I DARE YOU: Joseph Butiku challenged the ex-president Mkapa to defend himself against mounting allegations of abuse of office, pointing out that the late Father of the Nation was a firm believer in the principle that State House and presidents should always remain ``beyond suspicion`` as far as leadership ethics and integrity were concerned.
-’Mwalimu would have considered it a terrible thing ...he would certainly have disapproved,’ Butiku.
THISDAY REPORTER .
Dar es Salaam.
A CLOSE personal aide of the late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, Joseph Butiku, has added his voice to a growing public outcry of scathing criticism over former president Benjamin Mkapa’s alleged private business activities conducted while at State House.
Speaking during a live call-in local television talk show on Sunday, Butiku - who was Nyerere’s personal secretary at Ikulu for more than 20 years and is now executive director of the Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation ? said the late founding president and Father of the Nation was very categorical about not mixing the noble work of the presidency with private business undertakings.
And when asked by one caller what he believed Nyerere would have thought of Mkapa’s well-documented actions which appear to have trashed this principle altogether, Butiku replied candidly:
’’Mwalimu would have considered it a terrible thing ...he would certainly have disapproved.’’
’’Mwalimu was very clear and categorical about the importance of (presidents) avoiding the temptation of turning Ikulu into some sort of private shop or business,’’ Butiku further elaborated on the Hamza Kassongo Hour talk show broadcast by Channel Ten.
He said the late founder president strongly believed that State House and incumbent presidents should always remain ’’beyond suspicion’’ as far as leadership ethics and morals were concerned.
’’We have become miserable. He (Mwalimu) wouldn’t have done it (engaged in business) even after he left Ikulu,’’ said Butiku.
THISDAY has already established through a series of exclusive reports that Mkapa, who served as president from 1995 to 2005, started a private company called ANBEM Limited with first lady Mrs Anna Mkapa in 1999, with the official registration documents listing the State House couple as sole directors and describing them as ?entrepreneurs?.
In 2002, while Mkapa was still at State House, ANBEM Limited was granted hefty loans of $500,000 (approx. 620m/-) and 250m/- from the National Bank of Commerce Limited and CRDB Bank respectively. And in 2004, the then president teamed up with senior cabinet minister Daniel Yona to form another private company, TANPOWER Resources, with their close relatives including wives, children and in-laws listed as shareholders.
In mid-2005 ? again with Mkapa still occupying the presidency - TANPOWER Resources bought majority shares in the hitherto state-run Kiwira coal mine, which was then renamed Kiwira Coal and Power Limited and shortly afterwards entered into a huge, $271.8m (approx. 340bn/-) contract with the state-run Tanzania Electric Supply Company Limited (TANESCO) for the supply of 200MW of coal-fired electricity to the national power grid.
Investigations by THISDAY have also established that both Mkapa and Yona, by virtue of their powerful positions in government, were heavily involved in ’fast-tracking’ the Kiwira coal mine privatisation process, prior to TANPOWER Resources buying the majority shares.
Speaking on the TV show last Sunday, Butiku described the actions of a former president and cabinet minister to set up a joint private business arrangement, along with their spouses and children, while still occupying public office as clearly being unethical conduct.
Said Butiku: ’’When you are a president or minister, who would dare refuse to register your (private) company, or even delay it? It is a very serious issue of conflict of interest.’’
He said there was a need for the current government to go back to the drawing board and rewrite the rules of public leadership ethics, noting: ’’Many of our (government) ministers today look overly prosperous, owning shares in various high-flying private companies and educating their children abroad.’’ he noted.
Earlier on Sunday, when speaking at a public forum at the University of Dar es Salaam to mark the eighth anniversary of Nyerere’s death, Butiku threw a challenge to Mkapa to come out and defend himself against the mounting allegations of corruption and abuse of public office he now faces.
Butiku said it was quite baffling to see Mkapa remaining so silent in the face of such serious allegations.
1 comment:
Tanzanians jails should be full of political elites who enrich themselves at the expense of others.
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