BY FLORIAN KAIJAGE.
Tanzania’s prospects for becoming a prosperous nation cannot be attained unless the country revives the values and principles of the Arusha Declaration, and lay particular emphasis on adherence to leadership ethics and promotion of human equality.
This is the view of a distinguished academician, Professor Issa Shivji.
It was one of the highlights of a presentation he made when addressing a symposium held at the University of Dar es Salaam yesterday.
He told the audience at the Nkrumah Hall that the Declaration remained relevant to-date, noting that social evils like corruption were by-products of undermining and ignoring the important 1967 policy document that served as Tanzania’s political, social and economic compass.
The focus of the Declaration, promulgated during the reign of Founding-President Julius Nyerere, was, among other things, to ensure that party and government officials abided by a strict set of ethics.
It was forbidden for them to cultivate and perpetrate wealth accumulation tendencies, Professor Shivji, acknowledged at home and abroad as an eminent intellectual, reminded listeners at the symposium which was also televised live.
It was also taboo, he recalled, for the officials to hold shares or directorships in private companies, to receive two or more salaries, and own houses for rent.
Said the don: “ Leaders are essentially servants of the people, and are enjoined to discharge that role diligently; what’s more, they shouldn’t be distinguished from the people they lead in terms of wealth and practices. This is what the Arusha Declaration meant.”
Professor Shivji stressed that the Declaration’s values were still relevant to the current society and the prevailing political, social economic dynamics.
He told the audience at the symposium held under the auspices of the Sauti ya Vijana Tanzania ( a youth outfit): “Let me remind you that the Arusha Declaration was not made defunct overnight after the Zanzibar Declaration was passed, there were underground efforts to devalue the first declaration right from the early 1980s.”
Shivji revealed that one of the documents prepared by Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) during the mono party era in 1981 raised alarm over increased capitalist influence to override the Ujamaa (Socialism) policy; which meant the sidelining of the Arusha Declaration.
He said one of the negative effects of that trend was the emergence of a constituency of government officials who enriched themselves and didn’t bother about the hardships wananchi suffered through increases in the prices of basic commodities like rice, maize flour, cooking oil and fuel since their own incomes could easily cushion the impact.
Professor Shivji concluded that it was important to include all Arusha Declaration values into the envisaged new national constitution, which would be geared at benefiting the entire society. According to the schedule the new national constitution has to be in place by April 2014 during the commemoration of 50 years of the Tanganyika and Zanzibar Union.
Ibrahim Kaduma, a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Dar es Salaam, said it was prudent for leadership ethics to be placed on the national agenda.
“Leaders should be responsible for their acts and their subordinates and when necessary, they should resign voluntarily as happened when, as Home Affairs Minister in the mid-1970s, he resigned as a gesture of accountability over the deaths of inmates in prison in Shinyanga,” he said.
A recent university graduate, Steven Owawa lamented that whereas the Arusha Declaration emphasised on work as the basis of earning income legitimately, Tanzanians have turned theft and embezzlement into income-earning tools.
Credit to: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY - 2011.
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