Friday, August 21, 2015
I believe earnestly that Tanzania is on a certain and definitive pathway towards a turning and tipping point in its history. It is a momentous stage where a new visionary leadership steps in and a fundamental re-definition of our country's goals and values is undertaken and executed.
Juma Mwapachu
For all that can be said and even celebrated by global peer institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank about our country's ostensibly significant GDP economic performances in these past few years, there can be no hiding from or denying the harsh realities of rural society frustration and agony; of urban social anger; a youth in a state of hopelessness and generally of a broad state of apathy and uncertainty in the Tanzanian populace. In this environment the desire for change emboldens many and has become a common refrain.
Yet, ' turning and turning in the widening gyre the falcon cannot hear the falconer' as so well conjectured in WB Yeats's epic poem, 'The Second Coming'. Tanzanians are in a desperate search for a hearing 'falconer' who can once again rekindle and awaken their aspirations and hopes which Mwalimu Nyerere so powerfully promised to deliver.
They desperately await a more enriching and rewarding life, now and not in any future. They are thus anxiously looking for a 'second coming' of a leader who can lead them to the land of 'milk and honey'. They are looking for a leader, not a good manager; somebody who does the right thing and not one who merely does things right. A leader is a person who gets elected. A manager, in contrast, is always appointed to perform tasks and responsibilities.
Many of us are managers and can acquit ourselves very well in such responsibility. But we are not leaders. The forthcoming Presidential election crucially revolves around our making a critical choice for the this new epoch in our country; a choice between electing a 'manager' and a good one at that and a 'leader'.
What is most interesting about this particular election is that, in as much as we would popularly wish to think that the contest is between the CCM and UKAWA candidates, the reality is different. The contest is between 'leadership' and 'management'.
In my view and a well considered one, Edward Ngoyai Lowassa will provide the much needed leadership that our country desperately requires. John Pombe Magufuli will only, in contrast, give us what he is best at, mere good management.
If we are seriously thinking about 'change' and real change at that for our country, then we have to decide what we want; business as usual but better delivered or a transformative leadership that best understands the challenges of a brave new world with all its unpredictabilities and fast changing social, economic, political and technology changes. It is a moment for serious choice. Choose wisely.
at 01:57 PM
ASANTE MZEE,ITS TIME FOR CHANGE!