Tanzanians undecided on nation’s path: Warioba

Dar es Salaam. Former Prime Minister Joseph Warioba has pointed out that Tanzanians are yet to decide on the kind of nation they want to build.

Mr Warioba, who spoke on the sidelines of the 50th commemoration of the Arusha Declaration on Friday evening, said that the indecisiveness is caused by the fact that the nation is yet to have citizenry which believes that all human beings are equal, who hate such vices as corruption and injustice.

“These are our major problems and we must find their remedies,” said Mr Warioba adding that “the nation currently is seeing the principles founded by Julius Nyerere unimplemented and ignored.”

The fifth commemoration of the Arusha declaration, organized annually by the Nyerere Resource Centre, took place on Friday at the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (Cosctech) hall.

The commemoration, under the theme “Tukate Mirija ya Unyonyaji” for “Let’s End the Means of Exploitation”, drew attendance from the government, non-governmental organisations, academicians, politicians and members of the general public.

Dk Hassy Kitine, the ex-director general of the Tanzania Intelligence and Security Service (Tiss), said that the unrealisation of the laid foundations was due to the fact that people often misconstrue the Arusha Declaration, which according to him no longer exist, by treating it as a Mwalimu Nyerere personal agenda.

“When we speak about the declaration, the emphasis is mainly put on discussing only Mwalimu Nyerere, but it was not his declaration alone. It was for the farmers’ first and workers’. It was the Tanzanians’. There’s a complete misunderstanding.”

Prof Chris Maina Peter, the chair of the Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa Advisory Board, said that when discussing the Arusha Declaration there’s also a need to look at the issue of the Union to see how it was during the time of the declaration.