By far the most important event of the year 1990, was the retirement of President Nyerere from the Presidency; and its greatest significance lies in the fact that his cherished succession plan was again frustrated.
We have already seen that his succession plan was first frustrated by the tragic death of Prime Minister Edward Sokoine in 1984. It was frustrated again in 1985, when the all-powerful CCM National Executive Committee refused to endorse his preferred candidate, Salim Ahmed Salim, to stand for election to that post in the 1985 Presidential elections.
The resistance to Salim’s candidature started at the Central Committee. The usual procedure was to ask the proposed candidate or candidates to leave the meeting, so that they could be frankly discussed. Accordingly , three persons were asked by Chairman Nyerere to leave the meeting. They were Vice President Ali Hassan Mwinyi, Prime Minister Salim Ahmed Salim; and CCM Secretary General Rashid Kawawa. Rashid Kawawa refused to vacate the room, declaring that he did not wish to be considered for nomination. But the other two left, thus indicating their willingness to be considered. That is when Ali Hassan Mwinyi became the preferred candidate, and Salim became the loser.
Being his Permanent Secretary, I had spent some time with Premier Salim in his Office that morning just before he went to attend the Central Committee meeting, in order to wish him well. He called me back to his office immediately he had returned from the meeting, to appraise me of what had transpired therein. He was obviously disappointed, because, just like myself, he had not expected that decision at all.
Former President Benjamin Mkapa has recorded this event as follows, in his book My Life, My Purpose (at page 98): “I did not attend the Central Committee meeting which preceded the CCM National Congress where Mwalimu would announce his retirement and proposed successor; but I was told that Mwalimu was absolutely shocked by the negative response of the members of the Central Committee to his preferred successor, Salim Ahmed Salim. He had to hastily change the last two paragraphs of the speech he had prepared for delivery at the National congress, in order to reflect the different successor chosen by the Central Committee. . . The fact that Mwinyi did become his successor, clearly shows the strength of the party, as well as the greatness of Mwalimu Nyerere himself. For he could have imposed his choice, but he did not”.
Yes indeed, Mwalimu Nyerere could have imposed his choice, and would most probably have easily got away with it. But he did not. Because he was a man of principle. Thereafter, Mwalimu Nyerere retired to his home Village of Butiama. But continued in office as Chairman of Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM), for the remainder of his five-year term until 1987, and also agreed to carry on until 1990; when President Mwinyi became also CCM national Chairman. Thus, I continued to work with Mwalimu Nyerere in my capacity as a member of the CCM National Executive Committee; to which I had been elected in 1982, and re-elected in 1987.
My appointment to the Planning Commission, 1989.
One of the reforms that were introduced by President Mwinyi in an effort to improve the Government’s management of the economy, was the establishment of the “Planning Commission”, an Agency of Government which he located in the President’s Office, presumably to enable the President to have direct supervision and control over it. As was the case in many other policy initiatives, its establishment was a directive from the CCM National Executive Committee, which decided on the establishment of this Agency in the first quarter of 1989. As a member of NEC, I had participated its meeting which made that decision; and was therefore fully aware of the objects and reasons for its establishment. I was delighted when President Mwinyi appointed me to be a member of that Commission. However, In a striking departure from President Nyerere’s style, who always called me to his office whenever he wanted to give me a new appointment; this time I learnt of this appointment from an evening radio news broadcast.
But all the same, it came to me as a great relief to my worries regarding what I was going to do the following year, when I was due to attain the mandatory civil service retirement age of fifty-five years. Luckily, this was a contract appointment, which would comfortably carry me over the retirement bridge.
THE YEAR 1990 : THE END OF AN ERA.
President Julius Nyerere’s retirement from CCM leadership in 1990, was, indeed, the end of an era, and a historic era too. A major reason why Mwalimu Nyerere had agreed to carry on as CCM Chairman after leaving the Presidency in 1985; was because of the people’s “fear of change”. There had developed some widespread apprehension, that without Nyerere as President, the country would most likely be difficult to govern, It was feared that there would emerge trouble makers in the governance system, who will create problems of one kind or another, for their own selfish benefits. These fears had to be somehow dealt with, and Mwalimu Nyerere’s solution was to remain, for a specified transition period, as head of the powerful ruling party, which would give sufficient assurance to the people that all will still be well, with Mwalimu Nyerere around in that capacity.
That transition period came to an end in October 1990, which was the scheduled time for CCM to hold its mandatory meetings in preparation for that year’s general elections. That is when President Mwinyi was nominated as a candidate for his second term; and was at the same time elected CCM national Chairman. The end of an era.
Mwalimu Nyerere, having assumed full time political leadership in 1955, when he was forced to resign from his lucrative teaching job at St. Francis College, Pugu; and whose name thereafter, became associated with all the major political feats and achievements, (starting with the liberation of Tanganyika from the yoke of colonialism and the building of the new Tanganyika nation, followed by the unification of Tanganyika and Zanzibar to form the United Republic of Tanzania, to the success of the liberation struggle from colonialism for the whole of Africa); Mwalimu Nyerere’s name had become synonymous with good, exemplary political leadership; which lasted for not less than two generations. Hence, his departure from leadership was indeed the end of an era, not only for Tanzanians, but also for many other international observers.
It was the end of an era for me as well.
Since I am writing the history of my life in the Public Service; I must put on record the fact that the year 1990 also was, in a way, the end of an era for me too. For this was the year of my retirement also from the pensionable civil service, in accordance with the pension laws of Tanzania at that time, when the compulsory retirement age for Public Servants was fifty-five years. I attained that age on 9th June, 1990. Hence thereafter, I would now have to plan and decide myself, what I would like to do.
Fortunately, 1990 was also general election year; so I quickly decided to join the political Service sector, by contesting the Ukerewe constituency parliamentary seat which, by the grace of God, I easily won; and, on arrival in Parliament, I contested the Deputy Speaker’s position. Which I also won, and was subsequently, in 1994, was elected Speaker of the House, to take over from Chief Adam Sapi Mkwawa, who had resigned on grounds of ill health.
Thus, in many respects, this was the beginning of a vastly different career path, compared to that to which I had been accustomed over the previous three decades, of enjoying Presidential appointments to top-level pensionable public service posts. This was also the beginning of my fourth decade in the Public Service, still going strong; and this time being at the helm of the Legislative Branch of Government. We will discuss the events of the 1990s starting next week.
My appointment to the Presidential Nyalali Commission.
President Mwinyi’s first term in office (1985 – 1990), was relatively uneventful, with Mwalimu Nyerere still around, as head of CCM, the powerful Ruling party which he himself had founded. But things started to change after 1990, when he became the sole man-in- charge. His major changes include the Constitutional reforms which re-introduced multi-party politics in our country, in which I was very closely involved.
The Constitutional reforms.
The idea of re-examining our one-party political system, was actually motivated by the political events which occurred during the year 1989, in Eastern Europe when, quite unexpectedly, great political changes took place in that part of the world leading to the downfall of nearly all the Communist parties, which were the Ruling parties in those countries; accompanied by demands for the enhancement of democracy based on multi-party politics, the observance of human rights; and the introduction of a market economy.
Such demands also quickly spread to several African countries, bringing about violence, and even loss of life, in some of them.
This is what made it necessary for several countries that were operating the one-party political system, including Tanzania, to start giving consideration to the possibility of abandoning that system, in favour of the alternative multi-party system. Consideration of this option was done by the CCM National Executive Committee at its regular meeting held in February 1991 at which, among other matters, it carefully reviewed the state of politics in the world generally, created by the events that had recently taken place in Eastern Europe. The CCM NEC resolved as follows :-(a) That judging from the circumstances then obtaining in the global political environment; a national debate be initiated throughout the country, to discuss whether, or not, our country should change to multi-party politics; and (b) To authorize the President to appoint a Presidential Commission, which would coordinate and aggregate these discussions; and in due course present a Report of its findings. I had just been elected Deputy Speaker, but was also appointed by President Mwinyi to the membership of that Nyalali Commission.
President Mwinyi’s economic reforms
And in my other capacity as a member of CCM’s National Executive Committee, I also participated in some of the decision-making processes which resulted in major reforms of the country’s economic policies, which were initiated by President Mwinyi.
December 1992, the CCM National Executive Committee approved a new economic policy document titled “Mwelekeo was Sera za CCM katika Miaka ya Tisini” (CCM’s policy Vision for the 1990s); whose principal objective was to ensure that the country’s economy “is owned and managed by the people themselves, either in their individual capacities, or through their independent cooperative societies, or joint-venture companies in which thousands of wananchi will own shares”.
In this way, it was assumed, “the larger part of the economy will be owned and controlled by the people themselves, thus giving them the opportunity to upgrade their living standards”. However, a subsequent evaluation revealed that the implementation of this policy had not been entirely successful.
(Will be continued next week).
piomsekwa@gmail.com /0754767576.
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