By Pius Msekwa
This is the second part of the narrative on 60 years of independence whose first part appeared last week; in which we focused on the first half of these 60 years (the first three-plus decades of the post-independence period) that were under the leadership of founder President Mwalimu Nyerere, followed by his successor in office, President Ali Hassan Mwinyi. In last week’s article, I characterized the Nyerere’s years as the nation’s “formative years”; during which the leadership was “groping forward in the dark” to lay the foundations of a new society, which would be “ fully committed to the strict observance, and implementation, of specified ethical principles of individual rights, freedoms and binding duties” (see Nyerere’s “ Guidance to the one-party State Commission”, January, 1963.
On his part, President Mwinyi’s years were notable particularly for his achievements in the economic, and the political, major reforms which he successfully introduced. His economic reforms fell under the blanket description of “liberalizing the economy”, which earned President Mwinyi the affectionate designation of “Mzee Rukhsa”. His political reforms resulted in the country’s return to multi-party politics.
The second half of the 60 years post-independence period.
In today’s article, we will look at the second half, or the three decades of Presidents Benjamin Mkapa; Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete; and John Pombe Magufuli. President Mkapa’s leadership decade.
President Benjamin William Mkapa assumed office, following the 1995 first post-independence multi-party elections; in which four candidates had entered the contest. They were: Benjamin Mkapa who was sponsored by CCM; Augustine Lyatonga Mrema, sponsored by NCCR-MAGEUZI; Prof. Ibrahim Lipumba, sponsored by CUF; and John Momose Cheyo, sponsored by UDP. President Mkapa won that election after obtaining a handsome 61.8% of all the valid votes. During the whole of Preside And, by the grace of God, there happened to develop some strong affinity between the two of us.
I thus, can reliably testify on some of President Mkapa’s major achievements, as follows:- On the economic front; President Mkapa’s leadership decade will be remembered primarily because of the fundamental economic reforms which he introduced. As he put it himself in his autobiography book titled “My Life, My Purpose : A former President Remembers” : “It was a period of Reforms, and Yet More Reforms”. He explains further that “my biggest burden was how to turn around the economy, including the management of government revenue and expenditure . . . understandably, the World Bank, and the IMF, would not work with us unless we showed financial discipline, So I said we would show discipline”.
His predecessor, President Mwinyi, had already taken the initial steps by setting up the Presidential Commission of Enquiry into Public Revenues in 1991; which had recommended the establishment of the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA). This was established, and commenced full operations in July 1996, after President Mkapa had taken office.
His other reforms were: the setting up of the Business Registrations and Licensing Agency (BRELA) in 1999, and the launching of the National Business Council in 2001; the Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority in 2001; the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) in 2003; and the “Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) in 2004.
But President Mkapa also took some fairly controversial measures, such as the wholesale privatization of the major economic public commercial enterprises and undertakings (a total of 319 individual enterprises), including the National Bank of Commerce (NBC), which was split into two separate Banks; with one focusing on commercial Banking for high and middle class customers, which retained the name NBC; and the other serving the peasantry and small business people, which ws named NMB; He also privatized the Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO). He was heavily criticized for taking these measures; but, in reality, the country had reached a situation where the gross incompetence of those who were entrusted with the management of these enterprises could no longer be tolerated. For example, there was not a single state owned commercial enterprise that was making money. Instead, they were all depending on government subsidies from the Treasury. And this, surely, does not make any economic sense !
President Mkapa did also introduce reforms in the Public Service; which addressed issues like reducing the number of Public Service employees, improving salaries, and introducing a transparent systems designed for human resources development, and career advancement through training, and retraining. He was specifically battling the lack of skills, experience and accountability in the Public Service, which had been lost partly due to the earlier attempts that had been made, to politicize that Service.
Enter President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete.
President Jakaya Kikwete’s leadership period was particularly notable for his efforts at constitutional reforms., when he initiated the process of writing a new Constitution of the United Republic. In the circumstances of CCM’s “Kofia Mbili” policy of combining the country’s Presidency with that of CCM national chairman, the occupants of these high positions have tended to differ in the amount of weight that each individual incumbent places on either of these two responsibilities. On his part, President Kikwete was clearly inclined towards putting much greater weight on his party responsibilities; which is what largely accounts for his enthusiasm in getting a new Constitution enacted; in view of the fact that the demand for a new Constitution which would respond more positively to the need and circumstances of the multi-party political dispensation, has continuously been voiced by the Opposition parties for all the time since 1992, when the multi-party political dispensation was restored, after some thirty odd years of operating the single-party system. Hence, even for that reason alone, President Kikwete deserves kudos for this initiative of putting in place the process of enacting a new Constitution for the United Republic . Because it had been a matter of serious conflict between the ruling party (CCM) and the opposition parties, actively supported by some other stakeholders. The initial opposition demand was for the convening of a “National Constitutional Conference” which would determine the contents of that Constitution. But such demands had so far been rejected by the ruling party, on the ground that such an assembly, which would consist merely of hand- picked, or self appointed delegates , would be lacking the necessary mandate from the people, on whose behalf they were supposed to act. But this stance had led to misinformed assumptions being made; that probably, “the top man in power was deliberately refusing to listen to the voice of the people” regarding this important matter. Thus, President Kikwete’s action was, clearly, designed to remove any such misconceptions.
But he took the correct measures for implanting this process; namely, the appointment of a “Constituent Assembly”. And in addition, and very commendably indeed, he not only appointed the members of Parliament to become members of this Constituent Assembly as has always been the case in the past; he introduced significant departures from that past practice. He greatly enlarged this Constituent Assembly, by adding all the members of the Zanzibar House of Representatives; plus another 201 members from lists of persons nominated by all the fully registered political parties, and from Civil Society Organizations. He also made other significant departures from previous practice in this respect, when he caused the enactment of a special law which would guide the implementation of this whole exercise; and also introduced a requirement for a referendum to be held, which would ratify the proposed new constitution after its passage by the Constituent Assembly.
However, his decision to embark on this exercise of enacting a new Constitution, attracted resentment from some of his comrades in the ruling party, who were opposed to the idea of a new Constitution, and would have preferred him to follow the traditional route of making appropriate amendments to the existing Constitution.
Furthermore, President Kikwete also introduced major reforms in the structure of the ruling party, through his innovative concept of Kujivua gamba”; which he borrowed from the known habit of certain snakes, who regularly shed their outer skins in order to allow new ones to develop. But he made the mistake of excessively enlarging the size of the National Executive Committee, the party’s policy-making body, by introducing a provision under which NEC members would be recruited from the District level, instead of the Regional level.
This reform produced an unmanageable large number of NEC members, an undesirable situation which was quickly rectified by his successor in office President John Pombe Magufuli.
President Jakaya Kikwete is also credited for having successfully finalized the long negotiating process between CCM and CUF in search of a lasting solution to Zanzibar’s seemingly unending problem of post-election violence, when he achieved the signing of the Agreement between CCM and CUF known as MUAFAKA III, which facilitated the introduction of the Government of National Unity (GNU) in Zanzibar, that brought the desired peace and tranquility in Zanzibar’s subsequent political management.
President Magufuli’s uncompleted decade.
Dr. John Pombe Magufuli was declared the winner of the 2015 Presidential election, in which he obtained 58.46%, of the total valid votes; thus beating his closest challenger, former Prime Minister Edward Lowassa, CHADEMA’s election candidate, who had garnered 39.97%. One of the traditional constitutional function which must be performed by the President after a general election, is the official opening of the newly elected Parliament. President Magufuli duly performed this function on 9th November, 2015; when he opened the 11th Parliament. In this maiden speech, President Magufuli promised to confront the evils of corruption by establishing a special Division of the High Court, which would deal extensively with graft cases. He also promised to fight the widespread embezzlement of public funds; and to improve the management of public resources. He also referred specifically to the country’s mineral wealth, which he promised to protect by overhauling the mining sector. Additionally, he vowed to end the excessive bureaucracy in the government; to introduce strict discipline in the public service; to increase government revenue collections; and to improve the infrastructures relating to the provision of the country’s social and economic services.
To many observers, these seemed to be empty political promises which could not be implemented. But, as it turned out, President Magufuli, being ‘a man of his word’ successfully implemented all these promises during his first five year term; at the close of which, in his speech dissolving the eleventh Parliament on 16th June, 2020; he presented an impressive, unprecedented success story of his achievements in in relation thereto; to thunderous applause from all sides of the House, which signified unanimous agreement and approval, of what he had said. Consequently, he was re-elected in October 2020 with a ‘bumper crop’ majority of votes for his second term.
However, by an unfortunate stroke of bad luck; President John Pombe Magufuli suddenly died in the early night hours of 17th March, 2021. Thus, by simple operation of the country’s Constitution, his unexpired period of five years was smoothly taken over (and is being ably continued to its completion in 2025) by President Samia Suluhu Hassan), under her innovative slogan of “Kazi iendelee” .
piomsekwa@gmail.com / 0754767576.
On his part, President Mwinyi’s years were notable particularly for his achievements in the economic, and the political, major reforms which he successfully introduced. His economic reforms fell under the blanket description of “liberalizing the economy”, which earned President Mwinyi the affectionate designation of “Mzee Rukhsa”. His political reforms resulted in the country’s return to multi-party politics.
The second half of the 60 years post-independence period.
In today’s article, we will look at the second half, or the three decades of Presidents Benjamin Mkapa; Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete; and John Pombe Magufuli. President Mkapa’s leadership decade.
President Benjamin William Mkapa assumed office, following the 1995 first post-independence multi-party elections; in which four candidates had entered the contest. They were: Benjamin Mkapa who was sponsored by CCM; Augustine Lyatonga Mrema, sponsored by NCCR-MAGEUZI; Prof. Ibrahim Lipumba, sponsored by CUF; and John Momose Cheyo, sponsored by UDP. President Mkapa won that election after obtaining a handsome 61.8% of all the valid votes. During the whole of Preside And, by the grace of God, there happened to develop some strong affinity between the two of us.
I thus, can reliably testify on some of President Mkapa’s major achievements, as follows:- On the economic front; President Mkapa’s leadership decade will be remembered primarily because of the fundamental economic reforms which he introduced. As he put it himself in his autobiography book titled “My Life, My Purpose : A former President Remembers” : “It was a period of Reforms, and Yet More Reforms”. He explains further that “my biggest burden was how to turn around the economy, including the management of government revenue and expenditure . . . understandably, the World Bank, and the IMF, would not work with us unless we showed financial discipline, So I said we would show discipline”.
His predecessor, President Mwinyi, had already taken the initial steps by setting up the Presidential Commission of Enquiry into Public Revenues in 1991; which had recommended the establishment of the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA). This was established, and commenced full operations in July 1996, after President Mkapa had taken office.
His other reforms were: the setting up of the Business Registrations and Licensing Agency (BRELA) in 1999, and the launching of the National Business Council in 2001; the Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority in 2001; the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) in 2003; and the “Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) in 2004.
But President Mkapa also took some fairly controversial measures, such as the wholesale privatization of the major economic public commercial enterprises and undertakings (a total of 319 individual enterprises), including the National Bank of Commerce (NBC), which was split into two separate Banks; with one focusing on commercial Banking for high and middle class customers, which retained the name NBC; and the other serving the peasantry and small business people, which ws named NMB; He also privatized the Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO). He was heavily criticized for taking these measures; but, in reality, the country had reached a situation where the gross incompetence of those who were entrusted with the management of these enterprises could no longer be tolerated. For example, there was not a single state owned commercial enterprise that was making money. Instead, they were all depending on government subsidies from the Treasury. And this, surely, does not make any economic sense !
President Mkapa did also introduce reforms in the Public Service; which addressed issues like reducing the number of Public Service employees, improving salaries, and introducing a transparent systems designed for human resources development, and career advancement through training, and retraining. He was specifically battling the lack of skills, experience and accountability in the Public Service, which had been lost partly due to the earlier attempts that had been made, to politicize that Service.
Enter President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete.
President Jakaya Kikwete’s leadership period was particularly notable for his efforts at constitutional reforms., when he initiated the process of writing a new Constitution of the United Republic. In the circumstances of CCM’s “Kofia Mbili” policy of combining the country’s Presidency with that of CCM national chairman, the occupants of these high positions have tended to differ in the amount of weight that each individual incumbent places on either of these two responsibilities. On his part, President Kikwete was clearly inclined towards putting much greater weight on his party responsibilities; which is what largely accounts for his enthusiasm in getting a new Constitution enacted; in view of the fact that the demand for a new Constitution which would respond more positively to the need and circumstances of the multi-party political dispensation, has continuously been voiced by the Opposition parties for all the time since 1992, when the multi-party political dispensation was restored, after some thirty odd years of operating the single-party system. Hence, even for that reason alone, President Kikwete deserves kudos for this initiative of putting in place the process of enacting a new Constitution for the United Republic . Because it had been a matter of serious conflict between the ruling party (CCM) and the opposition parties, actively supported by some other stakeholders. The initial opposition demand was for the convening of a “National Constitutional Conference” which would determine the contents of that Constitution. But such demands had so far been rejected by the ruling party, on the ground that such an assembly, which would consist merely of hand- picked, or self appointed delegates , would be lacking the necessary mandate from the people, on whose behalf they were supposed to act. But this stance had led to misinformed assumptions being made; that probably, “the top man in power was deliberately refusing to listen to the voice of the people” regarding this important matter. Thus, President Kikwete’s action was, clearly, designed to remove any such misconceptions.
But he took the correct measures for implanting this process; namely, the appointment of a “Constituent Assembly”. And in addition, and very commendably indeed, he not only appointed the members of Parliament to become members of this Constituent Assembly as has always been the case in the past; he introduced significant departures from that past practice. He greatly enlarged this Constituent Assembly, by adding all the members of the Zanzibar House of Representatives; plus another 201 members from lists of persons nominated by all the fully registered political parties, and from Civil Society Organizations. He also made other significant departures from previous practice in this respect, when he caused the enactment of a special law which would guide the implementation of this whole exercise; and also introduced a requirement for a referendum to be held, which would ratify the proposed new constitution after its passage by the Constituent Assembly.
However, his decision to embark on this exercise of enacting a new Constitution, attracted resentment from some of his comrades in the ruling party, who were opposed to the idea of a new Constitution, and would have preferred him to follow the traditional route of making appropriate amendments to the existing Constitution.
Furthermore, President Kikwete also introduced major reforms in the structure of the ruling party, through his innovative concept of Kujivua gamba”; which he borrowed from the known habit of certain snakes, who regularly shed their outer skins in order to allow new ones to develop. But he made the mistake of excessively enlarging the size of the National Executive Committee, the party’s policy-making body, by introducing a provision under which NEC members would be recruited from the District level, instead of the Regional level.
This reform produced an unmanageable large number of NEC members, an undesirable situation which was quickly rectified by his successor in office President John Pombe Magufuli.
President Jakaya Kikwete is also credited for having successfully finalized the long negotiating process between CCM and CUF in search of a lasting solution to Zanzibar’s seemingly unending problem of post-election violence, when he achieved the signing of the Agreement between CCM and CUF known as MUAFAKA III, which facilitated the introduction of the Government of National Unity (GNU) in Zanzibar, that brought the desired peace and tranquility in Zanzibar’s subsequent political management.
President Magufuli’s uncompleted decade.
Dr. John Pombe Magufuli was declared the winner of the 2015 Presidential election, in which he obtained 58.46%, of the total valid votes; thus beating his closest challenger, former Prime Minister Edward Lowassa, CHADEMA’s election candidate, who had garnered 39.97%. One of the traditional constitutional function which must be performed by the President after a general election, is the official opening of the newly elected Parliament. President Magufuli duly performed this function on 9th November, 2015; when he opened the 11th Parliament. In this maiden speech, President Magufuli promised to confront the evils of corruption by establishing a special Division of the High Court, which would deal extensively with graft cases. He also promised to fight the widespread embezzlement of public funds; and to improve the management of public resources. He also referred specifically to the country’s mineral wealth, which he promised to protect by overhauling the mining sector. Additionally, he vowed to end the excessive bureaucracy in the government; to introduce strict discipline in the public service; to increase government revenue collections; and to improve the infrastructures relating to the provision of the country’s social and economic services.
To many observers, these seemed to be empty political promises which could not be implemented. But, as it turned out, President Magufuli, being ‘a man of his word’ successfully implemented all these promises during his first five year term; at the close of which, in his speech dissolving the eleventh Parliament on 16th June, 2020; he presented an impressive, unprecedented success story of his achievements in in relation thereto; to thunderous applause from all sides of the House, which signified unanimous agreement and approval, of what he had said. Consequently, he was re-elected in October 2020 with a ‘bumper crop’ majority of votes for his second term.
However, by an unfortunate stroke of bad luck; President John Pombe Magufuli suddenly died in the early night hours of 17th March, 2021. Thus, by simple operation of the country’s Constitution, his unexpired period of five years was smoothly taken over (and is being ably continued to its completion in 2025) by President Samia Suluhu Hassan), under her innovative slogan of “Kazi iendelee” .
piomsekwa@gmail.com / 0754767576.
Source: Daily News Today.
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