for Strategic studies, disclosed that “the leaders of five African countries have put aside, or changed, their constitutional term limits since 20015, bringing the number of countries in Africa that do not have Presidential term limits to 18”. The fact that as many as five countries have removed the Presidential term limits from their Constitutions in such a relatively short period of time, calls for some further examination, especially in order to establish the source that gives strength to such retrograde moves. THE CITIZEN story quoted above helpfully also gives the following additional information regarding how some of those countries cunningly handled this matter: “Experience shows that all the movements to scrap the Presidential term limits off the respective countries’ Constitutions, started with the beneficiaries themselves of the proposed changes, initially pretending to be opposed to them, but subsequently ‘ reluctantly’ giving- in, in the name of the “public interest”. This is the script that has been followed throughout. It is therefore difficult to be ignored”.
That CITIZEN story also provided examples of the countries of Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi. In the case of Uganda, it said thus: “President Museveni had promised in his 2001 Presidential election campaign, which was his second term after Uganda had returned to electoral democracy in 1996, that that would be his last term. Yet before it was even halfway over, a move was initiated among his National Resistance Movement (NRM) members to remove the two term limit, which had been created by the 1995 Constitution. Although he denied having orchestrated the move himself, but he took no steps to quash it, arguing that ‘ if Ugandans were so intent on drafting him, how could he possibly refuse?” “Ugandans being intent on drafting him”? That may indeed be true. But, in all such cases, it is actually very easy to pinpoint the individual person whose interest such move is intended to serve, namely the incumbent President himself.
The benefits of the Presidential term limitation.
In the case of Tanzania, there have been certain manifest benefits, accruing from such constitutional limitation to the Presidential terms in office. One outstanding such benefit, is that this limitation has been an important mechanism for “lowering the stakes” in our Presidential elections, at two levels of the election process; namely (a) the Ruling party’s primary nomination stage, and (b) the Presidential election campaign stage that is organized by the National Electoral Commission. It also has, presumably, helped to create a sense of greater trust in our political system.
It is indeed a fact, that the existence of this term limitation is what persuaded the Ruling party CCM, to create for itself a new political ‘culture’, of eliminating internal party electoral competition with any incumbent President who is seeking re-election to his second and final term. And consequently, this factor has greatly contributed to effectively “lowering the stakes” within the party at that important ‘primary nomination’ stage of the electoral process. Furthermore, the aspiring Ruling party candidates have also developed the equivalent ‘culture’ of patiently waiting for the incumbent President to complete his two constitutional terms undisturbed , for them to emerge only at the end of that period.
Thus, in the current case of this year’s Presidential election (in which President John Magufuli’s victory is virtually guaranteed, by his sterling performance and delivery during his first term); this aspect of Presidential term limits should, hopefully, increase the Opposition parties willingness to accept their (inevitable) defeat, and patiently wait for the next Presidential election in which they know that they will not be competing against the unbeatable John Pombe Magufuli.
(will continue next week)
piomsekwa@gmail.com /0754767576.
Source: Daily News and Cde Msekwa.
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