This is a continuation of my October select presentations which are designed to commemorate the death, on 14th October, 1999. In last week’s presentation, we focused on certain select aspects of his personal life. In today’s article, we will focus on some of the little known aspects of his working life; and, in particular his unique, exemplary style of “leadership by example”.
Most of the information provided herein, is taken from the book titled “ 38 Reflections on Mwalimu Nyerere” which was edited jointly by Mark Mwandosya and Juma Mwapachu, and published by Mkuki and Nyota Publishers, Dar es Salaam, 2022. This information is reproduced here by kind permission of the said Publishers; as this helps to “spread the gospel” contained therein, to larger number of readers; who may not be able to gain access to the book itself. But their information is supplemented by ‘bits and pieces’ of my own experience, as one of the leaders who worked very closely with the late Mwalimu Nyerere.
But due to editorial space limitations, the aspects of Mwalimu Nyerere’s unique leadership that are presented here, are only two, of the numerous and extremely interesting narratives that are provided by some of the leaders who made their contributions to the said book of 400 pages. The aspects discussed herein relate to the two selected matters, which are:- (i) His style of presiding over official meetings,
Most of the information provided herein, is taken from the book titled “ 38 Reflections on Mwalimu Nyerere” which was edited jointly by Mark Mwandosya and Juma Mwapachu, and published by Mkuki and Nyota Publishers, Dar es Salaam, 2022. This information is reproduced here by kind permission of the said Publishers; as this helps to “spread the gospel” contained therein, to larger number of readers; who may not be able to gain access to the book itself. But their information is supplemented by ‘bits and pieces’ of my own experience, as one of the leaders who worked very closely with the late Mwalimu Nyerere.
But due to editorial space limitations, the aspects of Mwalimu Nyerere’s unique leadership that are presented here, are only two, of the numerous and extremely interesting narratives that are provided by some of the leaders who made their contributions to the said book of 400 pages. The aspects discussed herein relate to the two selected matters, which are:- (i) His style of presiding over official meetings,
(ii) His willingness to correct decisions that were made in error.
Mwalimu Nyerere’s style of presiding over official meetings. Joseph Sinde Warioba, in his contribution, provides the following insights:-“At cabinet meetings, or those of CCM’s National Executive Committee; Mwalimu Nyerere was good at building consensus, especially over critical issues which needed broad discussion. He gave people full opportunity to freely express their views, while he quietly listened. He always had a small notebook with him, in which he would write notes of the important points being made. At the end of the discussions, Mwalimu would would sum up what was said. The most significant aspect in his presiding over such meetings, is that he did not use his high position to impose his views, as is often the case with many other leaders in similar positions of power and authority”.
My own experience in that regard.
From my own experience, I can readily attest that this was indeed Mwalimu Nyerere’s style of leadership; by citing what happened at TANU’s historic Tabora conference of 1958. The most difficult agenda of this meeting was to make a difficult decision on the matter of the “tripartite vote”.
Mwalimu Nyerere’s style of presiding over official meetings. Joseph Sinde Warioba, in his contribution, provides the following insights:-“At cabinet meetings, or those of CCM’s National Executive Committee; Mwalimu Nyerere was good at building consensus, especially over critical issues which needed broad discussion. He gave people full opportunity to freely express their views, while he quietly listened. He always had a small notebook with him, in which he would write notes of the important points being made. At the end of the discussions, Mwalimu would would sum up what was said. The most significant aspect in his presiding over such meetings, is that he did not use his high position to impose his views, as is often the case with many other leaders in similar positions of power and authority”.
My own experience in that regard.
From my own experience, I can readily attest that this was indeed Mwalimu Nyerere’s style of leadership; by citing what happened at TANU’s historic Tabora conference of 1958. The most difficult agenda of this meeting was to make a difficult decision on the matter of the “tripartite vote”.
The colonial Administration had passes a new elections law, which required every voter to cast three votes one each for a European, Asian, and African candidate. Many TANU leaders expressed strong opposition to this requirement; and were actively campaigning for a boycott of the parliamentary election which was scheduled to be held towards the end of that year, 1958, as a way of demonstrating their displeasure.
But Mwalimu Nyerere was aware of the serious political disadvantages that TANU would suffer, if it boycotted the proposed elections. Hence he went to that conference determined to persuade the delegates to abandon their idea of boycotting the election. And because of his unique style of not wanting to impose his views on the delegates; he opted not to preside over the deliberations of that conference. He vacated the Chair at the appropriate time, and asked the conference to nominate a temporary Chairman for these deliberations; while he took his seat on the floor among the delegates; so as to avoid presenting his powerful arguments from the floor as an ordinary delegate.
Mwalimu Nyerere’s immense powers of persuasion are also recorded in Salim Ahmad Salim’s contribution; who says the following:- “I met Mwalimu Julius Nyerere for the first time in 1957, when I was a student at King George the VI Secondary School, Zanzibar. I was in Standard Ten. He had come to address a public rally at Coopers Ground. In his speech, among several other basic things, he also said: “The problem of Zanzibar is that there are individuals who have very high regard for themselves, being rich people; and there are others who regard themselves as slaves. Forget these types of people”.
But Mwalimu Nyerere was aware of the serious political disadvantages that TANU would suffer, if it boycotted the proposed elections. Hence he went to that conference determined to persuade the delegates to abandon their idea of boycotting the election. And because of his unique style of not wanting to impose his views on the delegates; he opted not to preside over the deliberations of that conference. He vacated the Chair at the appropriate time, and asked the conference to nominate a temporary Chairman for these deliberations; while he took his seat on the floor among the delegates; so as to avoid presenting his powerful arguments from the floor as an ordinary delegate.
Mwalimu Nyerere’s immense powers of persuasion are also recorded in Salim Ahmad Salim’s contribution; who says the following:- “I met Mwalimu Julius Nyerere for the first time in 1957, when I was a student at King George the VI Secondary School, Zanzibar. I was in Standard Ten. He had come to address a public rally at Coopers Ground. In his speech, among several other basic things, he also said: “The problem of Zanzibar is that there are individuals who have very high regard for themselves, being rich people; and there are others who regard themselves as slaves. Forget these types of people”.
Mwalimu’s oratory was amazing. He could put together ideas and articulate them in a way that would reach both the educated and the uneducated”. It is his immense powers of persuasion that eventually convinced the conference to agree to participate in the proposed election; but at a cost to the unity of TANU. Some of the dissenting delegates, led by one Zuberi Mtemvu, decided to break away from TANU, and formed a splinter party under the name of the African National Congress (ANC), with Zuberi Mtemvu as its President.
In his contribution, Joseph Sinde Warioba also puts on record the episode in which Mwalimu Nyerere was able to persuade the CCM policy- making National Executive Committee, to agree on fixed term limits for any President of Tanzania to stay in Office, in the face of strong opposition voices.
Warioba says:-“ I was not privy to how Mwalimu Nyerere maneuvered the proceedings of that NEC meeting, but he was very firm in his argument that that the decision on when to leave office should not be left to an individual, or group of individuals. Such decision must be made for them by the country’s constitution”.
I was myself present at the said meeting, and can attest to the firmness of Mwalimu Nyerere on this issue. In his characteristic style of leadership, he first allowed the delegates to freely express their views and pinions on this matter, in order to enable him to understand the basis of their arguments. The majority of the arguments were in favour of avoiding the imposition of any such term limits.
Then, in his summing-up statement, Mwalimu argued that their reasoning was mostly based on the country having a “good” President. He therefore alerted them to the possibility of the people electing a “bad” President, whose desire is to remain in office indefinitely. That is precisely when which Nyerere made his point, that decisions on when to leave office should not be left to the individual holding that office. “Such decisions must be made for him by the country’s constitution”.
His willingness to acknowledge decisions made in error.
This was another rare, and unique quality of Mwalimu Nyerere, when he was holding the high office of President. Presumably, people of the Christian faith are aware of the Bible story of Pontio Pilato; which tells how Pilato flatly refused alter his writing on the cross when he was requested to do so; and his reply of “what I have written, I have written”!
His willingness to acknowledge decisions made in error.
This was another rare, and unique quality of Mwalimu Nyerere, when he was holding the high office of President. Presumably, people of the Christian faith are aware of the Bible story of Pontio Pilato; which tells how Pilato flatly refused alter his writing on the cross when he was requested to do so; and his reply of “what I have written, I have written”!
Other people may be equally aware of what the ancient English Jurist, William Blackstone (1723 – 80) said, in his book titled Commentaries on the Laws of England, Book III; that: “The King can do no wrong, is a necessary and fundamental principle of the English Constitution”.
In that particular respect, President Nyerere manifestly belonged to a totally different class from Pilato’s rigid stand, and Blackstone’s “Kings”; as well as his crooked thinking and a
Joseph Butiku was one of the contributors listed in the said book. In his contribution, Butiku reproduces the remarks that were made by Mwalimu Nyerere in September 1996, at a fund raising dinner at Kilimanjaro Hotel in Dar es Salaam, for the Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation:- “There are many good and honest people, who believe that the ideas which are associated with my name, are dead, and should be properly buried.
Joseph Butiku was one of the contributors listed in the said book. In his contribution, Butiku reproduces the remarks that were made by Mwalimu Nyerere in September 1996, at a fund raising dinner at Kilimanjaro Hotel in Dar es Salaam, for the Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation:- “There are many good and honest people, who believe that the ideas which are associated with my name, are dead, and should be properly buried.
I disagree ! Great ideas do not die so easily, for they continue nagging. And any human society that ignores them, does so at its own peril. I am saying this without inhibition or pretended modesty, because, in fact, they are not my ideas. I never invented them. I am simply a believer in them, like many other believers duly recorded as in human history. I believe in the equality and dignity of all human beings, and the duty to serve. I am an ardent believer in the freedom and welfare of the individual, and in community and fellowship with all other human beings wherever they may be.
I repeat, those ideas are not mine, but I have articulated them, and will continue to articulate them with passion”.
Nyerere’s willingness to acknowledge decisions that were made in error. This willingness is manifested in the contribution made by Cleopa David Msuya, who narrates his experience in connection therewith in the following words:- “As Chairman of the South Commission, and later of the South Center, Mwalimu Nyerere travelled widely worldwide. There is no doubt that he learnt a lot.
On one occasion, upon his return from one of his many travels, Mwalimu told me this:- ‘Cleopa, I have learnt one important lesson. Wherever I went, I have been reminded that ‘you can’t have a good philosophy, or idea, or theory, if that philosophy, idea, or theory; is not translated into bread and butter for the tummy’. (This remark was in connection with Mwalimu’s seemingly failed philosophy of Ujamaa and self-reliance).
He continued thus :- ‘The Ujamaa philosophy did not translate itself into a rapid change of peoples’ incomes, nor gave them a better standard of living. I think this is where we went wrong, and whatever we do, we have to accept that reality. That, is what humility is all about”.
There are several other examples which demonstrate this behavioral quality of President Nyerere, which manifestly distinguishes and differentiates him from some of his African peers.
In his contribution, Joseph Warioba talks about a pretty minor and insignificant episode, when President Nyerere indirectly expressed forgiveness to a University student whose name was Wilfred Mwabulambo; who had offended President Nyerere, by refusing his order to go back to the British High Commissioner, along with the other student leaders, to apologize for the misdemeanour they had committed of the wanton destruction of property at the British High Commission, in a protest demonstration against Southern Rhodesia’s Unilateral declaration of independence; for which President Nyerere had angrily ordered that Mwabulambo be given six strokes of the cane on his buttocks.
There are several other examples which demonstrate this behavioral quality of President Nyerere, which manifestly distinguishes and differentiates him from some of his African peers.
In his contribution, Joseph Warioba talks about a pretty minor and insignificant episode, when President Nyerere indirectly expressed forgiveness to a University student whose name was Wilfred Mwabulambo; who had offended President Nyerere, by refusing his order to go back to the British High Commissioner, along with the other student leaders, to apologize for the misdemeanour they had committed of the wanton destruction of property at the British High Commission, in a protest demonstration against Southern Rhodesia’s Unilateral declaration of independence; for which President Nyerere had angrily ordered that Mwabulambo be given six strokes of the cane on his buttocks.
Regarding Mwabulamobo’s subsequent Presidential pardon, Warioba says:- “One day soon thereafter, a state car came to the University to pick Willfred Mwabulambo. He was taken to State House to meet President Nyerere, with the result that after completing his degree programme, Mwabulambo was employed by State House”.
Other more significant examples, include President Nyerere’s decision to abolish the Local government Urban and District Councils in 1975. He acknowledged this mistake in a statement he made in his farewell speech to Parliament before his voluntary retirement from the Presidency; in which he said:- In 1982, we realized that we had made a mistake when we abolished the Local government Authority Councils, Thus, we asked Parliament to rectify it by re-instating those democratic institutions.
Other more significant examples, include President Nyerere’s decision to abolish the Local government Urban and District Councils in 1975. He acknowledged this mistake in a statement he made in his farewell speech to Parliament before his voluntary retirement from the Presidency; in which he said:- In 1982, we realized that we had made a mistake when we abolished the Local government Authority Councils, Thus, we asked Parliament to rectify it by re-instating those democratic institutions.
Also in that speech, President Nyerere acknowledged the other mistake he had made in abolishing the Cooperative Unions and the Cooperative Societies. “kufutwa kwa vyama hivyo, lilikuwa ni kosa jingine kubwa tulilolifanya katika miaka iliyopita” President Nyerere admitted.
Pi0msekwa@gmail.com /0754767576.
Pi0msekwa@gmail.com /0754767576.
Source:Cde Msekwa and Daily News today.
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