FORMER LEADERS’ BENCH WITH DAILY NEWS: Kind of ‘Katiba’ Tanzania needs

• Mongella says the current is quite responsive constitution but…
• It’s vital the country takes another look at the document

VETERAN politician Gertrude Mongella has praised the existing Constitution of Tanzania for laying down a solid foundation in the daily operationalisation of the country, while insisting that changes were crucial to match with the present times.

Mama Mongella disclosed this when the ‘Daily News’ sought an audience with the veteran politician, diplomat and gender activist to get details of her unmatched leadership experience, untold stories, what she sees and what she would love to see attained by the country.

The politician keenly noted that Tanzania was among privileged countries, giving accolades to its fore-leaders who did a very wonderful job of writing a quite responsive Constitution, which in one way or the other tried to address a wide range of issues.

Unlike many of the African countries, she said Tanzania enjoys a long-established political culture of transition of power, which has been clearly stated in its constitution, citing an example of the death of the country’s former President the late Dr John Magufuli, which saw President Samia Suluhu Hassan smoothly stepping into power.

According to her, although Tanzania had never experienced the death of a reigning president, the country’s Constitution has explicitly put forth entire formality in such tragic moments without leaving room for any loopholes, which might result in unprecedented situations.

The constitution clearly describes that when a president dies while in office, the Vice-President would take over and finish the late president’s remaining term. Tanzania comprises the Union between the mainland (formerly known as Tanganyika) and Zanzibar Island. The Constitution further states that if the president comes from the Tanzanian mainland, the vice should come from Zanzibar and vice-versa.

Sixty-years plus as a democratic country, she said the country can take a moment and re-look at the Constitution which was written during her youthful days, taking into account critical aspects such as technological advancement and issues relating to environment and climate change.

“As a country, we have come so far and made a lot of progress. It is therefore, vital we take another look at our Constitution…probably what we had believed in our days is no longer applicable in the current globalized world of science and technology,” said Mama Mongella.

In the same vein, as a gender activist the Constitution was long written before the Beijing Conference, which was held in 1995 bringing together around 15,000 people from 185 nations to deliberate issues of gender equality and women empowerment. Such implies that strongly advocated issues and key resolutions of the conference have not been adopted into the existing Constitution.

Mama Mongella was of the opinion that if the Constitution is yet to incorporate the issues, then now it’s the time to re-look at it.

The renowned activist’s views come at a time when President Samia Suluhu Hassan has made outstanding progress in further strengthening the country’s political landscape.

Through the President’s self-crafted 4Rs philosophy (Reconciliation, Resilience, Reform and Rebuild) that her regime has adopted as pillars for socio-economic prosperity and multiparty democracy, a room for different actors to come together, share their concerns and interests, express themselves, and to have the freedom to individually and collectively play various roles in building and shaping the country for the betterment and development the nation and its citizens.

Besides, the strategy has acted as strong pillars for upholding and strengthening multiparty democracy, political stability, peace and unity of the country.

Within the two years of President Samia’s leadership, she has made it a custom to meet with leaders of the various opposition political parties, officiate a conference on reconciliation, justice and peace organised by the Tanzania Centre for Democracy (TCD) and formation of the political reform task force in bringing national reconciliation.

The president’s encounter with political parties’ opposition leaders led to the demand of the New Constitution whose process had begun and stalled at some point.

Early this month, President Samia instructed the Registrar of Political Parties Judge Francis Mutungi, to summon a special meeting for the Political Parties Council to evaluate implementation of recommendations by the Task Force formed to assess political climate and multipartyism in the country, including the process of re-writing the new Constitution.

Mama Mongella said the president is making a step towards the right direction and she deserves popular support from Tanzanians.

She went on to reveal that technological advancement has come with many things including a mushrooming of moral decadence among children and youth in the country spurred by the internet and social media.

As the country heads towards the process of re-writing its constitution, the Politician-cum-activist recommended that the country embarks on scientific methods in acquiring knowledge that would result in a consultative and responsive constitution that will quench thirst of the various groups.

She, equally, advocated for the engagement of traditional leaders and elderly people to give their opinions of how the Constitution should address moral decay in the societies.

She cautioned against the employment of politics as an only mechanism to attract views and opinions as it will only incite people.

Like moral decay, the veteran politician also desired that the new Constitution should address issues of tribalism as among major enemies of development in the country as it was referred to by the Founding Father of the Nation, the late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere.

She recalled Mwalimu Nyerere’s hate for people who embraced tribalism in running affairs of the country.

Recounting a moment when Mwalimu had discovered that he had appointed her and former Agriculture Minister, Prof John Machunda all Ukerewe natives without prior knowledge, Nyerere was somewhat discomforted by the situation but in a real situation, he had appointed them on merits not based on where they had come from.

“The president had appointed both of us on merits and on discovery of our great potentials –one as an expert in agriculture and the other in women matters. This made Mwalimu to exert calmness.

“Mwalimu was very resentful about tribalism that is why he appointed people on merit grounds. The country has to do away with these evils. Currently, the world is also witnessing an array of evils such as sextortion and many others,” stated Mama Mongella.

Doing away with these enemies of development, she said it was imperative for the Constitution to lay legal foundation on the issues and this will help rebuilding of the country.

Commenting on democracy, Mama Mongella said looking at the various local leadership styles; Tanzania can generate its own definition of democracy, citing the case of the leadership styles of the Lake Zone, Southern and Coastal regions during the past times.

She said the feudal systems in the Lake Zone were governed by a chief and his other subordinates on the command chain, stressing that the system had accommodated its own set of principles and guidelines.

She observed that the country should take time to learn and adopt the various leadership styles and there was no the need for Tanzania to indulge into other people’s kind of democracy because there was quite a broad democracy.

The politician pointed out that democracy in the Lake Zone was very firm. Leadership role of women was well addressed and categorised into age groups, citing the role of the chief’s spouse was to provide advice. Due to the role, the chief had to take advice from his wife.

She noted that the chief was a very democratic system and the one in charge always welcomed people in his homestead and shared a drink or two, mostly alcohol that was consumed in special calabashes.

The chief’s calabash will always not contain alcohol but rather water. The goal of filling the chief’s calabash with water was to enable him hear all the discussions of the visitors. The mechanism helped the chief to learn all the happenings in the chiefdom.

“There were no armed men but the people kept calm and composed,” she said.

She suggested that the government has to play a critical role of using its experts to research all these kinds of systems, so that the country has to embrace its own clear definition of democracy as per the actual context.

Reminiscing the time when Mwalimu wanted to resign from presidency, Mama Mongella said the matter had accumulated a very intensive discussion in the country with those saying, he should not resign being the majority and a small section, who thought it was time for Mwalimu to get a rest.

Mama Mongella was among the people who said that Mwalimu should go and backed her thoughts with a number of reasons, key of which, include it was time for Mwalimu to live and enjoy an ordinary life with his loved ones after a long time of serving the people.

“At first, many people could not understand me and some people had looked down on my opinion but when Mwalimu intervened, saying both the divide was right, they then understood. Mwalimu had not spent his youthful life like others, something I valued myself,” she said.

She revealed throughout Mwalimu’s life from his youth he served the country, noting that his late Mother had been worried due to the regular travels by road and air on whether his son was going to return home safely.

In his response, Mwalimu said the group that wanted him to stay did so because he was the one appointing them, therefore, they eared of losing their positions.

He had offered a major lesson that people should learn to transit from power while they are still able bodied and alive. Also, he told them that he was glad he would be appointing his leader in a democratic way.

“I was very much relieved by Mwalimu’s response because now I was not seen as an outcast,” stated Mama Mongella with a sigh of relief.

Trying to remember a moment that she will never forget during her time of service, the veteran politician said there were many encounters she would not forget but the most striking one is the foundation which had been laid that leaders should be accountable for their positions. A person may be in position today and tomorrow is forced out.

She said they had a five-consecutive-day closed democratic meeting, giving opportunity to all the people present to give their opinions to oust Aboud Jumbe from the position of former President of Zanzibar.

“It was a very critical discussion but everyone had tabled their views until reaching a consensus…and he stepped down,” she said.