On our adventure to nationhood, the history of our nation cannot forget people like Mwl. Nyerere, Oscar Kambona, Bibi Titi Mohammed and host of others who risked and put their lives on the line to secure independence for this nation from the hands of the colonial master. The Independence came as earlier as projected by the independence agitators and the founding fathers. None of them ever envisaged that the nation that they fought, suffered, imprisoned and died for with all their investment will turn out to be what it is today. Tanzania of today is not the dream of our founding fathers.
The journey to nationhood was exciting and adventurous, but the irony of our nation is like the biblical King Solomon who was the wisest in his day, who kept so much for the future generation of his children but never occurred to him that the subsequent generation will squander all he laboured for. Today our nation is free from external colonialism and now found itself in the hand of internal colonial masters.
To the surprise of everyone, our nation has taken fifty six (56) steps forward and hundred (100) steps backward in this adventure to nationhood. As I personally scramble through the continents of the world, it shocked and beat my imagination that nations that started their journey to nationhood after our beloved nation Tanzania have gone ahead of us, their journey from under-developed nations to developing and finally developed nation or what we can categorize as the first world nation. Nations like Singapore, China, Korea, Japan, Malaysia and Indian are classified as first world nations today and as at the time of Tanzania independence they are in the same group of third world nation like us, what is actually the problem of our nation? What went wrong?
Immediately after the independence, there was a spectrum of joy and high aspiration from the leaders and the citizen that our nation will rise and rise, shine brighter until it become the pride of other nations. Unfortunately it was the opposite we found out to be the result, leadership failure, lack of capacity and their selfishness, unpatriotic attitude on the part of the citizen led our nation to this pitiable state today. Our political system, health sector, educational system, aviation, roads, housing, Agriculture and every facet of our national life is in shamble today.
Politicians failed to live up to the expectation messed up this country; When the opposition intervened in the governance thinking things will work better not knowing that their intervention was one of the greatest disaster that can happen to any nation. What else can we talk about this regime, who has this regular trade mark of destruction of life and property, leaving sorrow and tears?
Another facet of our national life thinking that the rhythm will change not knowing that we only moving from hot water into fry pan. They are marred with high level of corruption, nepotism, injustices, destruction of life and properties and what have you.
Listen to one of the argument of the first Prime Minister Mwl. Nyerere in 1960 “I am confident that when we have our own citizenship, our national anthem, our own national flag, we shall find the flame of national unity burning bright and strong”. The first question I asked was that what went wrong, where was the commitment to follow exactly what he said?
One of the greatest tragedies of our nation is that we spend enormous national and personal resources focusing largely on insignificant and unbeneficial objectives; it is like using a baseball bat to kill an ant. That baseball bat could do far more than just killing one ant, it could hit a homerun.
At this critical and defining moment of our country, when we are celebrating 56th year of our journey to nationhood and independence from our slave and colonial master, there is joy in me and also I am sad, why? Because of where we are coming from, where we pathetically are now the hope for the future that is not naturally bright. Unfortunately, Tanzania at 56 was taken captive by conspiracy of deception, oppression, corruption, bad leadership and injustice. We need liberation, freedom and independence of thought, action and reasons.
On the political plane, it is the elites; the leaders who should be the custodian of the nationhood had polluted the polity. It is a sorry case that we as a nation who was the envy of the world 50+ years ago are at this mess today. Where Tanzania was in the past and where we unfortunately are now is a serious mess, the way we are going now is not the way the founding fathers designed our future. Life of an average man is going down the drain everyday
A lot of questions are fighting for expression inside of me, are we really or truly free, has anything changed over the past 56 years of independence? Tanzania is yet to create his own variant of democracy informed by our own norms, culture, systems of belief, values etc. It is not my joy to start exposing the problems of Tanzania and expose the inadequacy of the past and present leaders, frankly all the leaders Tanzania produced in the last 56 years had done a great avouch to this nation with the exception of few. But I believe in solving a problem, we must agree on the causes of our problems. More often than not, the problem of Tanzania development process is usually reduced to that of leadership.
There is high level of poverty in this country, lack of the basic facilities of life, poverty of independent thought and actions, poverty of vision and direction among our leaders, we appear not to know who we are, what we are worth and where we wish to go from here. The literacy statistics shows that we have high level of illiterates now than we had in 1960 because the Tanzanian government had done a great disservice to this country by progressively uneducated Tanzanian children. Our nation is oscillating between the good and even the ugly. It is a totally tragedy of any nation who think he has a future. Today the minimum wage in Tanzania is nothing to write about, the questions I keep on asking people is still the same, show me any one who can successfully live with this minimum wage without stealing, begging for more or borrowing at the expense of his own future economy?
The frequent political changes have brought inconsistency to our education policies. Some regime administration had done evil to education by allowing perpetual closure of our curriculum and voting a very small percentage of the national annual budget to education. Our academic certificate does not attract any value in the international community. There is an urgent need for a stable education policy, a responsible generation like ours must make sacrifice for their future.
Tanzania at 56, what are we celebrating, erratic power supply from TANESCO, because of erratic and inadequate power supply many companies that have sprung up in the last years had folded up again. Last government campaigned for poverty alleviation but all through the current administration more hardship is inflicted on the society by arbitrary increase. What else can we talk about abuse of political demonstration by all government till now, disobedience to rule of law and court order, bitterness, maiming and hatred shown by government to all his political opponents, to be frank can nation survive with all these?
Concerning all the past administrations my prayer is that God will not let us have people like them anymore because any abnormalities we notice today was engineered through them. They had done evil and great avouch to this nation than good you can talk of, they are all epitome of lawlessness and backwardness. Many things are wrong in our political terrain that does not warrant any celebration but yet we have to thank God for the journey so far, God has been kind gracious to us as a nation. God has endowed Tanzania with reasonable fertile, cultivable soil and natural resources that make us the envy of other nations.
In 56 year of existence what can we do to improve our lot as individual and as a nation? We need a very strong national philosophy (Philosophy that will guide every citizen like America, all of them are guided, propelled by their national philosophy), national orientation (This is very important because Tanzanians have been conditioned to certain lifestyle like corruption, nepotism, cheating, etc that needs change) and direction.
We all need discipline, probity, integrity, hard work, accountability and righteousness to build a new nation. Hard work does not kill; it is laziness that kills the mind and the body. Hard work is the essential to the building of a solid foundation for self, family and country. Hard work is a cure for fraud, cheating, examination leakages, certificate rackets, secret cults and failure in life. Discipline encompasses modesty, thoughtfulness, community living, punctuality, duty, leadership and followership, obedience, cooperation and discussion. We all need a self control.
Let us all be honest in accounting for actions and activities. Righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach. Where are you? And what are you doing? If you say because others do it you will follow others to do evil? You are a jellyfish then. Avoid immoral shortcuts to achieve goals. Avoid cheating in class, in home, in election and examinations. Then you will grow up to be a trusted, trust-worthy and reliable individual at home, at work, school and within the community. You will grow up to be respected person.
Money cannot buy everything. Resist the urge to join people in praising corrupt people and more importantly resist the temptation of following them. If all of us can start doing all this little thing there will be change in our society and it is this change people from the society that will later emerge has our leaders in all sphere of government. It is not too late for Tanzania to reverse the ill of the past.
Tanzania 56 years adventure into nationhood has been witnessed with a lot of ups and down, good and tragic occurrences. The aspiration of our founding fathers has been left unattended to and the labour of our heroes past was allowed to waste away. Tanzania, the irony of a young lady raped by a gang of hoodlums and she does not enjoy the sexual desire of the gang. A nation blessed by God and endowed with all the good things of life, the bright hope of many Africa nations but today the state of our nation is a sorry and pitiable state. Tanzania, my fatherland is seriously raped by vagabond in power that see Tanzania as their conquered territory, what can we do to this peaceful people who is helplessly in pain now and bleeding? The survival of this wombling peace is in the hand of its citizens who stand to face oppression face to face and challenge the vagabond in power to stop this exploitation. The survival of Tanzania can only come when all its citizens are ready to pay the price of freedom and liberty. Time does not change any nation it is decision that change nations.
Time will not change this nation, time will only expose our weakness and failure, therefore we need to rise up and do something critical strategic today before it is too later. To avoid this imminent disaster coming we must all rise and call for change. We must all come out persuade good and credible individuals to contest in our elections. We (people) must come out to vote, protect our vote and ensure our vote count so as have a new dawn in Tanzania. The survival and destiny of this our nation lies in the hands of every one of us and we must fall in our responsibility.
All Tanzanians are expected to be a activist in our own way, pursuing actions to a logical conclusion towards; good governance, exposing what is wrong, industrial commitments, crying against instances of injustice, teaching/ educating the people to be self-sufficient, re-orientate the mind positively, working behind the scenes to promote enhanced political leadership, promoting Political/Human Rights activism and using the media to propagate meaning leadership.
JPM Supporters: I have words for you
Dear readers, in a nutshell, patriotism simply means loyalty to your country as a whole, not your president as an individual, president of your country deserve your support ONLY to an extent to which he is doing only the things that are in the best interest of your country. The moment he starts working against the interest of your country, you owe it to yourself, your country and your fellow citizens as both moral and legal duty to withdraw every form of support for such a president and start treating him as the number one enemy of your country because that is exactly what he has become.
Placing the interest of your president over and above that of your country is anything but patriotism. Your country is bigger than your President who is nothing but your employee elected to serve you for a fixed period of time after which he will vacate the office. Supporting your president and urging him on even when it is beyond argument that he is progressing in error IS NOT patriotism. It is nothing short of mindless sycophancy.
Choosing your president over your country and supporting him in RUINING your country is tantamount to treason. It becomes worse when your much touted love for this president was borne out of illicit gains your association with him is gifting you with. It’s even worst when you, a private citizen, collect payment from the government or its representatives through the backdoor just so you would churn out satanic lies and demonic propaganda in support of the government, thereby riding roughshod over the pains, wars and woes of your fellow citizens inflicted upon them by the same government.
No sane citizen of a free nation should ever confuse blind loyalty to his president or any other government official, elected or appointed, as patriotism. Blind loyalty is no loyalty. It is as criminally deceitful as the peace of the grave yard which is no peace at all.
If a conflict arises between the personal interest of your president and that of your country, there can be no argument that every citizen with even the tiniest strand of grey matter upstairs should consider the interest of his country paramount and even sacrifice the President if need be, in order to save his country. This, right here, is the right and sensible thing to do because while you can easily replace your President, you cannot replace your country.
A man who spend most of his time looking for errors in the way and manner his government pilots the affairs of his country IS NOT an enemy of his country. He is the most patriotic of them all, his intention notwithstanding, because in a government presided over by men whose brains were not located in their poo-poo hole, the fault-finding mission of such a man will almost always keep the government on its toes, thereby bringing out the very best in them to the benefit of the entire country.
When a man spend most of his time supporting EVERY action of his government and doing hashtag of supporting president every now and then including when this president of his is clearly hurting the entire country, such a man/woman is a certified enemy of his/her country and the people there-in. He/she is no patriot. Matter of fact, mentioning the term “Patriot” and the name of this blind supporter of the president in the same sentence amounts to subjecting patriotism to mockery.
As a citizen, you don’t need to stand with your president or any of your elected representatives. The only time it is okay to stand, sit, jump, run, crawl, walk or even fly with your President, Member of Parliaments or any other representatives is when they are contesting election because then, they are candidates soliciting for votes from you. But the moment they get elected to serve you, they stop being your candidate and start being your employees who should be closely monitored and held to their campaign promises.
Your government is the people you employ to use the instrumentalities of state and your resources (not theirs) to protect your lives and properties and provide basic services for you. Your president is as much your employee as your personal driver, cooker, gardener, etc.
By casting your vote for your president, you have already gifted him with enormous power to make or mar your collective destiny as a people. He has the entire armed forces at his beck and call. He is comfortable beyond words. The notion that an employee who has been so empowered still needs you, his employer who live a life very distanced from the comfort he enjoys, to stand with him before he could do the same job for which he is receiving outrageous salaries and allowances, is a very silly notion. Idiotic, even! You certainly don’t need a certain Abdul to break this down for you, do you?
No president, no matter how powerful, should be considered greater or more important than a whole country.
Nothing kills a government faster than surrounding itself with a very large horde of unthinking political idiots and ‘arseholeric’ leeches far drunk in the highly poisonous wine of bottom-less sycophancy laced with blind partisanship.
There is no task more tedious than rescuing a country where the number of sycophants far outweighs the number of patriots.
Regardless of your political affiliation, as long as you are a Tanzanian or you have any stake in this country, you owe it to both men and God to rise up and contribute your quota towards rescuing this country from the firm grip of these dark hearted men who have hijacked it and are currently playing Russian Roulette with the destiny of 50+ million of us using the name of JPM who it has been proven beyond doubt, he his performing in errors.
Tanzanians need change right from the highest to the lowest, the richest down the poorest, the wisest through the foolish ones, and the able and the disables. The change is yet to come.
My dear readers, I would never dare to bias you with my writings! I am being totally straight when asking government to lead us in our matters concerning our future. Nothing will change without the promptings of civil society. Those politicians differing of parties are only interested in getting as much of the national cake for themselves; they have no interest in alleviating our plight and poverty.
Conclusion
What was the vision of our founding father on our resources after independence? How far have their vision been implemented by the government from our independence until today on celebrating 56 years?
In the 21st Century we are politically in the middle of the 16th Century, there is no equality of political fights. We have a political party’s law, which the President has delighted to sing for in banning multilateral meetings. If he believes he runs things in the law, justice and order, why fears the opponents? Our 56-year independence celebration is still logical if we are still in contact with the representatives.Who to blame for corruption?The Founding Father hated corruption and claimed it as an enemy of our development, is it true when we say we fight corruption in this fifth phase government with a great effort to express the commitment, we cannot believe in their words if President’s assistants appear in the Arusha councilors scandal and opposition politicians/leaders but the President seems to enjoy the registration of opposition politicians/leaders? It is few Tanzanians who can have faith on anti-corruption campaigns by the rulers.I agree with assertion that it has been difficult to win corruption war because Tanzanians tend to reward corrupt practice. In our clime, corruption becomes the order of the day because government of Tanzania encourages it, support it, champion it, promote it and reward it. Most of the men and women caught in a big mess of corruption in Tanzania are government officials, high profile politician, aides and associates of Mr. President and to our surprise the same Government gave most of them national honour and nothing happens to these men, instead of Government prosecuting and convict them Mr. President cannot explain it away. Corruption cannot expose corruption and a corrupt president and government can’t fight corruption. No wonder corruption is the order of the day in Tanzania and now graduated to high degree of impunity. Government is to be blamed for corruption in Tanzania for not addressing it, tackle it and prosecute it when it should be, anti corruption war without casualty is nothing but exercise in futility, when leadership give direction and show the way to go, naturally the followers will line up, we are still battling with corruption because Government did nothing to stop and reduce it with corruption and corrupt men waxing strong everyday in Tanzania. There is no better time in the history of our nation to cause change to happen and recreate the fortune and future of our country than now.
Long live all true patriots of this great country of ours. May God and Allah through his bountiful mercies bless us all.
Happy Peaceful National Independence Day.
Abdul Noor