I
was appointed, on
promotion from Clerk-Assistant, to Clerk of
Clerk of the National
Assembly, effective from 9th December,
1962. This position also made the
incumbent simultaneously the Director of
Elections. It is
this appointment which
suddenly propelled me
to the top
echelons of the
Administrative Civil Service
pyramid, as a
result of my
performance in that other
capacity as Director
of Elections.
The first
post-independence general elections
were due to
be held in 1965. And, in
the meantime, major
constitutional changes had been
introduced, which made
Tanzania a Constitutional
‘One-Party State’. Thus,
when the 1965
general elections were
held, with me
being in sole
charge of that
exercise as Director
of elections; my
performance was being
keenly watched by
everyone, including President
Nyerere himself.
Apparently, I did a
splendid job, perhaps
even beyond President
Nyerere’s expectation. Hence, as
a special personal
reward to me,
he directed that my position
of Clerk of
the National Assembly, be
upgraded and made
equivalent, in salary,
to that of
Permanent Secretary in
a Government Ministry.
That
is how I
was propelled to
the top echelons
of the Civil
Service pyramid that
much early, which
was almost at the
beginning of my
career.
We will
discuss the 1965 elections
later. Let us
first examine President
Nyerere’s stewardship.
The 9th
day
of December, 1962;
was also the
date on which
Mwalimu Julius Nyerere
was installed as
President of the Republic
of Tanganyika, and on
the next day,
10th December,
1962, he
came to Karimjee
Hall, to address the
Tanganyika Parliament; wherein
he outlined his
governance aims and
objectives, plus his
priorities in implementing
those objectives President
Nyerere’s metaphoric expression of
“we must run
while others walk”
is what accurately
describes his initial
leadership strategies; which
were designed to
create a new
nation of Tanganyika
citizens after the
achievement of UHURU.
The initial
tasks facing him were
monumental and daunting,
both in their
scope, and in
their extensive nature. Basically, they included the
following:
(i) To
complete the process
of decolonization, by
quickly dismantling all
the colonial structures,
and the legal
regime, which
the colonial Administration had left
behind; specifically
those which were obstructive
to the achievement
of national unity.
(ii) To
set up new
appropriate replacement structures.
(iii)
To
undertake the
task of developing,
and putting in
place, new policies
and strategies designed
to achieve rapid
social and economic
development for the
people of this
new nation; strategies
which he
metaphorically described as
“the fight against
the three peoples’
enemies of poverty,
ignorance, and disease”.
(iv) To
introduce a totally
new governance system; namely,
the democratic ‘One-Party
system’ Constitution.
The implementation of all
of these
tasks had to
be carried out
in the National
Assembly; because they
involved either the
enactment of new
laws; or giving
approval to any
such policies
that required Legislative
approval.
Thus, having
just been appointed Clerk
of the National
Assembly myself, I became closely
involved (through
this Legislative process)
in “the making
of a new
nation”.
One
outstanding feature of
these legislative activities,
was the necessity to resort to
the frequent application
of the rule which
permits the introduction Government
Bills “under “Certificate
of Urgency”; simply
because the
colonial legal regime
had to be
dismantled in the
shortest time possible.
The following
four major pieces
of legislation were
among those which
were speedily dealt
with:- (i) The
Chiefs’ Ordinance; (ii)
the Land Tenure
Ordinance; (iii) the
Magistrates Courts Ordinance; and
(iv) The Education
Ordinance.
The Chiefs’
Ordinance was a big hindrance
to national unity,
because it created
multiple loyalties among
the people of
one nation, with each
tribe owing loyalty
to its own
Chief, instead of loyalty
to the nation. It was
swiftly abolished without
replacement.
The land
Tenure Ordinance, which
made provision for
the granting of
“freehold” land titles
to individual persons,
was a recipe
for future land
troubles between the
few land owners,
and the vast
landless masses. This
was abolished and replaced by
a new law,
which made provision
only for the
granting of “leasehold”
titles to individual
applicants. Leasehold titles
were subjected to
specified development conditions.
Failure to meet
these conditions would
lead to the
loss of title
to that land,
which would then be acquired
by the Government,
and re-granted to
another applicant.
The Magistrates’
Courts Ordinance was also
abolished, and
replaced by a
new Magistrates Courts
Act, which removed
the racial discriminatory nature
of the previous
Ordinance. Racial
discrimination was not
only inappropriate in a
new Tanganyika, whose
guiding philosophy wa
the ‘equality of
all human beings’ (Binadamu
wote ni sawa);
but was also
detrimental to the
forging of national
unity, and to peace
and tranquility among the
people..
Similarly, the
Education Ordinance, which had
exactly the same
racial discriminatory features;
and thus was equally repugnant
to the philosophy
of human equality,
was also abolished
and replaced by
a new Education
Act, which was more appropriate
for the new
nation.
All
these legislative measures
were accomplished during
1963, the first year
of President Nyerere’s
rule, thus justifying
his expression “we
must run while
others walk”..
The new policies
and strategies that
were put in
place by President
Nyerere, included the policy of “Ujamaa
na Kujitegemea”; which was
promulgated in 1967,
by way of a
historic policy document
titled the “Arusha Declaration”.
But before that,
he issued his directive on
the use of
Kiswahili in all
Government operations (where
possible). This was
issued at the
beginning of 1963; and, (with
a tinge of
pride as the
first Tanzanian Clerk
of the National
Assembly), I
undertook the responsibility for
implementing this directive
immediately, in respect
of the National
Assembly proceedings.
But
this task was
quite taxing. For, at that material time,
there were only two senior staff
members in the
Speaker’s Office: myself,
the Clerk of
the National Assembly;
and the Clerk-
Assistant, Mr. Yasin
Osman; who had to manage all
the administrative business of the Speaker’s
Office. Thus, I
assigned the task
of preparing the
normal National Assembly
business to the
Clerk-Assistant, while I
concentrated on the
more sensitive
political tasks, of
implementing the President’s
directive on the
use of Kiswahili;
and later (when
the time came),
of organizing the 1965
general elections.
The process
of converting to
Kiswahili involved the
setting up of an entirely
new system for
the preparation of
the official records
of the Parliamentary
proceedings, (the Hansard
reports).
Implementing President Nyerere’s
Kiswahili directive.
Up to
that time, the
proceedings of the National Assembly
were being conducted
only in the
English language. For
that reason, we
had a team
of competent stenographers, who
took shorthand notes
of everything that was said
in the House, and
later went out
to transcribe their
notes into typewritten
scripts. The immediate
challenge, was that
no shorthand characters
had been developed
for the Kiswahili
language at that time;
thus, there
were no trained
Kiswahili shorthand stenographers
available anywhere in
the job market.
In
those difficult circumstances, we
had to embark
on a completely
new system of
using ‘audio-typists’, who
would take audio
recordings of all
that was said
inside the National
Assembly, and later
have their recordings
transcribed into typewritten
scripts.
It
took some time,
and money, to
establish this new
system, but all
was done in
a relatively short
period of time, which enabled
us to avoid
postponing any of
the scheduled sessions
of the National
Assembly, even for
that first year
when we started
implementation of President Nyerere’s
directive on the
use of Kiswahili;
thus adding a
few precious marks to my
performance credibility.
The momentous
events of the
year 1964.
Outside the
National Assembly, there
were two momentous
events that occurred in
pretty quick succession, in
the first four
months of 1964. The
first was the
sad, shameful event
of the army
mutiny by the Tanganyika Rifles in
January. The
other was the joyful,
historic event,
of the establishment
of the political
Union between Tanganyika
and Zanzibar, which
occurred in April,
1964.
The army
mutiny
This happened
in the early morning
hours of
January 20th, 1964;
when a contingent
of soldiers from
the ‘Colito Barracks’
in Dar es
Salaam went on the rampage
and captured important
Government Installations and
facilities, including the
State House (Ikulu),
the International Airport,
and the Government
Radio Broadcasting station.
They also arrested
their British Commanding
Officers. Their announced
intention was not to
take over the
Government. All they wanted
was the immediate
removal of their
British Commanders, and
their replacement by
Tanganyika Officers.; They
also demanded an
increase in their
salaries, and other
emoluments..
But by the
time the
mutinous soldiers arrived
at the gates
of Ikulu, President
Nyerere, together with
Vice President Rashidi
Kawawa,
had already been
evacuated by the Intelligence Service
Director to
a safer place,
the home of a trusted
TANU leader, one
Mzee Sultan Kizwezwe,
who was residing
in Kigamboni area. However,
as the mutiny
progressed through its
second day, other,
non-military vagabonds, took
advantage of the
generally confused situation,
and started committing
acts of lawlessness
and criminality, such
as shop breaking
and stealing; in
several areas of
Dar es Salaam. And by then,
the situation had
reached the stage
at which the mutineers had
to be subdued;
because the Tanganyika Rifles soldiers
stationed at Tabora
and Nachingwea, had
also joined their
Colito Barracks colleagues
in the unlawful
act of mutiny.
President Nyerere
had also returned
to State House,
and from there,
he sent for
the British High
Commissioner, and asked
him to submit
his request to
the British Government,
asking to be
given urgent support
in disarming the
mutinous soldiers.
The
British Government was
quick in its
positive response. Thus,
in the early
morning hours of 25th January, 1964; a
British warship arrived
in Dar es
Salaam harbour, carrying
British soldiers and their
equipment, fully ready
for the relevant
task, which they
carried out efficiently
and professionally. For Just
as the powerful
warning bombs were being fired
into selected areas
of colito barracks
from the warship;
the British soldiers
landed, and immediately
descended on
the mutineers.
It took hardly
an hour to
subdue them all. And
in the afternoon
of the same
day, the British
forces flew to
Tabora and Nachingwea,
to subdue the
soldiers who
had joined their
Dar es Salaam
colleagues in that
illegal act of
mutiny. And that
was actually also the
end of the “Tanganyika Rifles”
army, which
had been inherited
from the previous
colonial Administration.
President Nyerere
took immediate steps
to prepare for
the establishment of
a completely new
army of loyal
recruits from among
the TANU Youth
league members. While
in the meantime, he requested
his fellow President
of newly independent
Nigeria, to provide,
as a temporary measure,
a contingent of
Nigerian soldiers to
take care of the military
needs of Tanganyika, during
the transitional period pending
the establishment of
its own Army.
To
be continued next
week.
piomsekwa@gmail.com
/0754767576.
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