We have already entered a new chapter of my autobiography, which relates to my second decade in the Public Service in Tanzania. We started with the events of year 1971; when we discussed President Nyerere’s invitation to the last British Colonial administrators who were still in the service of the country when our country gained independence in December 1961; to come back and see for themselves, the amount of progress that the country had achieved ten years later, under the independence Government. This article will pick up from there. It was unfortunate that last week’s article kind of ‘jumped the queue’, by discussing the 1973 and 1974 events relating to the re-location of the Government Capital to Dodoma; and those relating to the implementation of the ‘Ujamaa Villages’ programme. This was a chronological error, which we have now corrected.
The introduction of mass militia (Mgambo) training.
After the invitations to the last Colonial administrators; the next significant event that needs to be put on record was the introduction of mass militia training for all able-bodied Tanzanians, also in 1971. This new policy was the result of the military coup, which had occurred in the neighboring Republic of Uganda, that had abruptly toppled President Milton Obote from power.
This event created such a huge negative impact on the minds of the people of Tanzania, that something had to be done quickly to reassure the population of its continued safety. In the first place, there was the shock and disbelief that such a coup had taken place in a neighboring country, Uganda. Military coups had indeed taken place before, but only in faraway countries of West Africa like Ghana and Nigeria. This was the first time it had occurred so close to Tanzania.
But secondly, and much more frightening, were the rumors that were being spread by some ‘scare-mongers’, to the effect that a similar coup was soon going to take place in Tanzania; allegedly due to “Nyerere’s unwanted Ujamaa policies”. The scare-mongers found refuge in the fact that in 1969, The General Conference of the Uganda Peoples’ Congress (UPC), Uganda’s ruling party, had adopted a new policy document titled: “The Common Man’s Charter”. This was to be their policy guide for building socialism in Uganda. It had many resemblances with our own 1967 “Arusha Declaration”. President Nyerere and I had been invited to attend that conference, which we had gladly accepted, and actually attended. Thus, the scare-mongers’ false rumours appeared credible. Something had to be done urgently, to bring the situation back to normality.
And that is when President Nyerere sprang into action, by urgently taking two rescue measures: The immediate one was to call a huge public rally at Jangwani open grounds in Dar es Salaam; in order to give the population, the necessary reassurance. He did exactly that, and at the end of a lengthy speech, in which he gave all the necessary background to the coup in Uganda, President Nyerere concluded with the following words: “I want to assure you all, that it is just not possible for a military coup to take place in Tanzania . . . It may be possible for one mad fellow out there in the street to shoot and kill me, but there can never be a military coup in Tanzania”.
His second urgent measure was to call an extraordinary meeting of TANU’s National Executive Committee, which was held in February 1971; to deliberate over the matter of the Uganda coup, and agree on any new defense strategies for our country. The result of that meeting was the production of a new policy document titled “the TANU Guidelines, 1971”; which introduced an entirely new ‘militia’ mechanism for the country’s defense, known as “Mgambo” in Kiswahili.
But beyond that, The ‘1971 TANU Guidelines’ also introduced another important, new democratic practice, that of “empowering the people to make their own decision” in matters of immediate concern to them. This was intended to concretize the concept of continuous ‘political participation by all the people’.
The major events of 1972.
(i) The decentralization of the Central Government structure.
For us Tanzanians, the year 1972 was a year of national bereavement, caused by the brutal assassination of Zanzibar President Abeid Amani Karume, who was at the same time First Vice President of the United Republic of Tanzania. That murder took place at Kisiwandui, the Headquarters of the Afro-Shirazi Party. Security investigations later revealed that this was the work of an Arab assassin, working alone, as his personal revenge for the killing of his own father during the January 1964 Revolution. Thereafter, arrangements had to be made for the appointment of a successor to that high office. After due consultations, Aboud Jumbe was selected to succeed the slain Karume.
(ii) The major reforms of the country’s Administrative structure.
Also, 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 Company; 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. This was described in Kiswahili as “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 lucky to be 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 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, which is operative, for example, in Kenya.
The abolition of the Local Authorities District Councils.
The abolition of the Local Authorities’ ‘District Councils’; and of the peoples’ Cooperative Societies, were two of the major governance reforms which were also carried out in 1972; but for reasons which, ten years later, were found to be wholly unsatisfactory, thus leading to their reversal. The decision to abolish the Local Authorities’ District Councils, was an outcome of the decentralization programme discussed above. The argument then was that because of the wide disparity between the country’s different districts in terms of natural resources endowment; to rely on the local District Councils to bring equal development for all the people of Mainland Tanzania, would clearly be an unrealizable objective. Hence, it was felt that the responsibility for development should be left to the Central Government, which was in a better position to distribute the country’s wealth equitably, according to need.
But the argument regarding the abolition of the Peoples’ Cooperative Societies and Unions, was based on a totally different consideration, namely, the prevalence of large scale mismanagement; plus, even more serious, the widespread plundering and theft of public Cooperative properties. It is these differing reasons that led to the abolition of the said entities at the time they were abolished.
In this article, we will skip the events of the year 1973, which we discussed in an earlier article when we inadvertently ‘jumped the queue’.
The events of 1974.
The year 1974, actually turned out to be an extraordinary year, in terms the very significant administrative reforms that were initiated and successfully carried out during that single calendar year. The major reforms involved included:-
(i) (i) The complete implementation of the ‘Ujamaa/Development Villages’ programme, which we have already discussed;
(ii) The major reforms in the provision of Primary and Secondary education, aimed at achieving the cherished goal of ‘education for Self-Reliance;
(iii) The reforms in the procedure for student admission to the University of Dar es Salaam.
(iii) The reforms in the procedure for student admission to the University of Dar es Salaam.
All these reforms were the result of decisions arrived at by TANU’s National Executive Committee, at its meeting which was held in Musoma in April 1974. Their principal purpose was to give directives on the ways to be followed in implementing the policy of ‘Education for Self-Reliance in our educational Institutions. The following were the actual decisions which were made:-
(a) That the education which is imparted in our Primary schools should not be aimed solely at preparing students for entry into Secondary Schools, buts should, instead, be self-sufficient for the needs for the majority of the students, whose education normally terminates there.
(b) That similarly, Secondary education should not be aimed at preparing students for entry into tertiary education, but should equally be self-sufficient for the majority of the students whose education normally terminates there.
(a) That the education which is imparted in our Primary schools should not be aimed solely at preparing students for entry into Secondary Schools, buts should, instead, be self-sufficient for the needs for the majority of the students, whose education normally terminates there.
(b) That similarly, Secondary education should not be aimed at preparing students for entry into tertiary education, but should equally be self-sufficient for the majority of the students whose education normally terminates there.
(c) (c) That Primary education in Tanzania, must be universal education, or ‘education for all’; and not just for a privileged few;
(d) That in all our educational Institutions, efforts must be made to engage their relevant communities in productive activities, especially in food production, so as to enable them to become self-sufficient, at least to some measurable extent.
(e) That the format for examinations be reformed, in a way that will enable the student to be assessed both for his academic performance, and his performance in the school productive activities.
And as a follow up on its decision that primary education in Tanzania must be ‘education for all’; the NEC further directed that “within the next three years, that is to say, by the year 1977; all the preparations must have been completed, that will enable every boy and girl of school-going age, to get admission into a Primary School.
Directives regarding the provision of Technical education.
That NEC meeting further directed, that a new emphasis be placed on the provision of Technical education, by introducing a new two-year technical education programme, for all those students who completed primary education, but were unable to secure admission to Secondary education. It was further directed that each and every Secondary School should introduce the teaching of at least one technical subject of their choice, as a way of preparing those of their graduating students who would be unable to continue with higher education for self-reliance in their lives after Secondary School.
Directions relating to admissions to the University of Dares Salaam.
The said directives effectively terminated the previous system of ‘direct entry’ to the University, immediately after successful completion of Form Six at a Secondary School. The new rules required such candidates to undergo a two-year National Service training programme, during which their attitudes to work would be observed, and assessed by their commanders; and these assessments would be evaluated and taken into account by the University Admissions Board. These were, no doubt, far reaching decisions which had to be implemented.
piomsekwa@gmail.com/0754767576.
(To be continued next week).
Source: Daily News and Cde Msekwa Himself.
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