Mr Mbowe, this is what is ailing Tanzania

Mr Mbowe, my heartfelt commiserations for your several months of incarceration. Many watchers of the case can attest to how mind-boggling it all was. Being associated with terrorism is the most serious charge possible. It will certainly go down in the annals of Tanzanian history.

Moving to your release. On the immediate Sunday after you made a visit to church for a thanksgiving where you recounted several things. One of them particularly resonated with me. This was on the books you received from amongst the hordes of visitors in prison.

As a self-confessed lover of books, I became rather curious. I thought it beneficial at this juncture to revisit the story of a man who was a political prisoner in 1990 in neighbouring Kenya. This was the time indeed of African strongmen where being detained was a virtual death sentence. The man I’m talking about is the late Honourable Kenneth Njindo Matiba.

On the African continent he was and remains my till this day my topmost idol. Following Matiba’s political imprisonment for simply advocating for the restoration of political pluralism in Kenya, it was revealed in his autobiography, Aiming High, that his wife Edith had “carefully read up on the rights of detainees, by international convention to which Kenya was a party, and that they had to have access to radio, to news, to personal clothes, sports equipment and so on.”

He goes on: “I was allowed to receive certain books from my wife but others were rejected by the prison authorities. Those rejected included the biography of Lee Iacocco, a man who was urged to run for the American presidency and had been fired by Henry Ford from his automobile industry. I imagine that the authorities felt such a book would give me courage and inspiration when they wished to see me broken.” Upon the revelation of the books you received, I naturally cogitated which type they were and if the Tanzanian prison authorities had no concerns at all about the material reaching you as was the case with Matiba. If they didn’t, it means they either couldn’t care less about the books or that they are so pleasantly advanced in their understanding of politics. This is an important statement in itself.

Something else that stirred my mind Mr Mbowe relates to the art of writing. There is a trail of leaders who when imprisoned devoted their time to putting their thoughts on paper. In Tanzania, I believe your former parliamentary colleague in Chadema, Joseph ‘Sugu’ Mbilinyi, did begin to compile something during his short spell in jail.

At another level altogether, the infamous Adolph Hitler wrote an abridged version of Mein Kampf, within the prison walls. So did Matiba start his autobiography minus the sensitive issues of the day for fear the prison officials wouldn’t allow the family to leave with them on their visits.

I do recall once upon a time Mr Mbowe that you were quite the writer. As a freshman MP, your writings invigorated me and if you recall I did even send you an email all the way from the UK back then. It is very unfortunate that the writing bug mysteriously escaped from you otherwise your time in Ukonga was adequate enough to have published some form of a book with a title along the lines of Mkapa’s “My Purpose, My Life”.

And as it were the prison chaps were apparently nonchalant on the books coming your way.

Now turning to your State House visit that doubtless came as a surprise when the citizenry was busy trying to digest the circumstances of your release. It’s fair to say it was all a political whirlwind.

From the outset I should make clear that I hold a sceptic view on visits to State House by political leaders. Tanzania’s challenges are in all sincerity far from complex. Going down the route of mentioning Mandela and the negotiations that took place in South Africa is so misplaced. I honestly advise you get a hold of a book by the South Africans Mac Maharaj and Z. Pallo Jordan that is titled Breakthrough.

What Tanzania in a nutshell needs are the basics to be given priority. On this there is no need to beat around the bush until there is no bush to beat. Tragically, memories in Tanzania often tend to be so short that problems can appear to be fresh when they are of a long-standing nature. Consistency must be the name of the game.

It is incredulous how for instance, back in November 2014, you Mr Mbowe were amongst several opposition leaders involved in talks in Dodoma with President Kikwete, under the aegis of the Tanzania Centre for Democracy led by John Cheyo of UDP. This was following the stalemate in the Constituent Assembly that resulted in most of the opposition walking out. The outcome of the talks was that in the lead-up to the 2015 general elections, four areas were agreed upon to be dealt with. These were an independent electoral commission, independent candidates, the provision for presidential results to be challenged in court as well as the requirement that a presidential winner must have attained 50+1 rather than the simple first-past-the-post.

Sadly, it appears that in the mood music of the general elections, the main opposition cast aside these agreements and believed victory was assured. The four areas agreed with Kikwete were very sufficient to give Tanzanians adequate breathing space. Aren’t we also told that the president’s word is law, so how does what was agreed with Kikwete be consigned to the dustbin? Something is seriously amiss from the opposition side.

I can go on and highlight a few other instances that confirm the acute problem of inconsistency.

The first relates to the stalemate over the aforementioned constitutional review process and how you threatened to do whatever in your power to paralyse the continuation of the CA. Shortly after it was announced that you had left the country for South Africa and that was it.

On another occasion during the Magufuli presidency, you coined something called Ukuta, which was to culminate in direct action by Tanzanians to oppose the creeping Magufuli dictatorship as you put it. At the eleventh hour minute you pulled back after some religious intervention but nothing was ever heard about it again despite the deteriorating situation for all to see.

Then when your youth chairman threatened to lead party foot soldiers to halt the CCM Congress taking place out of what was plain double standards from CCM, you threw a spanner in the works. The next thing the youth leader was on the CCM side and today is a deputy minister. The bottom line is that there are serious shortcomings of leadership that only leave committed people to change dejected.

Finally, I should say that while you were at Ukonga, Mr Mbowe, it is perturbing that we never heard once of a serious meeting of the highest organ of your party. Things were at a complete standstill. From the look of things, you are the be-all and end-all. You are now nearing 20 years on the throne whereas your two predecessors did 5 years only. What do you say to this?