The inauguration of the ‘ Arusha Declaration’ (which we covered last week), was the last significant event during President Nyerere’s second term in office (1965 – 1970); because thereafter, he devoted the remainder of that period almost entirely on spreading the ‘gospel’ of “Ujamaa na kujitegemea” through a massive education campaign among the scattered, mostly rural population of vast Tanzania; in order to raise their levels of understanding and awareness of this new concept; plus urging, and spearheading, its implementation throughout the country.
That was also the time when I was appointed TANU’s National Executive Secretary, to take the place of Oscar Kambona, the TANU Secretary General, who had expressed strong opposition to the Arusha Declaration, and consequently had decided to resign from that position, and to run away from the country, to go into voluntary exile in London, United Kingdom.
More importantly, that new appointment is what became my ‘walk-in’ entry into “the corridors of power”; where, thank God, I remained comfortably settled until my eventual retirement, forty-five blessed years later. It is perhaps noteworthy that, despite that new appointment, President Nyerere decided that I should retain my other appointment as Clerk of the National Assembly, which was rather unusual, and, indeed, an exceptional demonstration of President Nyerere’s faith in me.
Hence, thereafter, working from TANU Headquarters in Lumumba Street, together with my boss Mwalimu Nyerere (in his capacity as President of TANU), we dutifully and seriously got down to work on that major task of spreading and enhancing knowledge and general understanding, of the Arusha Declaration concept, among the millions of Tanzanians. For that specific purpose, we authored, and produced, a variety of educational materials in the form of booklets, expounding on the various themes of that subject; which included the following:- “Ujamaa Vijijini”; “ Elimu ya Kujitegemea”; “ Shabaha ni Binadamu”; and “Ujamaa ni Imani”.
In addition, we organized numerous seminars and workshops for TANU leaders at all levels, for the same purposes and objectives. Mwalimu Nyerere and I attended all of the seminars which were held for the national-level leaders, ( the members of the Central Committee, and of the National Executive Committee), which were organized separately, and held at separate venues: whereas the seminar for Central Committee members was held in Handeni District, that of the National Executive Committee members was held in Sumbawanga District.
Given the nature of the circumstances prevailing at the material time, especially in terms of the meager manpower resources; I think we did a splendid job.
My appointment as Vice Chancellor of The University of Dares Salaam.
This now brings us to the year 1970, when I was appointed ‘founder-Vice Chancellor ‘of the newly established University Of Dar es Salaam (UDSM). This University, the first ever University Institution in Tanzania, was established on 1st July, 1970, by Act of the Parliament of the United Republic of Tanzania; as an outgrowth of the Dar es Salaam University College, which had been established much earlier in 1961, in order to meet the critical challenge of the lack of trained manpower, “needed for the responsibilities that the country will shoulder in an independent Tanganyika” (Mwalimu Nyerere).
It happened during the National Assembly’s annual 1970/71 Budget session, and the National Assembly had already passed the “University of Dares Salaam Act”, which had also already received the President’s Assent, and had therefore become law.
In the late afternoon of that blessed day, while I was at Karimjee Hall carrying out my responsibilities as Clerk of the National Assembly, I was suddenly told to report immediately to President Nyerere, at his Msasani private residence. On arrival there, I was, as usual, ushered into his study room; and that is when he surprised me with the news of my appointment as Vice Chancellor of Dar es Salaam University. He deliberately took some time to deliver the message. As I listened to him, he must have noticed my genuine, sincere surprise at this news, because he then went on to make another offer, that I should go and sleep over his ‘proposal’ and give him my considered response the next morning. ‘Proposal’, really? (Presidents make decisions, not proposals)!
I returned to Msasani the next morning, just to confirm my acceptance of that appointment. Subsequently, when I received the formal letter of appointment from the Public Service Department, it revealed that this was a three-year (renewable) contract. I served in that capacity for seven years, until I was whisked away again by President Nyerere, to take up yet another appointment as Chief Executive Secretary of Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM), upon its ‘high profile’ birth in 1977.
The unexpected challenge of the “Akivaga crisis”.
Unfortunately, I had a rather ‘bumpy’ start in my University appointment; but which was quickly smoothened by the Chancellor President Nyerere. As I explained above, following the inauguration of the Arusha Declaration in February 1967, I had been appointed TANU’s National Executive Secretary, (concurrently with that of Clerk of the National Assembly). Thus, this new appointment as Vice Chancellor, found me still holding that party position. Hence, the TANU Youth League leadership was apparently extra pleased by this appointment. Consequently, they enthusiastically organized a mammoth demonstration of their members, to escort me all the way from Lumumba Street to University Hill, on the day I went to report for duty. Furthermore, the following morning, the party newspaper had as its front-page headline, the following seemingly provocative words: “TANU YAENDA MLIMANI”. (TANU goes to University Hill).
Apparently, these incidents had caused enough provocation among some elements at the University, including the Student government, which was under the leadership of a Kenyan student called Akivaga; who subsequently issued a harsh statement, calling upon “the removal of this Vice chancellor”, on the ground that the University, which consisted of students from the whole of East Africa, “cannot be brought under the leadership of TANU, like their Kivukoni College”.
I considered this statement as amounting to insubordination. So, I went to meet Student President Akivaga, who had signed the said statement, at his office, in an effort to convince him to withdraw the statement and apologize. But he arrogantly refused. That is when I decided to suspend him from the University for two weeks. But before taking that action, I went to Msasani to consult the University Chancellor.; who concurred with that line of action. Student Akivaga was accordingly served with his suspension letter, and put on the next plane to Nairobi, plus money for his onward travel to his home in Kenya. However, the matter soon evolved into a ‘crisis’, when the Academic Staff Association (UDASA), which apparently felt that student Akivaga had been unfairly treated, requested the University Council Chairman, Amon Nsekela, to call an urgent Council meeting to discuss the matter, with a view to forcing the Vice Chancellor to reverse his decision.
The council meeting was indeed convened, but was abruptly aborted, when the Chancellor, President Nyerere, (who knew all the correct facts) intervened, by directing Chairman Amon Nsekela not to proceed with that misguided meeting. Akivaga therefore continued to serve the punishment he deserved, plus a little more. Because when he returned to the University, he quickly found himself in new trouble, when a group of Tanzania Students organized a successful coup against him, which threw him and his government out of power.
The university’s successes in the academic field.
However, in the academic field, the University’s reputation rocketed skywards, as a result of the huge interest that was taken by academicians But the pace increased after it became a University, when even more academicians of world reputation, came to join our academic staff as short- term visiting lecturers or researchers.
This closes the chapter on the 1965-70 Leadership period; which enables us to examine the events of the succeeding 1970-1975 five-year period,
President Nyerere’s invitation to the last colonial administrators.
In an earlier article, we discussed President Nyerere’s speech during the inauguration of the first Parliament of the Republic of Tanganyika, on 10th December, 1962; in which he confidently and boisterously announced, that under the independence Government, Tanganyika will have achieved a higher level of development in only ten years, compared with what the combined German and British colonial Administration could achieve in their seventy- five long years of domination over Tanganyika.
Thus, come 1971, the tenth year of independence, President Nyerere sent out invitations to the last colonial administrators, and other technical staff, of the colonial government who were in office at the time when our country achieved independence in December 1961, inviting them to attend the 1971 independence celebrations, and thereafter, tour the country to see for themselves the state of development that Tanganyika had achieved in only ten years since independence.
The President’s invitation brought back to Ukerewe, the last British District Commissioner of our District, Donald Barton; who, I was later informed, greatly amused his audience (at a reception event that had been organized to welcome him on arrival); when he jokingly reminded them of the days when the country’s independence was fast approaching, about his sarcastic responses, which he said he now regretted, namely that the Ukerewe people, in their uhuru motivated mood, whenever they greeted him using the then popular slogan of “UHURU”, he would rudely respond with the ugly word “UHUNI”.
The major reforms of the country’s Administrative structure,
In 1972, President Nyerere introduced some sweeping, major reforms, which were aimed at decentralizing the administrative structure of the central Government. For that specific purpose, he had earlier contracted an American consultancy firm, Mc Kinsey ; to undertake the necessary study, and thereafter recommend, an appropriate format for the decentralization of the Government machinery ; aimed at decentralizing some of the central Government’s powers to the Regions and Districts of Tanzania Mainland; which was described in Kiswahili as “ kupeleka Madaraka Mikoani”.
In due course, the MC Kinsey company duly completed its assignment, and submitted its Report to President Nyerere; who, purely for the purpose of assisting him to digest that Report and its apparently ‘far reaching’ recommendations, appointed a committee of five senior Public Servants, under the Chairmanship of Dickson Nkembo, the Permanent Secretary to the President, to make a careful study of that Report, and advise him accordingly. I was one of the members of this Presidential committee. In the course of our examination of the Mc Kinsey Report, we observed that its authors had proposed turning the country’s Regions into self- governing entities, or States; each with its own Legislature, and Executive Council. We were of the unanimous view, that such a structure would be detrimental to the cherished unity of the country, and we accordingly recommended its rejection.
President Nyerere graciously accepted our recommendation. As a result, we ended up with the ‘decentralized” system of Regional Administration that we have today, and NOT the ‘devolved’ system that Mc Kinsey had recommended.
This now brings us to the events of the year 1973, which we will examine in next week’s article. (To be continued next week)
piomsekwa@gmail.com/ 0754767576.
Source: Daily News and Cde Msekwa Himself.
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