Tanzanian Association Oslo

Meet a begging country

called Tanzania

Simon Mkina
Dar es Salaam

Basically there is nothing seriously wrong with Tanzania as a country. The only problem I see in this country is that it is full of irresponsible leaders who are unwilling to take up challenges.

Many Tanzanian and African leaders in general think more about having hefty bank accounts offshore somewhere in Europe or elsewhere than committing themselves to the development of their respective nations.

In most cases, we have flamboyant government systems, whereby leaders are always struggling to make good image of their offices while in actual fact they are not doing anything.

There are too many promises that are never fulfilled. I take my time to think where our country is being taken to. What is the mission and what is the vision of our government? No one seems to be sure of what will happen tomorrow.

We do not have leaders who can come up with original policies or plans that can assure us of enough bread, better education, better health care and, above all, control the skyrocketing food prices.

Our leaders are thinking like parrots without worrying of tomorrow. What they know is to empty government coffers and natural resources for their own benefit.

Another thing they know is to walk with begging bowls to our ’uncles and aunts’ in Europe, America and Scandinavian countries and cry for assistance which, in most cases, eventually ends up in the pockets of corrupt politicians and technocrats.

Mwalimu Julius Nyerere’s legacy teaches us that true leaders do not take advantage of their offices to rake in benefits at the expense of those they lead.

Service to the struggle, before and after the attainment of independence required revolutionary honesty.

I don’t know where most of our current leaders were by the time Nyerere was leading this country. Maybe they were out of the country or perhaps they were too young to understand what was happening.

Maybe they were in Tanzania; but have lately decided to stiffen their necks so that they can swindle all public money and bank it in their offshore bank accounts.

During his reign and after, Nyerere displayed consuming love for his people in pursuit of freedom. It was such service and sacrifice that made him the leader most feared by the corrupt.

What made his enemies fear and respect him was the revolutionary morality, which formed his personal conduct and political leadership. To him, a revolution required discipline and order.

His were profound contributions and sacrifices that surpassed those of most people who have received presidential and other prestigious awards and foreign big posts in international institutes.

Now it is high time our leaders knew what we need to get out of the mess and abject poverty as fast as possible as we have been crawling for long while our colleagues were running.

We need to stand on our own feet and not on the goodwill of the West, Asia or Scandinavia. With such vast gold reserves and other natural resources, we don´t have to die begging from those who are not even our distant cousins or aunts.

Contact me: smkina@gmail.com

From: ThisDay Newspaper.