Defiant Lukuvi admits making controversial remarks

Dodoma. “I am not a hypocrite.” These were the words of Mr William Lukuvi yesterday as he clarified his controversial statements which are threatening to tear the Constituent Assembly (CA) apart.

Members of the Coalition of Defenders of the People’s Constitution (Ukawa) on Wednesday walked out of the Assembly chambers, charging that the CA was promoting segregation and insults instead of enhancing unity and harmony.

Prof Ibrahim Lipumba, who is one of the three principal leaders of Ukawa, led grouping’s and its sympathisers out of the Assembly who had been convinced by his arguments.

The visibly emotive Prof Lipumba told the CA: “We have had enough insults in this Assembly; the process has so far failed to meet expectations of Tanzanians and we are not ready to be party to it.”

Prof Lipumba also charged that the minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (Policy, Coordination and Parliament), Mr William Lukuvi, had embarked on a campaign from a church where he called on wananchi to reject the second Draft Constitution proposed by the CRC in order to ensure that the military did not take over the control of the government for failure to pay soldiers’ salaries.

Yesterday Mr Lukuvi categorically admitted what The Citizen’s sister newspaper -- Mwananchi -- reported on Monday, April 14, and went on to link CUF with the controversial Zanzibar-based Islamic group Uamsho.

“I take this opportunity to confirm what I said,” he said.

Mr Lukuvi explained that his statements were based on his own personal fear, which was also gripping many Tanzanians, of Uamsho being a political wing of CUF, the main opposition party in Zanzibar.

He claimed that CUF had of late teamed up with Chadema in an agreement to break the Union so that the former could take over the Zanzibar government and the latter the Tanganyika one.

With the three-tier Union model, he said he believed the federal government would lack sufficient funds to man state organs, including armed forces.

He accused the Zanzibar First Vice President, Mr seif Sharif Hamad, of misquoting President Jakaya Kikwete’s speech when addressing a rally at Kibanda Maiti recently.

Mr Hamad, according to him, said the President had made threats when inaugurating the CA that he would direct the Chief of Armed Forces to take over the government once the assembly approved the three-tier Union model.

“No one can gag me…I will tell the truth,” said Mr Lukuvi, stressing that what Mr Hamad said was not expected to come from a leader of his calibre.

“President Kikwete will not go to The Hague as he threatened, instead it’s Mr Hamad who will be taken to the International Criminal Court for operating the Uamsho movement,” he said.

Mr Lukuvi further confessed that he feared Tanganyika and Zanzibar would be like North and South Korea, which were once one country but are currently big enemies, if the three-tier model is adopted.

He said Ukawa’s complaints over Zanzibar’s claim to be a country with its own flag, an anthem, and gun salute, constituted immaterial arguments.

“Because you have failed to convince us on how the government can be effectively run under the three-tier model, we have the right not to accept it.

Meanwhile, Prof Ibrahim Lipumba told journalists yesterday that Mr Lukuvi’s latest statements fuelled religious sentiments.

“First of all he (Lukuvi) broke the Standing Orders which required him to speak only for 10 minutes, but since it is now a one-sided assembly the chairperson allowed him to speak for over twenty minutes. He didn’t refute Mwananchi’s report but instead he cemented his negative views in favour of his party’s two-government stand,” he said.

Prof Lipumba also dissociated his party CUF with Zanzibar’s secessionist group Uamsho, saying Mr Lukuvi deliberately misinformed the country.

“Uamsho was registered as a religious association in Zanzibar before the coming into being of the Government of National Unity where CUF now shares power with CCM. So it was registered by the CCM government…furthermore, Uamsho have on many occasions criticised Maalim Seif and CUF,” he said.