Tanzania’s ruling party, Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM), celebrated its 46th birthday last Sunday, 05/02/2023. It therefore deserves to be accorded the traditional “happy birthday to you” accolade The birth of Chama cha Mapinduzi in 1977, as a result of the merger between the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) and the Zanzibar Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP) was a major event of great political importance. The younger generation may presumably be interested to know exactly how this was achieved. Here is the authentic story. It all started at a joint TANU/ASP ‘Electoral Conference’ of 1975, which was held on 22nd September, 1975. The Conference had been convened for the purpose of nominating the Presidential candidate for the 1975 Presidential election.
This was during the period of the “One-party State’ political dispensation, but general elections were nevertheless held regularly, at the end of every five-year period; in order to give the electors the opportunity to change any of their elected Central, or Local government leaders, if they so wished. That was how the “One-party electoral Democracy” worked.
The 1975 Electoral Conference dully nominated Mwalimu Julius Nyerere to be that candidate. This joint nomination process was instituted in 1965, when the first Presidential election was held after the establishment of the Union between Tanganyika in April 1964. Fortunately, the structures of the two parties at the national level were completely identical, consisting of an apex organ designated as “the Party National Congress”. Thus it was decided that for the purpose of nominating the Presidential candidate, the two congresses would sit in a joint session , designated as the “Electoral Conference”; to undertake this nomination task. This was because the Presidential election was to be held in both parts of the Union, and each side had its own political party. It was therefore necessary to devise a system whereby the two parties could sit together to make this nomination.
What happened at the 1975 Electoral conference was that Nyerere used his traditional “acceptance speech” to make this proposal, that the two parties should seriously consider forming a merger between them, in the following words:- “Our country is constitutionally a One-party State; but in reality, we have two parties. I believe that this is a constitutional anomaly, to which we should give serious consideration. I am convinced that we will greatly strengthen the unity of our people, and give ourselves greater capacity for carrying our revolution forward, if we now agree to merge our two parties, in order to form one strong revolutionary party, which will lead one revolutionary nation”.
The proposal was very well received by the conference, which thus allowed the process for the proposed merger to commence pretty soon thereafter. The first step was for each party to make internal consultations with its individual members at the Branch level. By June 1976, this consultation process had been completed; with positive results from both sides.
Thereafter, the two parties agreed to hold joint meetings of their National Executive Committees for the purpose of making crucial decisions regarding the remaining stages of te merger process. The first such meeting was held on 2nd October, 1976; which appointed a commission of 20 persons, 10 from each of the two parties. The following persons were appointed:-
From TANU: Lawi Sijaona; Peter Kisumo; Ngombale Mwiru; Peter Siyovelwa; Pius Msekwa; Jackson Kaaya; Basheikh Mikidadi; Beatrice Mhango; Nicodemus Banduka; and Daudi Mwakawago. From ASP: Sheikh Thabit Kmbo; Hassan Nassor Moyo; Abdallah Natepe; Seif Bakari; Hamisi Hemed; Rajab Heri; Ali Mzee; Asia Amour; Juma Salum; and Hamdan Muhidin.
And at its first meeting, the commission elected Sheikh Thabit Kombo (from ASP) to be the Commission Chairman; and Pius Msekwa (from TANU) to be the Commission Secretary.
The commission had been given one moth within which to complete its assignment and be ready to report to the next meeting of the joint National Executive Committees; which was scheduled for November ,1976. We worked full time on this project, and were able to meet the prescribed deadline. Our specific assignment was “to prepare recommendations for the new party’s constitution”. Now, ‘Constitutions and constitution-making’ are my academic area of close interest Thus, as the Secretary to the commission in, I invested a lot of energy, plus personal knowledge, in this assignment; by preparing the drafts of each of the Chapters of the proposed constitution, for discussion by the commission.
To our great relief and satisfaction, all the Commissions’ recommendations were accepted by the said joint meeting. Thereafter, the rest was just ‘ full speed ahead’ to the agreed ‘date of birth’ of the new party, the 5th day of February, 1977.
The Holy Bible’s Old Testament says: “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the Heaven”. This date of 5th February, was chosen for good reasons: it was the 20th anniversary of the Afro-shirazi Party, and the 10th anniversary of the Arusha Declaration. The commission must have done a splendid job, which satisfied our two party principals; because we were immediately assigned the similar task of preparing recommendations for the “permanent” State Constitution, of 1977; a task which we carried out with similar dispatch and diligence; so that our recommendations were ready for submission and approval by the relevant party organs, and later processed through the normal Legislative process, to enable this “permanent’ constitution to be enacted in April, 1977.
Regarding CCM’s 46th birthday anniversary.
We can now return to the matter of CCM’s 46th birthday celebrations of last Sunday, which were marked principally by the holding of symposiums, intended to benefit the younger generation of CCM leaders and their members at Ward level; by enhancing their awareness and understanding of ‘where we came from, where we are now, and the prospects for the future’
But the Sunday celebrations were only the climax of week-long activities, consisting of certain designated functions at Ward level, throughout the United Republic: Tanzania Mainland, as well as Zanzibar.
In the Ward in which I reside, known as “Kata ya Nkiliza” in Ukerewe District; the inauguration function was held at the Nkilizya Secondary School;, which is situated in close proximity to my residence. Among other activities, the function also included the holding of a symposium, at which Papers were presented for discussion by the assembled cadres from every party Branch in our ward.
I had been invited by the District CCM Political Committee to be one of the Paper presenters at this symposium. Thus, being mindful of the fact that CCM’s new 47th year had arrived not so long after the party’s 2022 general elections which had brought into leadership, a large number of new leaders who had been elected to their respective positions for their first time ever; I had crafted my Paper in a way that would help these new cadres to get an early exposure to the ‘nitty-gritty’ of our party leadership’s duties and responsibilities.
The veteran Chinese leader Mao Tse Tung is on record as having said the following:- “Once the political line is determined, cadres are a decisive factor. Therefore, it is our fighting task to train large numbers of new cadres in a planned way”. In our situation, the “party line” is already determined, and is clearly manifested in the party’s constitution. Hence, our imperative task now is the train, and re-train, our party cadres, in order to prepare them adequately for carrying out their respective duties and responsibilities.
I am also reminded of some ‘nuggets of wisdom’ from Mwalimu Nyerere; who referred to the same imperative in his little story of the ‘millipede mother’ (mama jongoo); which, translated from its Kiswahili original version, reads as follows:- “The newly born millipede asked her mother: ‘mother, with such numerous legs, when I start walking, which leg should I put forward first’? Mama jongoo replied: you just begin moving forward, the legs will take care of themselves ”. From this mini-story, Mwalimu Nyerere hammered in his lesson that: “whenever we elect our party leaders, we should not leave them alone to ‘take care of themselves’, in search for the best ways in which to carry out their new responsibilities. We have an obligation to arrange some appropriate training for them” he said. And, indeed, before the re-introduction of the multi-party political dispensation, that was, in fact, the sole responsibility of the then party’s Kivukoni College; namely: to train, and re-train, our party cadres. Unfortunately however, following the re-introduction of multi-party politics, we seem to have abandoned this critical task of training our cadres.
Thus my considered advice, and fervent plea, to the national party Administration is : please make suitable arrangements for the resumption of such organized and systematic training for our party cadres.
The establishment and inauguration, on 23rd February 2022; of the “Mwalimu Nyerere School of Leadership” at Kibaha, was a confirmation of this need for the training of cadres.
It is a truism, that being knowledgeable about a given matter, is a vital qualification for ‘delivery performance’ by the actors on the relevant ‘stage’. This is because “political management” primarily involves the management of peoples’ Affairs; and considering the large variety of personal interests, propensities, and idiosyncrasies, among ordinary people; a proper management of their affairs is complicated enough to require some expert knowledge and skills, which can only be obtained through some specialized training. This is what explains why many, if not all, of the early leaders of TANU and its government, were routinely sent to Kivukoni College (and its six zonal colleges) for training (and retraining) in leadership skills.
On implementing the party’s ideology.
There is one important matter which seems to have been forgotten, or is currently not being given sufficient emphasis; and that is the matter of implementing the ‘party’s ideology’, or, in the words of the party constitution, “IMANI YA CHAMA”.
As I said above, our party line” is already determined, and is clearly manifested in the First Part of the Party constitution; listed therein as: 1. IMANI YA CHAMA; and 2. MALENGO NA MADHUMUNI YA CHAMA. The principal aim and objective of my presentation at the symposium referred to above, was to focus primarily on drawing attention to this particular matter, which seems to have been overlooked; namely, the ‘lack of attention’ that should be paid to the practical implementation of the set of principles, which together constitute our party’s ideology. “Ideology” is the foundation upon which rests the CCM members’ basic faith in the party, and consequently sustains their adherence to it.
It is indeed appreciated, that our cadres have been paying great attention to the task of supervising the implementation of the party’s “Election Manifesto”; as manifested by the way they tirelessly spend a lot of time inspecting the progress of implementation by the government, of all the projects that are listed in the said Manifesto.
However, it is clearly noticeable, that similar enthusiasm is sadly lacking with regard to supervising the implementation of the set of ideological principles listed in article 5 of the the party’s constitution. Some people mistakenly believe the “Ujamaa na kujitegemea” is the only CCM ideology. Wrong, that is only part of it ! My advice is simply that this ‘deficit’ should be remedied, through resuming well- structured cadre training programmes.
piomsekwa@gmail.com / 0754767576.
The birth of Chama cha Mapinduzi in 1977, as a result of the merger between the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) and the Zanzibar Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP) was a major event of great political importance. The younger generation may presumably be interested to know exactly how this was achieved. Here is the authentic story. It all started at a joint TANU/ASP ‘Electoral Conference’ of 1975, which was held on 22nd September, 1975. The Conference had been convened for the purpose of nominating the Presidential candidate for the 1975 Presidential election.
This was during the period of the “One-party State’ political dispensation, but general elections were nevertheless held regularly, at the end of every five-year period; in order to give the electors the opportunity to change any of their elected Central, or Local government leaders, if they so wished. That was how the “One-party electoral Democracy” worked.
The 1975 Electoral Conference dully nominated Mwalimu Julius Nyerere to be that candidate. This joint nomination process was instituted in 1965, when the first Presidential election was held after the establishment of the Union between Tanganyika in April 1964. Fortunately, the structures of the two parties at the national level were completely identical, consisting of an apex organ designated as “the Party National Congress”. Thus it was decided that for the purpose of nominating the Presidential candidate, the two congresses would sit in a joint session , designated as the “Electoral Conference”; to undertake this nomination task. This was because the Presidential election was to be held in both parts of the Union, and each side had its own political party. It was therefore necessary to devise a system whereby the two parties could sit together to make this nomination.
What happened at the 1975 Electoral conference was that Nyerere used his traditional “acceptance speech” to make this proposal, that the two parties should seriously consider forming a merger between them, in the following words:- “Our country is constitutionally a One-party State; but in reality, we have two parties. I believe that this is a constitutional anomaly, to which we should give serious consideration. I am convinced that we will greatly strengthen the unity of our people, and give ourselves greater capacity for carrying our revolution forward, if we now agree to merge our two parties, in order to form one strong revolutionary party, which will lead one revolutionary nation”.
The proposal was very well received by the conference, which thus allowed the process for the proposed merger to commence pretty soon thereafter. The first step was for each party to make internal consultations with its individual members at the Branch level. By June 1976, this consultation process had been completed; with positive results from both sides.
Thereafter, the two parties agreed to hold joint meetings of their National Executive Committees for the purpose of making crucial decisions regarding the remaining stages of te merger process. The first such meeting was held on 2nd October, 1976; which appointed a commission of 20 persons, 10 from each of the two parties. The following persons were appointed:-
From TANU: Lawi Sijaona; Peter Kisumo; Ngombale Mwiru; Peter Siyovelwa; Pius Msekwa; Jackson Kaaya; Basheikh Mikidadi; Beatrice Mhango; Nicodemus Banduka; and Daudi Mwakawago. From ASP: Sheikh Thabit Kmbo; Hassan Nassor Moyo; Abdallah Natepe; Seif Bakari; Hamisi Hemed; Rajab Heri; Ali Mzee; Asia Amour; Juma Salum; and Hamdan Muhidin.
And at its first meeting, the commission elected Sheikh Thabit Kombo (from ASP) to be the Commission Chairman; and Pius Msekwa (from TANU) to be the Commission Secretary.
The commission had been given one moth within which to complete its assignment and be ready to report to the next meeting of the joint National Executive Committees; which was scheduled for November ,1976. We worked full time on this project, and were able to meet the prescribed deadline. Our specific assignment was “to prepare recommendations for the new party’s constitution”. Now, ‘Constitutions and constitution-making’ are my academic area of close interest Thus, as the Secretary to the commission in, I invested a lot of energy, plus personal knowledge, in this assignment; by preparing the drafts of each of the Chapters of the proposed constitution, for discussion by the commission.
To our great relief and satisfaction, all the Commissions’ recommendations were accepted by the said joint meeting. Thereafter, the rest was just ‘ full speed ahead’ to the agreed ‘date of birth’ of the new party, the 5th day of February, 1977.
The Holy Bible’s Old Testament says: “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the Heaven”. This date of 5th February, was chosen for good reasons: it was the 20th anniversary of the Afro-shirazi Party, and the 10th anniversary of the Arusha Declaration. The commission must have done a splendid job, which satisfied our two party principals; because we were immediately assigned the similar task of preparing recommendations for the “permanent” State Constitution, of 1977; a task which we carried out with similar dispatch and diligence; so that our recommendations were ready for submission and approval by the relevant party organs, and later processed through the normal Legislative process, to enable this “permanent’ constitution to be enacted in April, 1977.
Regarding CCM’s 46th birthday anniversary.
We can now return to the matter of CCM’s 46th birthday celebrations of last Sunday, which were marked principally by the holding of symposiums, intended to benefit the younger generation of CCM leaders and their members at Ward level; by enhancing their awareness and understanding of ‘where we came from, where we are now, and the prospects for the future’
But the Sunday celebrations were only the climax of week-long activities, consisting of certain designated functions at Ward level, throughout the United Republic: Tanzania Mainland, as well as Zanzibar.
In the Ward in which I reside, known as “Kata ya Nkiliza” in Ukerewe District; the inauguration function was held at the Nkilizya Secondary School;, which is situated in close proximity to my residence. Among other activities, the function also included the holding of a symposium, at which Papers were presented for discussion by the assembled cadres from every party Branch in our ward.
I had been invited by the District CCM Political Committee to be one of the Paper presenters at this symposium. Thus, being mindful of the fact that CCM’s new 47th year had arrived not so long after the party’s 2022 general elections which had brought into leadership, a large number of new leaders who had been elected to their respective positions for their first time ever; I had crafted my Paper in a way that would help these new cadres to get an early exposure to the ‘nitty-gritty’ of our party leadership’s duties and responsibilities.
The veteran Chinese leader Mao Tse Tung is on record as having said the following:- “Once the political line is determined, cadres are a decisive factor. Therefore, it is our fighting task to train large numbers of new cadres in a planned way”. In our situation, the “party line” is already determined, and is clearly manifested in the party’s constitution. Hence, our imperative task now is the train, and re-train, our party cadres, in order to prepare them adequately for carrying out their respective duties and responsibilities.
I am also reminded of some ‘nuggets of wisdom’ from Mwalimu Nyerere; who referred to the same imperative in his little story of the ‘millipede mother’ (mama jongoo); which, translated from its Kiswahili original version, reads as follows:- “The newly born millipede asked her mother: ‘mother, with such numerous legs, when I start walking, which leg should I put forward first’? Mama jongoo replied: you just begin moving forward, the legs will take care of themselves ”. From this mini-story, Mwalimu Nyerere hammered in his lesson that: “whenever we elect our party leaders, we should not leave them alone to ‘take care of themselves’, in search for the best ways in which to carry out their new responsibilities. We have an obligation to arrange some appropriate training for them” he said. And, indeed, before the re-introduction of the multi-party political dispensation, that was, in fact, the sole responsibility of the then party’s Kivukoni College; namely: to train, and re-train, our party cadres. Unfortunately however, following the re-introduction of multi-party politics, we seem to have abandoned this critical task of training our cadres.
Thus my considered advice, and fervent plea, to the national party Administration is : please make suitable arrangements for the resumption of such organized and systematic training for our party cadres.
The establishment and inauguration, on 23rd February 2022; of the “Mwalimu Nyerere School of Leadership” at Kibaha, was a confirmation of this need for the training of cadres.
It is a truism, that being knowledgeable about a given matter, is a vital qualification for ‘delivery performance’ by the actors on the relevant ‘stage’. This is because “political management” primarily involves the management of peoples’ Affairs; and considering the large variety of personal interests, propensities, and idiosyncrasies, among ordinary people; a proper management of their affairs is complicated enough to require some expert knowledge and skills, which can only be obtained through some specialized training. This is what explains why many, if not all, of the early leaders of TANU and its government, were routinely sent to Kivukoni College (and its six zonal colleges) for training (and retraining) in leadership skills.
On implementing the party’s ideology.
There is one important matter which seems to have been forgotten, or is currently not being given sufficient emphasis; and that is the matter of implementing the ‘party’s ideology’, or, in the words of the party constitution, “IMANI YA CHAMA”.
As I said above, our party line” is already determined, and is clearly manifested in the First Part of the Party constitution; listed therein as: 1. IMANI YA CHAMA; and 2. MALENGO NA MADHUMUNI YA CHAMA. The principal aim and objective of my presentation at the symposium referred to above, was to focus primarily on drawing attention to this particular matter, which seems to have been overlooked; namely, the ‘lack of attention’ that should be paid to the practical implementation of the set of principles, which together constitute our party’s ideology. “Ideology” is the foundation upon which rests the CCM members’ basic faith in the party, and consequently sustains their adherence to it.
It is indeed appreciated, that our cadres have been paying great attention to the task of supervising the implementation of the party’s “Election Manifesto”; as manifested by the way they tirelessly spend a lot of time inspecting the progress of implementation by the government, of all the projects that are listed in the said Manifesto.
However, it is clearly noticeable, that similar enthusiasm is sadly lacking with regard to supervising the implementation of the set of ideological principles listed in article 5 of the the party’s constitution. Some people mistakenly believe the “Ujamaa na kujitegemea” is the only CCM ideology. Wrong, that is only part of it ! My advice is simply that this ‘deficit’ should be remedied, through resuming well- structured cadre training programmes.
piomsekwa@gmail.com / 0754767576.
The birth of Chama cha Mapinduzi in 1977, as a result of the merger between the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) and the Zanzibar Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP) was a major event of great political importance. The younger generation may presumably be interested to know exactly how this was achieved. Here is the authentic story. It all started at a joint TANU/ASP ‘Electoral Conference’ of 1975, which was held on 22nd September, 1975. The Conference had been convened for the purpose of nominating the Presidential candidate for the 1975 Presidential election.
This was during the period of the “One-party State’ political dispensation, but general elections were nevertheless held regularly, at the end of every five-year period; in order to give the electors the opportunity to change any of their elected Central, or Local government leaders, if they so wished. That was how the “One-party electoral Democracy” worked. This was during the period of the “One-party State’ political dispensation, but general elections were nevertheless held regularly, at the end of every five-year period; in order to give the electors the opportunity to change any of their elected Central, or Local government leaders, if they so wished. That was how the “One-party electoral Democracy” worked.
The 1975 Electoral Conference dully nominated Mwalimu Julius Nyerere to be that candidate. This joint nomination process was instituted in 1965, when the first Presidential election was held after the establishment of the Union between Tanganyika in April 1964. Fortunately, the structures of the two parties at the national level were completely identical, consisting of an apex organ designated as “the Party National Congress”. Thus it was decided that for the purpose of nominating the Presidential candidate, the two congresses would sit in a joint session , designated as the “Electoral Conference”; to undertake this nomination task. This was because the Presidential election was to be held in both parts of the Union, and each side had its own political party. It was therefore necessary to devise a system whereby the two parties could sit together to make this nomination.
What happened at the 1975 Electoral conference was that Nyerere used his traditional “acceptance speech” to make this proposal, that the two parties should seriously consider forming a merger between them, in the following words:- “Our country is constitutionally a One-party State; but in reality, we have two parties. I believe that this is a constitutional anomaly, to which we should give serious consideration. I am convinced that we will greatly strengthen the unity of our people, and give ourselves greater capacity for carrying our revolution forward, if we now agree to merge our two parties, in order to form one strong revolutionary party, which will lead one revolutionary nation”.
The proposal was very well received by the conference, which thus allowed the process for the proposed merger to commence pretty soon thereafter. The first step was for each party to make internal consultations with its individual members at the Branch level. By June 1976, this consultation process had been completed; with positive results from both sides.
Thereafter, the two parties agreed to hold joint meetings of their National Executive Committees for the purpose of making crucial decisions regarding the remaining stages of te merger process. The first such meeting was held on 2nd October, 1976; which appointed a commission of 20 persons, 10 from each of the two parties. The following persons were appointed:-
From TANU: Lawi Sijaona; Peter Kisumo; Ngombale Mwiru; Peter Siyovelwa; Pius Msekwa; Jackson Kaaya; Basheikh Mikidadi; Beatrice Mhango; Nicodemus Banduka; and Daudi Mwakawago. From ASP: Sheikh Thabit Kmbo; Hassan Nassor Moyo; Abdallah Natepe; Seif Bakari; Hamisi Hemed; Rajab Heri; Ali Mzee; Asia Amour; Juma Salum; and Hamdan Muhidin.
And at its first meeting, the commission elected Sheikh Thabit Kombo (from ASP) to be the Commission Chairman; and Pius Msekwa (from TANU) to be the Commission Secretary.
The commission had been given one moth within which to complete its assignment and be ready to report to the next meeting of the joint National Executive Committees; which was scheduled for November ,1976. We worked full time on this project, and were able to meet the prescribed deadline. Our specific assignment was “to prepare recommendations for the new party’s constitution”. Now, ‘Constitutions and constitution-making’ are my academic area of close interest Thus, as the Secretary to the commission in, I invested a lot of energy, plus personal knowledge, in this assignment; by preparing the drafts of each of the Chapters of the proposed constitution, for discussion by the commission.
To our great relief and satisfaction, all the Commissions’ recommendations were accepted by the said joint meeting. Thereafter, the rest was just ‘ full speed ahead’ to the agreed ‘date of birth’ of the new party, the 5th day of February, 1977.
The Holy Bible’s Old Testament says: “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the Heaven”. This date of 5th February, was chosen for good reasons: it was the 20th anniversary of the Afro-shirazi Party, and the 10th anniversary of the Arusha Declaration. The commission must have done a splendid job, which satisfied our two party principals; because we were immediately assigned the similar task of preparing recommendations for the “permanent” State Constitution, of 1977; a task which we carried out with similar dispatch and diligence; so that our recommendations were ready for submission and approval by the relevant party organs, and later processed through the normal Legislative process, to enable this “permanent’ constitution to be enacted in April, 1977.
Regarding CCM’s 46th birthday anniversary.
We can now return to the matter of CCM’s 46th birthday celebrations of last Sunday, which were marked principally by the holding of symposiums, intended to benefit the younger generation of CCM leaders and their members at Ward level; by enhancing their awareness and understanding of ‘where we came from, where we are now, and the prospects for the future’
But the Sunday celebrations were only the climax of week-long activities, consisting of certain designated functions at Ward level, throughout the United Republic: Tanzania Mainland, as well as Zanzibar.
In the Ward in which I reside, known as “Kata ya Nkiliza” in Ukerewe District; the inauguration function was held at the Nkilizya Secondary School;, which is situated in close proximity to my residence. Among other activities, the function also included the holding of a symposium, at which Papers were presented for discussion by the assembled cadres from every party Branch in our ward.
I had been invited by the District CCM Political Committee to be one of the Paper presenters at this symposium. Thus, being mindful of the fact that CCM’s new 47th year had arrived not so long after the party’s 2022 general elections which had brought into leadership, a large number of new leaders who had been elected to their respective positions for their first time ever; I had crafted my Paper in a way that would help these new cadres to get an early exposure to the ‘nitty-gritty’ of our party leadership’s duties and responsibilities.
The veteran Chinese leader Mao Tse Tung is on record as having said the following:- “Once the political line is determined, cadres are a decisive factor. Therefore, it is our fighting task to train large numbers of new cadres in a planned way”. In our situation, the “party line” is already determined, and is clearly manifested in the party’s constitution. Hence, our imperative task now is the train, and re-train, our party cadres, in order to prepare them adequately for carrying out their respective duties and responsibilities.
I am also reminded of some ‘nuggets of wisdom’ from Mwalimu Nyerere; who referred to the same imperative in his little story of the ‘millipede mother’ (mama jongoo); which, translated from its Kiswahili original version, reads as follows:- “The newly born millipede asked her mother: ‘mother, with such numerous legs, when I start walking, which leg should I put forward first’? Mama jongoo replied: you just begin moving forward, the legs will take care of themselves ”. From this mini-story, Mwalimu Nyerere hammered in his lesson that: “whenever we elect our party leaders, we should not leave them alone to ‘take care of themselves’, in search for the best ways in which to carry out their new responsibilities. We have an obligation to arrange some appropriate training for them” he said. And, indeed, before the re-introduction of the multi-party political dispensation, that was, in fact, the sole responsibility of the then party’s Kivukoni College; namely: to train, and re-train, our party cadres. Unfortunately however, following the re-introduction of multi-party politics, we seem to have abandoned this critical task of training our cadres.
Thus my considered advice, and fervent plea, to the national party Administration is : please make suitable arrangements for the resumption of such organized and systematic training for our party cadres.
The establishment and inauguration, on 23rd February 2022; of the “Mwalimu Nyerere School of Leadership” at Kibaha, was a confirmation of this need for the training of cadres.
It is a truism, that being knowledgeable about a given matter, is a vital qualification for ‘delivery performance’ by the actors on the relevant ‘stage’. This is because “political management” primarily involves the management of peoples’ Affairs; and considering the large variety of personal interests, propensities, and idiosyncrasies, among ordinary people; a proper management of their affairs is complicated enough to require some expert knowledge and skills, which can only be obtained through some specialized training. This is what explains why many, if not all, of the early leaders of TANU and its government, were routinely sent to Kivukoni College (and its six zonal colleges) for training (and retraining) in leadership skills.
On implementing the party’s ideology.
There is one important matter which seems to have been forgotten, or is currently not being given sufficient emphasis; and that is the matter of implementing the ‘party’s ideology’, or, in the words of the party constitution, “IMANI YA CHAMA”.
As I said above, our party line” is already determined, and is clearly manifested in the First Part of the Party constitution; listed therein as: 1. IMANI YA CHAMA; and 2. MALENGO NA MADHUMUNI YA CHAMA. The principal aim and objective of my presentation at the symposium referred to above, was to focus primarily on drawing attention to this particular matter, which seems to have been overlooked; namely, the ‘lack of attention’ that should be paid to the practical implementation of the set of principles, which together constitute our party’s ideology. “Ideology” is the foundation upon which rests the CCM members’ basic faith in the party, and consequently sustains their adherence to it.
It is indeed appreciated, that our cadres have been paying great attention to the task of supervising the implementation of the party’s “Election Manifesto”; as manifested by the way they tirelessly spend a lot of time inspecting the progress of implementation by the government, of all the projects that are listed in the said Manifesto.
However, it is clearly noticeable, that similar enthusiasm is sadly lacking with regard to supervising the implementation of the set of ideological principles listed in article 5 of the the party’s constitution. Some people mistakenly believe the “Ujamaa na kujitegemea” is the only CCM ideology. Wrong, that is only part of it ! My advice is simply that this ‘deficit’ should be remedied, through resuming well- structured cadre training programmes.
piomsekwa@gmail.com / 0754767576.
The birth of Chama cha Mapinduzi in 1977, as a result of the merger between the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) and the Zanzibar Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP) was a major event of great political importance. The younger generation may presumably be interested to know exactly how this was achieved. Here is the authentic story. It all started at a joint TANU/ASP ‘Electoral Conference’ of 1975, which was held on 22nd September, 1975. The Conference had been convened for the purpose of nominating the Presidential candidate for the 1975 Presidential election.
This was during the period of the “One-party State’ political dispensation, but general elections were nevertheless held regularly, at the end of every five-year period; in order to give the electors the opportunity to change any of their elected Central, or Local government leaders, if they so wished. That was how the “One-party electoral Democracy” worked.
The 1975 Electoral Conference dully nominated Mwalimu Julius Nyerere to be that candidate. This joint nomination process was instituted in 1965, when the first Presidential election was held after the establishment of the Union between Tanganyika in April 1964. Fortunately, the structures of the two parties at the national level were completely identical, consisting of an apex organ designated as “the Party National Congress”. Thus it was decided that for the purpose of nominating the Presidential candidate, the two congresses would sit in a joint session , designated as the “Electoral Conference”; to undertake this nomination task. This was because the Presidential election was to be held in both parts of the Union, and each side had its own political party. It was therefore necessary to devise a system whereby the two parties could sit together to make this nomination.
What happened at the 1975 Electoral conference was that Nyerere used his traditional “acceptance speech” to make this proposal, that the two parties should seriously consider forming a merger between them, in the following words:- “Our country is constitutionally a One-party State; but in reality, we have two parties. I believe that this is a constitutional anomaly, to which we should give serious consideration. I am convinced that we will greatly strengthen the unity of our people, and give ourselves greater capacity for carrying our revolution forward, if we now agree to merge our two parties, in order to form one strong revolutionary party, which will lead one revolutionary nation”.
The proposal was very well received by the conference, which thus allowed the process for the proposed merger to commence pretty soon thereafter. The first step was for each party to make internal consultations with its individual members at the Branch level. By June 1976, this consultation process had been completed; with positive results from both sides.
Thereafter, the two parties agreed to hold joint meetings of their National Executive Committees for the purpose of making crucial decisions regarding the remaining stages of te merger process. The first such meeting was held on 2nd October, 1976; which appointed a commission of 20 persons, 10 from each of the two parties. The following persons were appointed:-
From TANU: Lawi Sijaona; Peter Kisumo; Ngombale Mwiru; Peter Siyovelwa; Pius Msekwa; Jackson Kaaya; Basheikh Mikidadi; Beatrice Mhango; Nicodemus Banduka; and Daudi Mwakawago. From ASP: Sheikh Thabit Kmbo; Hassan Nassor Moyo; Abdallah Natepe; Seif Bakari; Hamisi Hemed; Rajab Heri; Ali Mzee; Asia Amour; Juma Salum; and Hamdan Muhidin.
And at its first meeting, the commission elected Sheikh Thabit Kombo (from ASP) to be the Commission Chairman; and Pius Msekwa (from TANU) to be the Commission Secretary.
The commission had been given one moth within which to complete its assignment and be ready to report to the next meeting of the joint National Executive Committees; which was scheduled for November ,1976. We worked full time on this project, and were able to meet the prescribed deadline. Our specific assignment was “to prepare recommendations for the new party’s constitution”. Now, ‘Constitutions and constitution-making’ are my academic area of close interest Thus, as the Secretary to the commission in, I invested a lot of energy, plus personal knowledge, in this assignment; by preparing the drafts of each of the Chapters of the proposed constitution, for discussion by the commission.
To our great relief and satisfaction, all the Commissions’ recommendations were accepted by the said joint meeting. Thereafter, the rest was just ‘ full speed ahead’ to the agreed ‘date of birth’ of the new party, the 5th day of February, 1977.
The Holy Bible’s Old Testament says: “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the Heaven”. This date of 5th February, was chosen for good reasons: it was the 20th anniversary of the Afro-shirazi Party, and the 10th anniversary of the Arusha Declaration. The commission must have done a splendid job, which satisfied our two party principals; because we were immediately assigned the similar task of preparing recommendations for the “permanent” State Constitution, of 1977; a task which we carried out with similar dispatch and diligence; so that our recommendations were ready for submission and approval by the relevant party organs, and later processed through the normal Legislative process, to enable this “permanent’ constitution to be enacted in April, 1977.
Regarding CCM’s 46th birthday anniversary.
We can now return to the matter of CCM’s 46th birthday celebrations of last Sunday, which were marked principally by the holding of symposiums, intended to benefit the younger generation of CCM leaders and their members at Ward level; by enhancing their awareness and understanding of ‘where we came from, where we are now, and the prospects for the future’
But the Sunday celebrations were only the climax of week-long activities, consisting of certain designated functions at Ward level, throughout the United Republic: Tanzania Mainland, as well as Zanzibar.
In the Ward in which I reside, known as “Kata ya Nkiliza” in Ukerewe District; the inauguration function was held at the Nkilizya Secondary School;, which is situated in close proximity to my residence. Among other activities, the function also included the holding of a symposium, at which Papers were presented for discussion by the assembled cadres from every party Branch in our ward.
I had been invited by the District CCM Political Committee to be one of the Paper presenters at this symposium. Thus, being mindful of the fact that CCM’s new 47th year had arrived not so long after the party’s 2022 general elections which had brought into leadership, a large number of new leaders who had been elected to their respective positions for their first time ever; I had crafted my Paper in a way that would help these new cadres to get an early exposure to the ‘nitty-gritty’ of our party leadership’s duties and responsibilities.
The veteran Chinese leader Mao Tse Tung is on record as having said the following:- “Once the political line is determined, cadres are a decisive factor. Therefore, it is our fighting task to train large numbers of new cadres in a planned way”. In our situation, the “party line” is already determined, and is clearly manifested in the party’s constitution. Hence, our imperative task now is the train, and re-train, our party cadres, in order to prepare them adequately for carrying out their respective duties and responsibilities.
I am also reminded of some ‘nuggets of wisdom’ from Mwalimu Nyerere; who referred to the same imperative in his little story of the ‘millipede mother’ (mama jongoo); which, translated from its Kiswahili original version, reads as follows:- “The newly born millipede asked her mother: ‘mother, with such numerous legs, when I start walking, which leg should I put forward first’? Mama jongoo replied: you just begin moving forward, the legs will take care of themselves ”. From this mini-story, Mwalimu Nyerere hammered in his lesson that: “whenever we elect our party leaders, we should not leave them alone to ‘take care of themselves’, in search for the best ways in which to carry out their new responsibilities. We have an obligation to arrange some appropriate training for them” he said. And, indeed, before the re-introduction of the multi-party political dispensation, that was, in fact, the sole responsibility of the then party’s Kivukoni College; namely: to train, and re-train, our party cadres. Unfortunately however, following the re-introduction of multi-party politics, we seem to have abandoned this critical task of training our cadres.
Thus my considered advice, and fervent plea, to the national party Administration is : please make suitable arrangements for the resumption of such organized and systematic training for our party cadres.
The establishment and inauguration, on 23rd February 2022; of the “Mwalimu Nyerere School of Leadership” at Kibaha, was a confirmation of this need for the training of cadres.
It is a truism, that being knowledgeable about a given matter, is a vital qualification for ‘delivery performance’ by the actors on the relevant ‘stage’. This is because “political management” primarily involves the management of peoples’ Affairs; and considering the large variety of personal interests, propensities, and idiosyncrasies, among ordinary people; a proper management of their affairs is complicated enough to require some expert knowledge and skills, which can only be obtained through some specialized training. This is what explains why many, if not all, of the early leaders of TANU and its government, were routinely sent to Kivukoni College (and its six zonal colleges) for training (and retraining) in leadership skills.
On implementing the party’s ideology.
There is one important matter which seems to have been forgotten, or is currently not being given sufficient emphasis; and that is the matter of implementing the ‘party’s ideology’, or, in the words of the party constitution, “IMANI YA CHAMA”.
As I said above, our party line” is already determined, and is clearly manifested in the First Part of the Party constitution; listed therein as: 1. IMANI YA CHAMA; and 2. MALENGO NA MADHUMUNI YA CHAMA. The principal aim and objective of my presentation at the symposium referred to above, was to focus primarily on drawing attention to this particular matter, which seems to have been overlooked; namely, the ‘lack of attention’ that should be paid to the practical implementation of the set of principles, which together constitute our party’s ideology. “Ideology” is the foundation upon which rests the CCM members’ basic faith in the party, and consequently sustains their adherence to it.
It is indeed appreciated, that our cadres have been paying great attention to the task of supervising the implementation of the party’s “Election Manifesto”; as manifested by the way they tirelessly spend a lot of time inspecting the progress of implementation by the government, of all the projects that are listed in the said Manifesto.
However, it is clearly noticeable, that similar enthusiasm is sadly lacking with regard to supervising the implementation of the set of ideological principles listed in article 5 of the the party’s constitution. Some people mistakenly believe the “Ujamaa na kujitegemea” is the only CCM ideology. Wrong, that is only part of it ! My advice is simply that this ‘deficit’ should be remedied, through resuming well- structured cadre training programmes.
piomsekwa@gmail.com / 0754767576.
The birth of Chama cha Mapinduzi in 1977, as a result of the merger between the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) and the Zanzibar Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP) was a major event of great political importance. The younger generation may presumably be interested to know exactly how this was achieved. Here is the authentic story. It all started at a joint TANU/ASP ‘Electoral Conference’ of 1975, which was held on 22nd September, 1975. The Conference had been convened for the purpose of nominating the Presidential candidate for the 1975 Presidential election.
The 1975 Electoral Conference dully nominated Mwalimu Julius Nyerere to be that candidate. This joint nomination process was instituted in 1965, when the first Presidential election was held after the establishment of the Union between Tanganyika in April 1964. Fortunately, the structures of the two parties at the national level were completely identical, consisting of an apex organ designated as “the Party National Congress”. Thus it was decided that for the purpose of nominating the Presidential candidate, the two congresses would sit in a joint session , designated as the “Electoral Conference”; to undertake this nomination task. This was because the Presidential election was to be held in both parts of the Union, and each side had its own political party. It was therefore necessary to devise a system whereby the two parties could sit together to make this nomination.
What happened at the 1975 Electoral conference was that Nyerere used his traditional “acceptance speech” to make this proposal, that the two parties should seriously consider forming a merger between them, in the following words:- “Our country is constitutionally a One-party State; but in reality, we have two parties. I believe that this is a constitutional anomaly, to which we should give serious consideration. I am convinced that we will greatly strengthen the unity of our people, and give ourselves greater capacity for carrying our revolution forward, if we now agree to merge our two parties, in order to form one strong revolutionary party, which will lead one revolutionary nation”.
The proposal was very well received by the conference, which thus allowed the process for the proposed merger to commence pretty soon thereafter. The first step was for each party to make internal consultations with its individual members at the Branch level. By June 1976, this consultation process had been completed; with positive results from both sides.
Thereafter, the two parties agreed to hold joint meetings of their National Executive Committees for the purpose of making crucial decisions regarding the remaining stages of te merger process. The first such meeting was held on 2nd October, 1976; which appointed a commission of 20 persons, 10 from each of the two parties. The following persons were appointed:-
From TANU: Lawi Sijaona; Peter Kisumo; Ngombale Mwiru; Peter Siyovelwa; Pius Msekwa; Jackson Kaaya; Basheikh Mikidadi; Beatrice Mhango; Nicodemus Banduka; and Daudi Mwakawago. From ASP: Sheikh Thabit Kmbo; Hassan Nassor Moyo; Abdallah Natepe; Seif Bakari; Hamisi Hemed; Rajab Heri; Ali Mzee; Asia Amour; Juma Salum; and Hamdan Muhidin.
And at its first meeting, the commission elected Sheikh Thabit Kombo (from ASP) to be the Commission Chairman; and Pius Msekwa (from TANU) to be the Commission Secretary.
The commission had been given one moth within which to complete its assignment and be ready to report to the next meeting of the joint National Executive Committees; which was scheduled for November ,1976. We worked full time on this project, and were able to meet the prescribed deadline. Our specific assignment was “to prepare recommendations for the new party’s constitution”. Now, ‘Constitutions and constitution-making’ are my academic area of close interest Thus, as the Secretary to the commission in, I invested a lot of energy, plus personal knowledge, in this assignment; by preparing the drafts of each of the Chapters of the proposed constitution, for discussion by the commission.
To our great relief and satisfaction, all the Commissions’ recommendations were accepted by the said joint meeting. Thereafter, the rest was just ‘ full speed ahead’ to the agreed ‘date of birth’ of the new party, the 5th day of February, 1977.
The Holy Bible’s Old Testament says: “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the Heaven”. This date of 5th February, was chosen for good reasons: it was the 20th anniversary of the Afro-shirazi Party, and the 10th anniversary of the Arusha Declaration. The commission must have done a splendid job, which satisfied our two party principals; because we were immediately assigned the similar task of preparing recommendations for the “permanent” State Constitution, of 1977; a task which we carried out with similar dispatch and diligence; so that our recommendations were ready for submission and approval by the relevant party organs, and later processed through the normal Legislative process, to enable this “permanent’ constitution to be enacted in April, 1977.
Regarding CCM’s 46th birthday anniversary.
We can now return to the matter of CCM’s 46th birthday celebrations of last Sunday, which were marked principally by the holding of symposiums, intended to benefit the younger generation of CCM leaders and their members at Ward level; by enhancing their awareness and understanding of ‘where we came from, where we are now, and the prospects for the future’
But the Sunday celebrations were only the climax of week-long activities, consisting of certain designated functions at Ward level, throughout the United Republic: Tanzania Mainland, as well as Zanzibar.
In the Ward in which I reside, known as “Kata ya Nkiliza” in Ukerewe District; the inauguration function was held at the Nkilizya Secondary School;, which is situated in close proximity to my residence. Among other activities, the function also included the holding of a symposium, at which Papers were presented for discussion by the assembled cadres from every party Branch in our ward.
I had been invited by the District CCM Political Committee to be one of the Paper presenters at this symposium. Thus, being mindful of the fact that CCM’s new 47th year had arrived not so long after the party’s 2022 general elections which had brought into leadership, a large number of new leaders who had been elected to their respective positions for their first time ever; I had crafted my Paper in a way that would help these new cadres to get an early exposure to the ‘nitty-gritty’ of our party leadership’s duties and responsibilities.
The veteran Chinese leader Mao Tse Tung is on record as having said the following:- “Once the political line is determined, cadres are a decisive factor. Therefore, it is our fighting task to train large numbers of new cadres in a planned way”. In our situation, the “party line” is already determined, and is clearly manifested in the party’s constitution. Hence, our imperative task now is the train, and re-train, our party cadres, in order to prepare them adequately for carrying out their respective duties and responsibilities.
I am also reminded of some ‘nuggets of wisdom’ from Mwalimu Nyerere; who referred to the same imperative in his little story of the ‘millipede mother’ (mama jongoo); which, translated from its Kiswahili original version, reads as follows:- “The newly born millipede asked her mother: ‘mother, with such numerous legs, when I start walking, which leg should I put forward first’? Mama jongoo replied: you just begin moving forward, the legs will take care of themselves ”. From this mini-story, Mwalimu Nyerere hammered in his lesson that: “whenever we elect our party leaders, we should not leave them alone to ‘take care of themselves’, in search for the best ways in which to carry out their new responsibilities. We have an obligation to arrange some appropriate training for them” he said. And, indeed, before the re-introduction of the multi-party political dispensation, that was, in fact, the sole responsibility of the then party’s Kivukoni College; namely: to train, and re-train, our party cadres. Unfortunately however, following the re-introduction of multi-party politics, we seem to have abandoned this critical task of training our cadres.
Thus my considered advice, and fervent plea, to the national party Administration is : please make suitable arrangements for the resumption of such organized and systematic training for our party cadres.
The establishment and inauguration, on 23rd February 2022; of the “Mwalimu Nyerere School of Leadership” at Kibaha, was a confirmation of this need for the training of cadres.
It is a truism, that being knowledgeable about a given matter, is a vital qualification for ‘delivery performance’ by the actors on the relevant ‘stage’. This is because “political management” primarily involves the management of peoples’ Affairs; and considering the large variety of personal interests, propensities, and idiosyncrasies, among ordinary people; a proper management of their affairs is complicated enough to require some expert knowledge and skills, which can only be obtained through some specialized training. This is what explains why many, if not all, of the early leaders of TANU and its government, were routinely sent to Kivukoni College (and its six zonal colleges) for training (and retraining) in leadership skills.
On implementing the party’s ideology.
There is one important matter which seems to have been forgotten, or is currently not being given sufficient emphasis; and that is the matter of implementing the ‘party’s ideology’, or, in the words of the party constitution, “IMANI YA CHAMA”.
As I said above, our party line” is already determined, and is clearly manifested in the First Part of the Party constitution; listed therein as: 1. IMANI YA CHAMA; and 2. MALENGO NA MADHUMUNI YA CHAMA. The principal aim and objective of my presentation at the symposium referred to above, was to focus primarily on drawing attention to this particular matter, which seems to have been overlooked; namely, the ‘lack of attention’ that should be paid to the practical implementation of the set of principles, which together constitute our party’s ideology. “Ideology” is the foundation upon which rests the CCM members’ basic faith in the party, and consequently sustains their adherence to it.
It is indeed appreciated, that our cadres have been paying great attention to the task of supervising the implementation of the party’s “Election Manifesto”; as manifested by the way they tirelessly spend a lot of time inspecting the progress of implementation by the government, of all the projects that are listed in the said Manifesto.
However, it is clearly noticeable, that similar enthusiasm is sadly lacking with regard to supervising the implementation of the set of ideological principles listed in article 5 of the the party’s constitution. Some people mistakenly believe the “Ujamaa na kujitegemea” is the only CCM ideology. Wrong, that is only part of it ! My advice is simply that this ‘deficit’ should be remedied, through resuming well- structured cadre training programmes.
piomsekwa@gmail.com / 0754767576.
Source: Cde Pius Msekwa yesterday.
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