We have always been long on applauding both the effort and intent but short in appraising the effectiveness of drastic measures declared and vigorously pursued by our post colonial administrations.
Nyerere was lauded for Azimio la Arusha but he later admitted the policy tools and directions were faulty, and economic decimation was all too much of an eyesore to all of us. The legacy of Nyerere administration will always be soiled by sheer levels of economic mismanagements despite genuine efforts to address causes and effects of our underdevelopment.
Mwinyi administration was accorded a red carpet reverence for the frantic effort to undo "Nyerereism" via the antithesis of the Zanzibar declaration but we all know better the indigenization of our economy took a back seat as the economy was placed in grubby hands of aliens.
Mkapa administration cemented official graft while its successive administration of Jakaya Kikwete approved it in all its pernicious forms.
Then comes Magufuli administration while a couple of weeks in office seems lacking ideas of how to reform the government, and has so far been generating plenty of heat but very little substance.
Sweeteners may taste good on mouth but in the stomach are likely to foment gastric juice notorious for corroding the intestines. What this nation needs is reforms on good governance where accountability has been sacrificed at the altar of nepotism and sycophancy.
We need to restore pre-independence accountability if we are to reach where a president has no business to snatch duties and responsibilities of his juniors but to oversee them.
For start, he needs to acknowledge NEC ought to be fully investigated by an impartial commission how it conducted this election despite its numerous vain claims that the election was free, fair and transparent. We need a legislation to empower that commission but we also need the same commission to investigate thoroughly how this very partisan police interfered with the electoral process. We cannot face another election where UKAWA are adamant they were shortchanged and we have a president who may or may not be a squatter at our IKULU pretending to bribe us with "peremende" and expect for a different result.
On government splurge, we need concrete policies and pieces of legislation like capping staff emoluments based on a ratio of recurrent expenditure. What I have seen; so far, is a battle of nomenclatures which past administrations fought with equal zeal but lost because they never identified policy tools to do it.
