FLY ON THE WALL: Honouring Ruge in life and in death
If there were a sense of national outrage over the comments by one Godfrey Tumaini, aka Dudu Baya, Konki Masta, Oil Chafu, it was misplaced.
Speaking in the wake of the demise of the director of programmes and production of Clouds Media Group, Ruge Mutahaba, the minister for Information, Sports and Culture, Dr Harrison Mwakyembe, stated that it is “not our culture” to speak ill of the dead.
Let’s be serious. In a country made infamous by killings of innocent old men and women, young children and people with albinism under the misguided belief that they have mystical powers to make one rich, we have the temerity to be outraged by one harmless commentator – no matter how vexing his comments are.
In our attempts to maintain the belief that we are some kind of a purist society which had Dudu Baya arrested ostensibly to save him from himself, we could do even better to condemn – and, finally, eliminate – the belief in sorcery as an occult that paves the way to phenomenal wealth.
Ruge’s death has brought to the fore the matter of how we can contribute to effectively tackling the much-talked about time-bomb that is youth employment in Tanzania and elsewhere in much of the world.
Indeed, Dr Mwakyembe kicked off this debate by frankly saying he knew more about Ruge in death than in life. For a person who is in charge of Information, Culture and Sports – areas to which Ruge dedicated his relatively short life – it beggars the question exactly who our leaders consult in conducting their day-to-day official activities.
If we want to truly honour Ruge, we have to be serious in the way we tackle the burgeoning youth unemployment challenges, rather than simply – and seemingly incessantly – talking and complaining about the challenges.
Clouds Media Group managing director Joseph Kusaga said a trust fund would be set up in Ruge’s honour. Fair enough. Indeed, that is how it should be.
But, it seems that the trouble with Tanzania – a matter which Ruge was increasingly at war with – is that the country has for far too long been wallowing in false braggadocio that had reached dizzying heights.
It has been a country whose successive leaderships down the years more often than not say and do things that they do not mean on the ground. This is compounded by the fact that the audiences they routinely address invariably applaud – either because they know no better, or because they are more interested in the high-sounding platitudes than in the more painful prescriptions that would cure their socio-econo-political woes.
In contrast Ruge – whom I first met in 1999 or thereabouts – was a doggedly hardworking character whose mission was finding talented young Tanzanians and working with them to assist them fulfill their ambitions.
In so doing, it would bring benefits to the youth and the institutions he founded and/or worked with, including the Tanzania House of Talent (THT), a radio and TV stations, as well as a recording label.
Naturally enough, the idea of greedily profiting from the talents of others must be frowned upon. Yet that is what the world of identifying developing, promoting and marketing talent is all about.
Today, there are hundreds of thousands of young Tanzanians joining the labour market each year, complete with university degrees that are not for all practical purposes worth the paper they are printed on. Admittedly, this is not a slight on Tanzania, as the same situation prevails across the region, Africa and much of the world.
If we are to honour Ruge in all sincerity, we have to begin telling our youth the truth: that fruitful opportunities exist only for the bravest, the talented, the ones who think outside the box – and are able, willing and ready to push back the barriers.
If nothing else, this means that in their quest to become “somebody in society”, our youth must first find out what they are really good at – and work really hard at it, developing that talent to full bloom. The time for graduating and finding a ready jobs market are over and done with.
The choice is ours, really. Incompetence, malfeasance, misfeasance, nonfeasance and stealing employers’ time and other resources have become an unwanted part of our culture as a nation-state. These must be fought with a will and all might if Tanzania is to realise its National Development Vision-2015 and beyond.
Our Ruge Mutahaba has shown us the way. Let us follow through.
