The expression “Kofia mbili” means the CCM rule and practice of one person holding two leadership positions simultaneously. Thus, at the Presidential level, the person who gets elected as President, also becomes the national Chairman of that party. There was a time in the past when this rule applied also the persons who were appointed to the Government positions of Regional Commissioner or District Commissioner, who thereby also became the party’s Regional or District party secretaries in their allotted Regions or Districts. But this practice was discontinued in 1982/83, when it was decreed that these two positions shall be held by two different persons; thus confining the privilege of ‘wearing’ kofia mbili only to the Union President, who becomes the party national Chairman, and the President of Zanzibar, who becomes one of the two national Vice Chairpersons.
In this respect, President Samia made history.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan actually made history, by becoming the first ever woman to hold the position of President of the United Republic of Tanzania, and Chairman of the ruling party CCM. And her initial performance in both positions clearly shows that she has “all it takes” to be both a successful President, and Chairman of the ruling party CCM.
Her demonstration of genuine self confidence.
In her powerful maiden address to Parliament in 22nd April, 2021; President Samia, in a captivating demonstration of immense, genuine, self confidence, said the following:- “ Ni mara ya kwanza katika historia ya nchi yetu kupata Rais mwanamke. Kwa sababu hiyo, najua watakuwapo baadhi ya watu ambao wanadhani kuwa sitoweza majikumu mazito ya Urais. Nataka kuwaondoa hofu kwamba Mwenyezi Mungu hakuumba ubongo dhaifu kwa mwanamke, na ubongo imara kwa mwannaume. La hasha. Wote tulizaliwa tukiwa sawa. Isipokuwa kwamba makuzi na umakini wa akili ya mtu, vinategemea jamii inayomlea, pamoja na shughuli zinazomzunguka. Nataka kuwahakikishieni kwamba mimi nimekuzwa katika jamii sahihi, na pia kwamba nonao uzoefu wa kutosha wa kazi za umma”.
And indeed, her curriculum vitae fully attests to the fact of her vast experience, both in the government, and in the ruling party. For at different times, she was Minister in the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar from 2000 to 2010; and was also Minister in the Union Government from 2010 to 2015; and Vice President of the United Republic of Tanzania from 2015.
With regard to her experience in the ruling party, her CV shows that she became a member of CCM way back in June 1987. Thereafter, she has been a member of the party’s Central Committee and the National Executive Committee from 2002. She has also been a member of the team which drafted the CCM election manifesto for four consecutive general elections, starting from the 2005 general election.
Prior experience may be helpful, but is not a necessary qualification.’
A person’s ‘prior experience’ is normally and routinely demanded by employers who are in the process of recruiting new staff. But for political leadership positions, this is not an absolutely necessary qualification; because serious people who have no relevant experience, can still ‘learn’ through the process of doing the job itself.
This reminds me of a little story which was told by President Nyerere in February 1977; soon after he had appointed Edward Moringe Sokoine as the new Prime Minister of the United Republic, replacing the long serving Rashidi Mfaume Kawawa. In that story, Mwalimu Nyerere was comparing himself with Edward Sokoine; and said that whereas he himself had no prior experience of how Government actually works. Thus, he had to learn this on the job itself, when he first joined the colonial Administration as Chief Minister in September 1960.
For example, he did not know the procedure for communicating with the Governor, who was the Head of Government representing Queen Elizabeth. He was thus obliged to ask for help from his Permanent Secretary; who advised him to write a “MINUTE” to the Governor. “I did not even did not know how such “ Minute’ looks like” he said! “ I had to ask the Permanent Secretary to draft the relevant ‘Minute’ for me”. But Premier Edward Sokoine will encounter no such difficulties, because he was already a Minister, and therefore has accumulated sufficient experience of working for the government.
Similarly, because of President Samia’s accumulated experience obtained from her long distinguished service, both in the Zanzibar and the Union Governments; she will, obviously, have no difficulty whatsoever, in carrying out her new responsibilities. And she has already demonstrated this in her initial performance.
President Samia’s initial performance.
A well known Kiswahili proverb says this: “ Nyota njema huonekana asubuhi”. This is exactly what we have witnessed through President Samia’s initial performance during the first few weeks of her Presidency, during which she has demonstrated her personal governance style, in two distinct ways: One was that she intends to maintain her predecessor’s speed and tempo; when, in her first cabinet reshuffle, she retained all the Ministers who had been appointed by her predecessor. Plus, at the ceremony of swearing in these Ministers, she also showed that she was determined to follow the direction of her predecessor, when she issued directives the Tanzania Revenue Authority “to expand the tax base by increasing the number of tax payers, and avoiding the use of force in the collection of taxes, such as closing the tax payer’s bank accounts, or forcibly taking money from their accounts.
These directives would appear to indicate that she, like her predecessor, intends to relay largely on obtaining her government revenues from the country’s own resources. She also issued directives to the Prevention of Corruption Bureau to investigate certain suspicious withdrawals of vast amounts of money from the Central Bank of Tanzania (BOT). This would appear to indicate that she is also determined to maintain her predecessors supreme efforts in curbing the immoral thefts, and plundering of public funds with impunity.
But the other indicator was when she announced her appointment of Permanent Secretaries and other administrative heads of public Organizations only four days later; in which case, she demonstrated, equally clearly, that she is determined to chart her own governance direction with her own selected team of officials in the top public service positions. For she appears to have gone fishing in the deep blue sea of the vast public service establishment, and made her own catch.
The president’s May Day speech.
Her speech, which she delivered at the CCM Kirumba Stadium in Mwanza on the occasion of the annual international May Day celebrations, is yet another indicator of the governance direction in which she will be moving. In that speech, the President succinctly outlined the various measures which will be taken by her Government to improve the welfare of Tanzanian workers; including a salary increase, to be effected on May Day next year.
But more that, she said that “ in the coming financial yea, the Government intends to (a) promote between 85,000 and 91,000 new employees, at a cost of 449 bn/-; (b) pay salary arrears to civil servants, and to change the civil service structure, all of which will cost the state 120bn/-; (c) employ 40.000 new workers, specifically in the Health and the Education sectors; and (d) reduce the ‘pay-as-you-earn’ (PAYE) tax which is charged on workers’ salaries, from 9 to 8 percent”.
The President finally said: “It is my fervent hope that these measures will provide some welcome relief to our workers. But I want to assure you that I will come up with a good salary package next year, which will include a review of the minimum wage for workers, both in the public, as well as in the private sectors”.
“President Samia’s speech spells hope” declared the SUNDAY NEWS in its front page headline of Sunday, 2nd May, 2021.
And in her new role as Chairperson of the ruling party.
The new chairman did the same even on the first day of her CCM chairmanship. But, for a better and clearer understanding this matter, It would be helpful, first, to appreciate the conventional pivotal role of political parties in all properly functioning “parliamentary democracies”; which is that political parties “provide a stable base for the operations of the government of the day” in the relevant jurisdictions, by facilitating, and enabling, smooth and uneventful ‘power transfers’ to take place.
At the conclusion of the competition for votes during regular, free and fair general elections; whichever party wins the majority of the votes cast, is granted the right to form the government of the day. This is clearly evident, for example, in Great Britain, where ‘power transfers’ have always been peaceful, and totally uneventful; and from where we, and all other Commonwealth countries, inherited the parliamentary system of government, which is also known as “government by political party”, that we are currently operating.
It should therefore be appreciated, that even after the re-introduction of multi-party politics forty four years ago, the ruling party has been providing a stable base for the operations of its governments; a factor which accounts for all the peaceful power transfers from one phase to another that we have constantly witnessed, including the recent transfer from the fifth phase government of President John Pombe Magufuli, to the sixth phase government of President Samia Suluhu Hassan.
Thus, in terms of the Kiswahili proverb nyota njemme huonekana asubuhi, President Samia‘s ‘promising’ star was already clearly visible, and shining brightly during her ‘morning’ weeks in the Presidency; for she had already displayed the kind of firmness and determination, that many casual observers had probably never expected.
But on the other hand, she had fully satisfied the expectations of the majority of Tanzanians and other well wishers, who had, either individually or collectively, expressed their full confidence in President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s ability to deliver. And this provides solid proof that she, indeed, has ‘all it takes’ to make a successful President of the United Republic of Tanzania.
President Samia election as Chairperson of CCM.
Immediately after President Samia Suluhu Hassan was duly elected CCM national Chairperson on 30th April, 2021, by the CCM special National Congress; she “hit the ground running”. For on that same day, she got down to the serious work of appointing the group of officials who will constitute the party’s Secretariat.
And she again surprised many observers by appointing new faces; including the Secretary General Daniel Chongolo; the Deputy Secretary General for Mainland Tanzania Christine Mdeme, the Secretary for Ideology and Publicity Shaka Hamdu Shaka; and the Secretary for Organization Maudline Castico .
The only officials retained from the outgoing Administration ware: Deputy Secretary General for Zanzibar Abdalla Juma Sadalla Mabodi; Secretary for international and political Affairs Dr. Ngemela Lubiga; and National Treasurer Dr. Frank Hawasi. “ New CCM machinery full of surprises, graced with diversity” so declared THE CITIIZEN ON SATURDAY of 1st May, 2021 in its headline news item on page 2 thereof. And, indeed it was.
piomsekwa@gmail.com / 0754767576.
Source: Daily News today and Dr Msekwa Himself.
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