Magufuli refusal to globetrot vs Vasco da Gama

    

            There’s been fanaticism of faulting President John Magufuli almost in whatever he does. Detractors started with the purchase of planes and the resuscitation of the Air Tanzania. These oddballs went ahead claiming that some of the planes wouldn’t be delivered. However, it dawned on them when the planes arrived. Thereafter, there followed mopey and nagging attacks on Chato Airport. As if it wasn’t enough, they went on scorning free education while some of them are the products of the same free education under Ujamaa. To cap it all, they are now at it faulting Magufuli for refusing to globe-trot as his predecessor whom they gave a moniker Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese thug, who helped Europe to conquer and colonise Africa and others.

            Now, Magufuli’s avoided that. Tongues are wagging. Is being in the opposition the opportunity for some yammers, parlaying lies to make a political mileage, to just oppose everything illogically and unreasonable really? I don’t know what such skinny politicians will call Magufuli. One thing many don’t know is that the president who knows what he’s elected for, will never waste money and time globetrotting.

            I recently heard Mbeya Mjini MP, Joseph Mbilinyi querying President John Magufuli’s refusal to globetrot. He wondered why Magufuli’s not making foreign tours. To show that Mbilinyi’s just talking without having any scientific evidence, he didn’t even adduce a gist of evidence about the ramifications Magufuli’s refusal to globetrot will cause to the country. What do we get as a country from shoptalk such as Commonwealth and Davos annual symposia? If Africa were truly decolonised or free, some of its countries are not supposed to be the members of the Commonwealth that signifies nothing but colonialism and its dregs our rulers are still treasuring for their peril.  If you ask the like of Mbilinyi the benefits of globetrotting, they’ve nothing to show. Those who remember how former president Jakaya Kikwete used to globetrot know how his trips didn’t bring anything compared to other presidents who didn’t.

            According to Mhango (2015), in Africa Reunite or Perish, thanks to globetrotting under the pretexts of begging or attracting investments, Kikwete had already made more than 300 trips abroad as of March 2012 just six years in power. This means, Kikwete was making at least eight trips monthly. If you multiply 300 with $1,000,000 per trip for six years, you get the whooping sum of $300,000,000 spent by the president of the country that depends on begging and handouts from Western donors! If you compare Tanzania’s economy under Kikwete and Kenya’s under Mwai Kibaki who did not globetrot, you find that Kenya’s economy was doing fine. My understanding is that, aid and investments are supposed to top up to homemade plans to develop the country economically. This is why Magufuli’s industrialisation and renegotiating investment contracts are the more important than self-dressing by begging while begging countries are endowed with immense resources. For me, globetrotting or believing that the development and prosperity of the country depends on foreign forces is typical colonial and archaic not to mention being needless laziness and unreasonableness.

            It is sad that there are no statistics of how much money colonial governors spent when they were in Africa. Again, I am sure that they spent less than the amount our current spenders in power burn.

            In April 2015, there was a dispute about the US president’s expenses on one trip to Africa. It was estimated that one trip the US president makes to Africa costs the taxpayer at least $60-100 million (Politucus USA, 2015).

                        Mbilinyi said that it is hogwash to say that Magufuli doesn’t make foreign tours because of avoiding unnecessary expenditures. He wondered why Magufuli sends his VP or PM if this is the case. I wonder how a person can fail to do simple calculus that the president spends much more money than his VP and PM. Presidential accommodation, security and other services cannot be compared to those of his juniors.

            Again, why are some of our representatives wasting their voters making up things?

            There are a couple of reasons among which can be:

            First, lack of education or having colonised education resulting from colonial carryovers and toxic education that have become another anathema for Africa not to mention colonial mentality. Such people think that nothing good can come from home. For them, every prophet must not be accepted in his town.

            Secondly, dependency that forces such Uncle Toms to depend on donors to do everything for them as if they don’t have hands and heads full of brains. Such blabbers make our former colonisers to treat us like animals. They are the burden that we need to put down.  For such people, foreign trips are worth making given that those making them go there for begging mission despite ruling countries with immense resources of value.

            Thirdly, a strategy to court and please colonial masters so that they can throw some coins to such political beggars who would like president waste a lot of money and time making begging trips abroad to end up getting less than what is spent. Benjamin Mkapa and Kikwete were renowned for globetrotting. What did they leave behind apart from the boils that are giving Magufuli sleepless nights?

Source: Citizen, May 30, 2018.

Je Mengi anasaidia wengine huku akidhulumu wengine?

                Reginald Abraham Mengi, wa mizania ya kitanzania na kiafrika, ni tajiri. Hata hivyo, utajiri wake unaweza kutia shaka. Je inakuwaje tajiri kama Mengi anayeonekana akisaidia wengine kuruhusu dhuluma iendelee kwenye makampuni yake? Hii inajenga hisia kama kweli utajiri wa Mengi siyo kama ule wa tapeli  Abbas Gulamali aliyesifika kwa kutoa misaada na kudhamini vilabu vya mpira wakati wafanyakazi wake walikuwa wakifanya kazi bila kulipwa kwa muda mrefu.
               Baada ya kujaribu kuwasiliana na Mengi bila mafanikio, nimeamua kuwa naweka madai yangu dhidi ya magazeti ya Nipashe na the Guardian ambayo yamenidhulumu zaidi ya shilingi 8,000,000 bila kuhusisha interests kama nitaamua kushitaki. Bado sijaamini kama kweli Mengi, kama kweli ni tajiri, kama anavyojionyesha, anaweza kushindwa kulipa fedha kidogo kama hiyo. Dhuluma yangu imewezeshwa na wahariri wangu Edmund Msangi na Gaudensia Mngumi ambao wameamua kujenga chuki ili kupata namna ya kunidhulumu. Naamini kupitia wavuti huu ipo siku Mengi atapata taarifa za dhuluma hii ambayo si ya kwanza wala ya mwisho tokana na kupata taarifa toka kwa wahanga wengine ambao hawana namna ya kukabiliana nayo. Mie nitatumia wavuti wangu kupambana na dhuluma na ufisadi huu tena vinavyofanywa na watu wanaojidai ni matajiri.

Zimbabwe election; will Jongwe punish Croc or square it?

          Former Zimbabwe strongman, Robert Mugabe aka Jongwe or rooster, may be history vis-à-vis power.  However, his influence on Zimbabwe is still immense. Zimbabwe’ll go to general elections this year in which Mugabe’ll throw his weight behind the New Patriotic Front (NFP) party (VOA, March 5, 2018). Incumbent president Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa aka Ngwena, will fly ZANU-PF’S flag.  Will Zimbabweans have a sound choice between two protagonists behind the mess the country is in currently? Is the new party real new?  The coming elections, essentially will act as a Jongwe-Ngwena duel. 

    Apart from Jongwe and Ngwena, there is the Zimbabwe Defense Forces (ZDF) which, essentially ousted Mugabe.  Will its political-turned-politicians bigwigs want a piece of the cake by penetrating their comrades in order to have a grip on power?

    That’s the one side. We know that he who pays the piper calls the tune. We saw top brass being appointed ministers which is tad confusing. Are they military or politicians? Zimbabweans need to know. Will this marriage of convenience last? Who’s using whom; and what does Zimbabwe have to gain or lose from such cobbled marriage? Arguably, it isn’t easy to tell the type of rule Zimbabwe is under now. I’d like to carry it hermaphrodite if not an oxymoronic to mean; it is neither purely military nor political. It is polimilitary if not a milipolitical regime.  

             The coup that’s called internal correction left many questions than answers as far as the future of Zimbabwe is concerned. As one Zimbabwean Lance Guma once put it, was the problem Mugabe or his outfit the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) which he equates with the snake in that Mugabe was a skin whose overthrow means just shedding the skin as it remains as poisonous as it has been for three decades.  Now, let’s dissever Jongwe-Ngwena.

            First, Mnanggwa was part and parcel of the same system renowned for his ruthlessness and cunningness in dealing with dissent voices. Refer to the Matabele massacres he supervised not to mention controversial road accidents that claimed the lives of many Zimbabweans who showed to be competent and amiable to the hoi polloi.

            Secondly, Mugabe presided over a corrupt and ruthless government under ZANU-PF that propped him; and fully supported what he’s accused of. Has Zimbabwe pulled down the Capon and ushered in a Crocodile? Is Zimbabwe now at Oginga Odinga’s Not Yet Uhuru time or Chinua Achebe’s No Longer at Easy if not Ngugi wa Thiong’o The River Between?

            Again, the Capon’s domination tendency while the Croc has ruthlessness. Will Zimbabweans judge Mugabe harshly as they myopically and softly spare Mnangagwa and the ZANU-PF for their peril; or take the bull by the horns. Logically, the ZANU-PF is the only vehicle Mugabe and his cronies used to lord it over Zimbabwe for over three decades. Therefore, there’s no way one can emancipate Zimbabwe without deconstructing the ZANU-PF among others.  Will Zimbabwe and their new leaders who practically are nothing but the extension of Mugabeism, smell the coffee; and do things based on the history of their suffering namely deconstruct and overhaul the whole system? Will they force the Croc to turn itself into a fish or allow it go on devouring them? Will the Croc cling to its nature?  

             Due to the newness of the situation, nobody’s any inkling of what’ll follow except the Zimbabweans themselves. Importantly, they must avoid fearing the lizard to end up embracing the Croc despite all looking alike. The Lizard’s no teeth while the Croc’s high-pitched ones. Will the words of Gibson Lovemore, a street vendor that Zimbabwe has got rid of a snake and replaced it with a snake come true?

            Further, even the army that started the ouster of Mugabe is the one and only that kept Mugabe in power for over period of 37 years. Has the ZDF become the born again for the love of the people or their man? Apart from being the part and parcel of the mess that saw Zimbabwe being misruled for many years, is the ZDF piloting in the era where the gun is becoming mightier than the vote? Are we seeing the military democracy or a coup ala Zimbabwe coup? Who’s using whom between the army and Mnangagwa?  Who’s in charge between the duo?

            Will Zimbabweans sanction the army and its man to get away with murder? Will they revisit the history of Mugabe’s jumble so as to weed out all who partook in its making? Will they be blinded by euphoria and sanguinity or being guided by logicality? Many’d like to know how Zimbabwe will look after the coming elections, especially without Mugabe on the helms. For, like any despot, Mugabe turned himself into Zimbabwe. He’s Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe’s him. This is why it’s easy for his wife to dream about using their bed relationship to take over from her husband. Will Zimbabweans really credit Grace as the tool that, like Delilah and Samson, enabled them to get rid of Mugabe to end up embracing the Croc? Again, was Mugabe that bad or Grace herself? It is not easy to tell which way Zimbabwe’s heading for, especially if we remind ourselves of a long and controversial marriage between the Jongwe and the Ngwena. It is upon voters to decide how their country will look like. However, the choice is very hard.

Source: The Citizen, May 23, 2018.

Congrats Mengi however you re not that clean

            I recently saw you laying the foundation for M-Pharmacy in conjunction with an Indian investor (Citizen, May 6, 2018). I was overwhelmed and elated though a bit challenged, as I will explain later after congratulating you on such a milestone for yourself and the nation at large.  I was elated to note that there are some Tanzanians, particularly indigenous ones, who truly understand President John Magufuli’s drive for the industrialisation of our country. Seeing you donating a building to the Tanzania Women Chamber of Commerce (TWCC) a few months ago (Nipashe, January 31, 2018), I also was as well elated and challenged. First, Tanzania needs many Mengis who can invest in their country and drive their economy instead of letting foreigners to do so as it has been since the country acquired its independence over five decade down the line.  We need such people who understand our country’s drive for industrialisation.

            Secondly, I urge the government to support such people who are ready to spend their money and time and use their skills to bring about development to their country. Indeed, this shows how Magufuli’s government is pro-investment. Moreover, I think this is an irony to detractors and all who are despising Magufuli’s dream-cum-vision of industrialising Tanzania. So, too, this move will help our country from needless dependence for things we can produce locally.

            Apart from helping the country from wasting a lot of forex importing medications we can produce locally, the said factory is likely to create jobs for our people.

            Further, Mengi’s move, apart from being an example for indigenous Tanzanians, will act as a motivation for others to seize whatever opportunities to build and develop their country. Importantly, Mengi’s move shows that if we decide, we can.

            Despite all accolades, mzee Mengi, there is a dark side looming over your name that you might be unaware of. As I am writing this open congratulatory note, I contributed to two of your newspapers, the Guardian on Sunday and Nipashe Jumamosi for three years consecutively without being paid even a dime. Our agreement was that I be paid 30,000 per piece that makes the sum I was making to be 240,000 monthly. If you take this amount and multiply by 36 months, you can know how much you owe me. As any human being and citizen, I think, I have the right to be paid so that I can do my part of development of my country and mine the same way you are doing.  When I pressed my editors to pay me, they said that things are not well thanks to Magufuli. They didn’t give any understandable explanations provided that currently, whenever somebody wants to avoid paying a loan will tell you the same story of Magufuli as if Magufuli has scooped money from his or her pocket

            I don’t know if you know that there are many contributors facing the same predicament as mine. I wonder how they make end meet especially for those who hugely depend on writing as their means of living.

            Let me take this opportunity to assure you that you are not alone facing this dark cloud resulting from incompetent employees who do not tell their bosses the truth. The same applies to other media houses. In addition, the same reason offered is Magufuli. For example, I have been contributing to theTanzania Daima for over ten years with two columns. As I am writing, I have already stopped after working without being paid. I take this opportunity to address the government as well to see to it that local businesses including media houses are supported. For example, they need adverts from the government that is the biggest advertiser. By supporting the media houses and offering them adverts, they will be able to pay their small workers who are treated like homunculi simply because they have no voice or they are unable to create pompous occasion for the high and the mighty to take note of them. Instead of being treated like no-brainers by concealing their concerns or viewing their demands as hot air or hooey revolving around vainglory and grand standing when they agitate for their rights, the high and mighty should underscore the fact that without such small men and women, their successes would not be realised.

            In a nutshell, ndugu Mengi, please take this challenge and work on it to see to it that your drive for development and justice are practical and far-reaching mainly to those directly connected with your success as it is the case of unpaid contributors to your media empire. It doesn’t add up to create new jobs while those with old jobs are going without being paid.

Thanks once again for showing the way and being ready to help as you did with the TWCC among many you have already helped and supported. Truly, charity begins at home.

Magufulification, Magufuli arrived at the right time

 

            Love or hate him. President John Pombe Magufuli is a wonk who though unexpectedly arrived at the rightest place and time in the history of our country. Those who still remember how the tussle for presidency was in 2015, still remember how Magufuli wasn’t among 800-pound gorillas in the race for the highest office in the land. Instead, two luminaries, Bernard Membe and Edward Lowassa, who ended up finishing off each other, were the toasts of the town.

             Looking at how Tanzania was then, I must admit; the arrival of Magufuli wasn’t an accident; and, if it were, it is a good one. The country was in shambles next to going to the dogs.  Therefore, the country badly and deservedly needed a person like Magufuli. Corruption, embezzlement of public funds, systemic indiscipline, rent-seeking culture and other vices were rife. Who has now simply forgotten how drugs were tainting our image internationally? Who has now forgotten maltreatment in public offices, hospitals and everywhere else? Who’s easily forgotten tax evasion and low tax collection not to mention lack of leadership conviction, good intention and vision?

            Now that Tanzania is on the right track, some detractors still wag their tongues accusing and discouraging Magufuli simply because his regime has denied them what to do or say. Indeed, Tanzania needed; and verily, still needs Magufuli and his so-called Magufulification. Under Magufulification, as a country, we’re able to embark on the industrialisation of our country; expanding infrastructure not to mention improving services in various sectors. What else do we want? Those who think that commending Magufuli is kowtowing before him must look at the numbers of his achievements and the quality of services Tanzanians are now enjoying. Those who doubt Magufuli’s vision should go to rural areas and ask farmers whose produces were not marketable, but now are; though not all. They’d go and see the roads, bridges, schools and hospitals among others Magufuli has improved.

            Of all, Magufuli proved to be the man of another world after practically embarking on moving the capital city to Dodoma. If anything, moving to Dodoma is but the bone that hyenas failed to consume; if I may borrow Swahili proverb. Further, Magufuli wholeheartedly decided to take on mega corruption. How many cases involving mega corruption are before the courts as culprits wait to hear their verdicts? How many sacred cows are now waiting for their fates to be known after cooling their heels in the dungeon that formerly was for wezi wa kuku?  Who’d think that scams such as IPTL, Escrow and others would be dealt with mercilessly but legally?

            I know as everybody knows; Magufuli still has a lot on his plate vis-à-vis other scams such as Mwananchi Gold, Lugumi, TICTS, UDA and others. Let’s give him a break; as we remind him that we’ve not forgotten such scams. Who thought academic corruption involving forgery and faking qualification not to mention ghost workers would become history? Go ask students in our schools whose school fees are catered for by the government. Why don’t go interview the parents whose kids are getting free education. Go ask patients in various dispensaries and hospitals about the quality of services they receive compared to the time before the introduction of Magufulification. Why can’t we clap Magufuli and his Magufulification instead of crapping him up?

            There are allegations that Magufuli stifled democracy. Well, it depends on what one looks into. Again, if we consider how democracy has never brought food to the table, we need to address and tote such assumptions carefully considering the real situation our country was in. We need democracy. So, too, we need development. To address the issue of democracy, I posit that our people should be asked to decide what they’d like first between irresponsible democracy and controlled one that aims at creating space for the government to fulfill its promises. Here, there’s one thing we need to underscore. Magufuli isn’t implementing his personal policies. Instead, he is implementing the policies based on the promises he made during the presidential campaigns so as to secure the mandate he is now using to do whatever he is doing.

            Hate the devil but give it its due. Those who doubt Magufuli’s move should go and ask expecting moms, particularly in rural areas. Further, they should ask the paupers who were ripped off by government officials who used to overtax them. They should ask the paupers who are now using electricity over 50 years since the country acquired its independence. They should ask the people in far-flung regions such as Lake Region who used to travel to Dar Es Salaam via Kenya and Uganda.

            In sum, those who abhor Magufulification should evaluate him internationally. Tanzania is the talk of the world today simply because of Magufulification. Foreigners coined even the term Magufulification. I, firstly, heard of the term in Zimbabwe; thereafter, in Kenya. Indeed, this shows how no prophet  accepted in his town.

Source: Citizen, May 16, 2018.

Poor Lissu, for him, every evil is Magufuli!

            When I wrote an open letter to Tundu Lissu (Citizen, April 26, 2018) beseeching him not to return to Tanzania after recovering in Holland, there are things I didn’t envision. Whatever I wrote was nothing but my views; not Newspaper’s. Admittedly, I didn’t know with exactitude that my letter would be wackily received so as to make me feel as if I opened Pandora’s Box. My apology to Lissu who I know is bedridden not to mention suffering for many traumatising months in solitary environment. Frankly, I wrote the said letter hoping that it’d, at best, help Lissu to know that there are people who care. I didn’t discern; my empathy would be met with apathy, hostility and vitriol pointlessly.  Who’d have envisaged that Lissu would regard me and the likes as mere homunculi; if not a bunch of fiends in a political menagerie needlessly? He did. In misconstruing my message, Lissu oddly referred to me as a jackal in sheep’s clothing!

            Again, provided that Lissu has rashly already picked his ‘enemy’ even when he’s the one to blame, there’s no way I can help. However, when I wrote my letter, I didn’t envisage Lissu’s mental comportment currently; not to mention the fact that he’d already decided to despairingly pass the buck to his farfetched nemesis, President John Pombe Magufuli. Luckily, smart as he’s, Magufuli steered away from indulging with Lissu; and thus denied him a political freeride. Because of such angst, Lissu is painting whoever refuses to buy into his ploy with the same brush. This is unfair for a bobo like Lissu. I know the loop Lissu is in. However; this shouldn’t deprive him the power of reasoning logically and justly.

            Honestly, I didn’t know that Lissu has brutally and carelessly decided to put all blemishes resulting from his reckless politics on the shoulders of his president Magufuli. In his diatribes wherein I was called a jackal in the sheep’s clothing, he’d bald-facedly say that “there is another thing they don’t say, at least openly. If you carefully examine their arguments, they are saying is that I will be killed by Magufuli’s government using the Tanzania Intelligence and Security Services or police if not the army” (Jamii forums, May 1, 2018). It is sacrilegious and strange. Why use a rocket to kill a fly? Magufuli and his government are not such impetuous and obstreperous. Essentially, Tundu seeks fame and sympathy on the shoulders of the president. As a lawyer, I thought he’d adduce evidence to substantiate his allegations. He who alleges must prove. This is clearly open even for a layman. What type of lawyer is Lissu; if he can make such hot air without even showing a gist of evidence; let alone watertight one?

            I know. When Lissu embarked on majitaka politics, he wrongly thought the international community would buy into his ploy to no avail.  Sadly though, even after his gambit failed, he didn’t ask himself why.

            Magufuli, as a president, is not such reckless to waste his time dealing with a person who’s always desperately sought attention fighting a losing war. Magufuli has a lot on his plate. By the way, Lissu is not Magufuli’s match in anything however liminal or trifling. Give Magufuli a break. Lissu’ assumption that he’d give Magufuli hard time isn’t only hot air but hooey revolving around vainglory and grand standing.

            Like any daydreamer, Lissu may indolently think that he’s another Mandela if not Tanzania’s political honcho.  Can he be?  How with such impatience and recklessness? How can he while there’s a political bulldozer in the state house? He says “If I do as they want, well, Magufuli will get a big respite” (Jamii forums, May 1, 2018). Wow!  Where does Lissu live? Magufuli has nothing to worry about a newbie like Lissu.

            It is sad to note; Lissu is now sloppily accusing everybody he wants without including himself.  Is he normal or something is going terribly wrong upstairs? For, it needs and takes the courage of the mad to shamelessly utter such things. I won’t wonder to hear Lissu blame Magufuli shall fever attack him. Man, fight your battles without necessarily mudding others needlessly.

            Arguing that those who sympathetically urged Lissu to wait and recover are sent by Magufuli’s government shows how languid Lissu can be in terms of thinking. Why’d the government send us if, at all, those intended to finish Lissu are the TISS and others if I go by Lissu’s otiose assertion.

            I fully understand the situation Lissu is in. However, this should not make him soil others needlessly. We all pray that those who attacked him be brought to justice. However, the way Lissu is using his predicament creates more questions than answers.

When "men of God" become men of doggy!

When it comes to dealing with psychos, quacks and certified idiots who con unsuspecting dupes, India plays no joke. India recently evidenced the jailing of one Asaram Bapu, 77, “a man of God,” whose sentencing was read out inside a prison in Jodhpur, Rajasthan state. Bapu was found guilty of raping one of his followers. Further, according to the Guardian (August 28, 2018) in August, another popular Indian guru, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh “Bling”, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for raping two female followers.

Sexual violence in the name of God is not new to India. According to the Telegram (December 4, 2015), another ‘man of God”, Aravindan Balakrishnan, a 75-year-old Maoist, carried out a brutal campaign of violence against the women over several decades, brainwashing them into believing that he was God.

Many cons in the name of God have dubiously and easily made a killing so as to become stinking rich thanks to robbing many desperate and ignorant people, mainly women. For example, Bapu is not a pauper one would expect the man of God to be. From religious chicanery, Bapu runs more than 230 ashrams with residential schools with millions of followers in India, Canada, Kenya, the US, the UK and Uganda. Having such a wide network of businesses, I am not sure if his co-cons are not replicating Bapu’s behaviour which seems to be the order of day when it comes to self-appointed “men and women of God.” In Australia cardinal George Pell, Pope Francis' chief financial adviser stand charged with sexual offences spanning over 40 years down the line.

In South Africa one, Bernard Pumalaka, another “man of God” confesses to have molested over 200 followers who went to him seeking his miracles. Despite such an admission, no charges were preferred against Pumalaka. This felon is lucky.

When it comes to dealing with self-appointed ramp-fed ronyons calling themselves “men or women of God, “India does not tinker around the edge. However, in Africa, particularly Bongo, such con artists think everybody is a few short bulbs of chandelier. And, indeed, sometimes, we are. How can we fall short of being while we evidence them devour our people in the name of God? Aren’t we collectively accomplices to this crime resulting from collective imbecilisation? Who take them on? When some are squeezed tongues of human rights campaigners wag by politicising everything.

How many fake gurus do we have in Tanzania that use religious cloak or offering traditional medicines to conceal their criminality? How many girls and women have already fallen prey to this criminality in the name of miracles and solving their problems? Under religion and traditional healing, many Binadams have fallen prey to such greedy and heartless sinners who call themselves people of God while in actuality are but devils incarnate if not the people of doggy.

How many victims are suffering in silence either because of fear or just ignorance? How many should suffer for the authorities to wake up from the slumber? Why do authorities allow known con men and con women to keep on marauding on our innocent people under whatever pretext and ruse? Provided that these criminals do not only commit sexual related offence but also financial related ones, the governments needs to probe them and know how they made such quick wealth. How many vampires and vamps do you know that are now “men and women of God” that live in your country, street and neighbourhood? Didn’t Jesus presage you? He said that “by their fruit you will recognise them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?” (Matthew 7:16). Where do they get authorities to amass wealth? Jesus said that “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” (Mark 10: 25). Again, as Jeremiah (5 :21) puts it “hear this, you foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see who have ears but do not hear.” Sometimes, I wonder how people read the books of their faiths such as the Bible. What do you take away from this assertion by Jesus? He admonishes everybody to “watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves” (Matthew 7: 15).

Now that we all know that many false prophets who come in the name of God are nothing but ungodly and devilish carpetbaggers, why don’t we agitate that they be probed? For how long will our governments keep mum as if the welfare of its people is not its sacrosanct responsibility? Time for probing and stopping all self-seekers and money makers in the name of God and traditional hearing is now. So, too, our people must abandon their naivety of believing nonsense such as miracles, prayers and whatnot. The last nugget, there is a treading photo of a hyena in sheep’s clothing praying for the underwear so that its wearer can get a baby! Go to the doctor. You’ll know your problems so as to approach them in a scientific ways instead of daydreaming and being abused and duped.

Source: Citizen, May 9, 2018.

Is Magufuli’s twin sibling born in Angola?

No doubt that when President John Pombe Magufuli (58) burst onto the scene, the politics Tanzania and Africa received a facelift. Magufuli took Tanzania, Africa and the world by storm when he started his operation Tumbua Majipu or cleanse the boils that saw many bigwigs pay for their sins resulting from corruption. Recently, another kid burst onto the scene. This is none other than Angolan President João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço (64) who recently sacked the chief of staff, Geraldo Sachipengo Nunda, after the Attorney-General’s office implicated him in an investigation into a fraudulent international credit scheme worth $50 billion scam. Reuters (Sept., 26, 2017) quoted  him assuring Angolans of doing justice as saying that “no one is so rich and powerful that they cannot be punished and no one is so poor that they cannot be protected.” Like Magufuli, Lourenço is for the poor as opposed to the high and mighty. However, this is subject to dialogue if the duo is purely for the poor or just a melange.

Already sacked two children of his predecessor and mentor of whom one is facing the charges of attempting to fraudulently obtain $1.5 billion from the government

He has already shocked many who thought he was a protégé-cum-stooge of his predecessor, a long time-sit-tight president Jose Eduardo dos Santos whose empire spans for over four decades of corrupt and oppressive kleptocracy revolving around clientelism and nepotism.

The Daily Nation (April 23, 2018) reports that “Jose Filomeno dos Santos, the son of the former president, has been charged after allegedly siphoning off $1.5 billion when he ran the oil-rich country’s sovereign wealth fund until he was sacked in January.” While Jose Philemon is waiting for the court of law to decide on his fate, his sister, Isabel do Santos, Africa’s richest female, has already discharged from being head  of state oil giant Sonangol; and is currently under investigation.

Due to his commitment to fighting corruption, there are those who believe that his nets will soon net his predecessor which is something unAfrican to do.

Political para-diddles aside, Lourenço is the person to watch carefully. For, his style of dealing with graft is merciless. While Magufuli declined to crucify his predecessors by averring that he could not exhume graves, Lourenço is mercilessly exhuming them, the biggest and holiest ones. A section of Tanzania of Tanzanians wanted him to revisit the scams allegedly his predecessors committed. According to Mtanzania (November 5, 2016) he was quoted as saying “Nimeshughulikia changamoto mbalimbali lakini siwezi kuyafukuwa makaburi yote kwa sababu kuna mengine nitashindwa kuyafunika, sikuja kufukua makaburi nataka kuanza na yale niliyoyakuta ili tujenge Tanzania yetu,” namely “I have dealt with different challenges; but I am not ready to exhume all graves because they are some I will not be able to cover. I did not come to exhume graves; I want to start with what I found (on my plate) so that we built our Tanzania.” When Magufuli openly refused to exhume the graves, Tanzanians understood him though with a heavy heart. Again, looking at the enormity Tanzania was in, it was wise for Magufuli to take such stance. However, how long will he maintain such a stance while as the days go by, the smell, from the graves, disturbingly grows bigger and repugnant. Will Magufuli emulate his Angolan twin or just maintain his stance.

As for Lorenco, indeed, he’s proved to be his own man. He didn’t like to cheat Angolans or allow wrong belief that he’s a stooge to take roots by mollycoddling his predecessor, his family, courtiers and conspirators. Different from his twin sibling in Tanzania, Lourenço is a silent lion that catches his prey [s]; then announces. Like his sibling, he is the product of the party theMovimento Popular de Libertação de Angola–Partido do Trabalho (MPLA-PT) or the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola–Labour Party that’s been in power since independence who wants every Angolan to be invited and enjoy the national cake.  Different from Magufuli, Lourenço has moderate education and he’s a loyal party soldier (Mail&Guardian, Sept., 26, 2017). Like Magufuli, he is a patient seeker who spent time scheming to take the reins of power from a long-time potentate.

When it comes to civil rights, Lourenço has not escaped controversy. The Amnesty International (January 18, 2018) notes that “Lourenço has made significant changes in the state media, opening space for diversity of opinions and political views. However, freedom of the press and expression remains under threat after parliament approved and the president signed a problematic new media law despite opposition from the journalists’ union and other groups.”

In a nutshell, Lourenço soon will become another Magufuli of Africa signifying that Africa is neither bankrupt nor barren when it comes to siring clean leaders of this generation.

Source: Citizen, May 2, 2018.

Siku Tundu Lissu aliponiita mbwa mwitu-sijui ni hasira au kuchanganyikiwa sijui

Ujumbe huu chini ni wa Tundu Lissu kama ulivyotokea kwenye jamii forums. Lissu ananishutumu kuwa mbwa mwitu kwa sababu tu niliandika makala kumshauri asirejee nyumbani. Sina ugomvi na Lissu na uamuzi wake wa kurudi nyumbani. Aende hata kesho. Hata hivyo, angepima akili yake kabla ya kufanya hivyo.



Wandugu wapendwa salaam,

Naomba nizungumzie kidogo nia na malengo halisi ya Josephat Nyamwaya na wenzake.

Alianza mtu aitwaye Nkwazi Mhango yapata wiki moja iliyopita. Jana akafuatia Nyamwaya na leo ni zamu ya anayeitwa Martin Maranja Masese.

Wote wanaelekea kunipenda sana. Wote hawataki niuawe na 'watu wasiojulikana' pindi nitakaporejea nyumbani. Ijapokuwa hawasemi wazi wazi, wote hawapendi nirudi nyumbani kwa sababu nikirudi nitauawa.

Nyamwaya ametoa mfano wa marehemu Masinde Muliro wa Kenya. Maranja Masese ametoa mfano wa marehemu Ninoy Aquino wa Filipino.

Nyamwaya ameshauri nisirudi kupitia Dar es Salaam au Nairobi, bali nipitie Malawi halafu nije kwa barabara hadi Tanzania.

Je, hao wauaji wanaonisubiri Dar Es Salaam au Nairobi hawawezi kunisubiri Malawi au mpakani Kyela, au mahali pengine popote katika barabara ndefu ya kutoka Malawi hadi Dar?

Kwa kufuata hoja za wapendwa wangu hawa, je, niendelee kukaa nje ya Tanzania hadi lini itakapokuwa salama kurudi?

Je, nisubirie mpaka Jiwe atakapoamua kuondoka madarakani? Na nani ana uhakika ataondoka lini, maana kuna vijineno vya kutaka aongezewe muda.

Mimi ni mbunge wa kuchaguliwa na wananchi. Je, niachie ubunge wangu kwa kuhofia usalama wangu?

Mimi pia ni kiongozi wa juu wa CHADEMA. Je, niachane na siasa ili nisiuawe?

Maswali yote haya hayana majibu katika hoja za hawa watatu wanaonipenda sana.

Kuna kingine hawakisemi, angalau wazi wazi. Ukiangalia hoja zao kwa umakini, wanachosema ni kwamba watakaoniua ni Serikali ya Magufuli kwa kutumia pengine Idara ya Usalama wa Taifa au polisi au Jeshi kama ilivyokuwa kwa Masinde Muliro na Ninoy Aquino.

Kama wanawajua hawa wauaji watarajiwa kwa nini hawapigi kelele kwa Serikali ya Magufuli ili iachane na mipango hiyo ya uovu?

Serikali ina wajibu wa kulinda maisha ya raia wake kama mimi. Kwa nini watu hawa hawataki kuishinikiza serikali itekeleze wajibu wake kwa kulinda maisha yangu?

Kwa sababu zote hizi, nafikiri wanachotaka hawa wanaojifanya kunipenda ni kwamba nisimnyime Magufuli na watu wake usingizi kwa kurudi kwangu.

Wanachotaka kimsingi ni kwamba niachane na siasa za upinzani kwa kukaa uhamishoni. Nikifanya kama wanavyotaka basi Magufuli atapata afueni kubwa.

Ndicho wanachotaka hawa wanaoleta vijihoja vya namna hii. Kukubaliana nao ni kumpa Magufuli na watu wake ushindi mkubwa lakini wa chee.

Kukubaliana nao ni kukubali kuwa maumivu na mateso yote niliyopitia na ambayo wamepitia watu wengine wengi yalikuwa ni ya bure.

Ni kweli Tanzania ya Magufuli imekuwa nchi ya hatari sana kuishi, hasa ukiwa mpinzani wa CCM. Lakini dawa sio kukimbia nchi, bali ni kukabiliana na hatari hizo na wanaozisababisha.

Akina Nkwazi Mhango na Joe Nyamwaya na Martin Maranja Masese wanataka Magufuli atawale anavyotaka bila bughudha ya akina mimi.

Wanajifanya kunipenda na kunitakia mema lakini, kwa hoja zao, wanampenda Magufuli na watu wake zaidi.

Tuwe makini sana na watu wa aina hii. Ni mbwa mwitu waliojivika ngozi za kondoo.

Chanzo: Jamii forums