WHY WE SAY TUNDU LISSU SHOULD NOT RUN IN 2025 PRESIDENTIAL RACE.
We know once bitten by the presidential bug almost impossible to retract your ambition.
We say you stand a better chance to reclaim your parliamentary seat than gunning down for the presidency in 2025 elections.
The parliamentary seat will give you a national platform you need to prepare yourself for 2030 presidential elections where CCM is at its weakest point because of introducing an unattractive presidential candidate, internal infighting and squabbling for the flag bearer where losers and winners fail to accept their obvious fate. But attempting to wrestle the presidency now when CCM is extremely strong because there is no contested rivalry but stability embellish sway will lead to another yet very much anticipated loss. Then you will be in political wilderness deprived of national limelight and the visibility necessary to groom potential voters to help you in 2030.
So show us you are a full-blown consummate strategist by swallowing your pride and eating a humble pie.
Let your boss burn out with running for the hot seat where he will miserably flounder, paving a much credible path to you in 2030. We know he has been nursing presidential ambitions of his own from 2005 when he took the first bite and has been gravitating towards getting a second and final one. It narrates as to why he changed the CDM constitution to permit himself to continue bagging the chairmanship slot without being encumbered by constitutional term limits. Our collective memory is still fresh with what he did in promoting his 2020 presidential candidacy from sponsoring elders from his Hai constituency to travel all the way to his palatial home in Dar where he accepted the request and made one damning ground he should be the one most qualified to seek the presidency on CDM ticket. This is what he had said at that time, and here we loosely quote him:-
"Kwanza kabisa, Mwenyekiti wa Taifa wa CDM ndiye mwenye sifa za kugombea uraisi kuliko wagombea wengine wote maana ndiye kakishika chama....(he clenched his right hand into a fist, emphasizing his distorted beliefs)." End of quotation.
For reasons enunciated beforehand, CCM always vulnerable when their presidential candidate is seeking the first term, not the last one. During the rummaging of a second and final term, CCM is very much united behind their chairperson as Bernard Membe can testify after being booted out of his party following his failed attempt to challenge the incumbent. So you need to factor in your boss untamed ambition, CCM's acme and nadir, and what the future potentially is in store for you before you take the plunge to the abyss.
But if you run in 2025 and get defeated, your political stakes will dwindle into the unforgettable oblivion.
In 2030, the argument will be, why give you another chance after you have failed twice?
They will say we need a fresh, attractive candidate than you.
In fact, CDM will do better if they forget the presidency in 2025 and focus on local governmental and parliamentary elections. Not running in 2025 presidential race will place CCM in a moral quandary because rigging the opposition after this sacrifice will not be accepted by the electorate. The ball will be in their court to ensure free and fair elections. With a sizeable say in local governments and the Parliament after the forthcoming elections, will daub CDM with the aura of inevitability, invisibility, and entitlements ensuring the once unattainable presidential ceiling very much melted beyond recognition! The 2030 elections could be the CDM hour of reckoning, and in politics, such openings come rarely and disappear faster than a bubble of steam as Augustine Mrema presidential bid of 1995 comprehensively testified.
The 2025 presidency is a done deal and pretty much stitched up in the immaculate hands of the incumbent, so why squander feeble resources and jeopardize your chances of having an impact in lower elections, and deploy that as the 2030 presidential launchpad?
If you run now you will join Raila Amolo Odinga, in a growing list of perennial African presidential losers, who is about to accept the presidential stakes were never the portion of his life but really that conclusion was never the case since his matter was opened and closed by being a pathetic political strategist.
