Jenerali na muonekano wa Mwalimu Nyerere katika kipindi hiki

[Zak Malang]

Nakubaliana na Jenerali kwamba Mwalimu Nyerere anaonekana shujaa kipindi hiki kutokana na uozo wa viongozi wetu wa sasa. Vinginevyo Mwalimu naye alikuwa na 'madhambi' yake. Kubwa la kujiuliza ni kwa nini katika kundi hili la viongozi hatokei hata mmoja wa kuendeleza aliyosimamia (siyo ujamaa) yaani uadilifu na kutopenda anasa?:



Why does that old tyrant Nyerere look so good today? Well, just

By JENERALI ULIMWENGU

The third Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Intellectual Festival took place at the University of Dar es Salaam this past week, and saw the participation of many eager people, young and old, from the region and beyond, all drawn to the the ever growing image and stature of a man who died a dozen years ago.

The question many people were asking at this festival was: How is it that Nyerere, so long after his death, still exercises such influence on young people?

What is the mystique about the man that still keeps people, even those who never knew him, in a form of intellectual thrall?

Answers to these questions cannot be easy, for Mwalimu was many things to many people.

Some will remember him as the nationalist leader who led his country on a peaceful, bloodless campaign for Independence, thus avoiding the bloodbath that other movements had been prone to.

This has been seen in some quarters as evidence of wise leadership, careful stewardship and maturity in negotiating skills.

However, Nyerere’s subsequent leadership of Tanganyika, and later Tanzania, with the socialist policies laid down in the Arusha Declaration, has had as many detractors as it has had admirers.

There are those who considered Nyerere’s policies doomed to failure because they ignored the basic tenets of human nature — that is, that man is selfish and that he can be motivated to work only when he is working for himself, and further that collective work cannot be productive because of what is called “the tragedy of the commons” — what belongs to all belongs to no one.

Even at an event that is dedicated to a certain level of reverence for the man, it was not easy to avoid the perennial issues attaching to the authoritarianism of many African leaders of the Independence generation and their failure to translate national Independence into their peoples’ freedom(s).

While our leaders resisted oppression as practised by the colonial regimes, observed a young participant in the festival, they brooked no opposition or criticism from their own people, a charge Nyerere could not be said to be above.

So, once again, what is this mystique about Nyerere?

I honestly don’t know, but I can only guess that the reason resides in the immortality, not of the man, but of some of the ideals he stood and fought for: The freedom and equality of peoples. Human dignity. Social justice. Integrity and ethical leadership.

In plain English, Nyerere believed, preached and practised, to the best of his ability, the philosophy that human beings need to be treated as deserving equal rights without regard for their birth or background, tribe or creed, that leaders do not own people or nations, that thieves should go to jail and not to Government House — the simple things that should be taken for granted but are alien to our rulers today.

It is because of these attributes of Julius Nyerere, which are so conspicuously absent in our present rulers, that the man’s lustre refuses to go away, and young men and women flock to him posthumously.

It speaks to the absence of an heir, a leader who would have emerged from the current crop of leaders to take over the mantle of Nyerere or Nkrumah. We are bereft of leadership at a time when we sorely need to be led.

We have had the misfortune of allowing self-serving midgets, thieves and brigands without the vaguest vision of where they want to take our nations and peoples, to take over our lives and decide our destiny.

We have hypothecated the essence of our very being to agents of the old imperial powers that are now staging a comeback in ways that are not even surreptitious enough to call clever.

Still, when I listened to these young people from Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Namibia, and watched them as they mingled with the veterans of struggle, led by Mzee Martin Shikuku and Prof Bereket Selassie, I said to myself, nil desperandun, do not despair, there is hope yet. Perhaps.



* Jenerali Ulimwengu, chairman of the board of Raia Mwema newspaper, is a political commentator and civil society activist based in Dar es Salaam.

Chanzo: The East African

 

[Zak Malang]

Nimesoma makala hii na ni kitu kingine cha msimamo kutoka kwa Jenerali. Kwa upande wangu mwaka 1995 nilimtegemea sana JK kumrithi Mwalimu, kwa hivyo nilijifungia chumbani na kulia peke yangu pale Nyerere alipoonekana kuingilia mchakato wa uteuzi na kumpa Mkapa badala ya JK.

Kipindi chote cha Mkapa bado nilikuwa na matarajio ya JK kufanya maajabu akiingia madarakani, lakini ilipofika mchakato wa uteuzi wa CCM mwaka 2005 nilianza kushtuka, pale habari za mafisadi zilipoanza kuvuja kwamba ndiyo haswa wanataka kumuingiza Ikulu! na hasa pale mawakala wa hao mafisadi walipoanza kuwachafulia wagombea wengine.

Hata hivyo nilimpa benefit of the doubt -- lakini kuanzia Richmond ilipozuka miezi sita tu baada ya kuapishwa kwake, basi JK alinichomoka ile mbaya -- na hajarudi kwangu hadi leo.

Ni kweli mtu kama Mwalimu hamna katika kundi la viongozi ktk CCM sasa hivi -- lakini watu wa aina hii huwa ni commodity adimu sana hapa duniani. Watu kama hawa -- Kwame Nkrumah, Thomas Sankara, Mahatma Gandhi, Mahathir Mohammad, Murtallah Muhammed, Nelson Mandela, Lula da Silva huwa wanakuja duniani kwa miujiza tu, naweza nikasema.

 

[Gosbertgoodluck]

Ni mtu mwenye ufinyu wa mawazo anayeweza kubeza mchango wa Mwl. Nyerere katika taifa hili. Ni upuuzi kudhani kuwa watu wanamsifu Mwalimu eti kwa sababu viongozi wa sasa ni wabovu. Mwalimu alikuwa ni msomi, mchambuzi wa mambo na zaidi sana 'mzalendo' asiyetiliwa shaka. Nimegundua kuwa wanaombeza wakati mwingine wanaongozwa na fikra za kidini zaidi na watanzania hatuna budi kuwa kuwapuuza.

 

[GJ Mwanakatwe]

Hata ujamaa unapaswa kutetewa, kwa kuwa chini ya ujamaa watz walikuwa na maisha mazuri ya kuridhisha kuliko sasa, waliweza kutibiwa , kusoma na walikuwa na viongozi bora kinyume na sasa. Ujamaa hina maana kwamba unazuia vitu kama tv,simu za mkononi nk kama watu wengi wanavyozani la hasha. Nyerere alikuwa na makosa yake kama binadamu , lakini hapaswi kulaumiwa kwa kosa lolote alilofanya kwa kuwa hakufanya makosa hayo kwa nia ya kujinufaisha yeye la hasha, bali kwa nia ya kuwanufaisha watz kwa ujumla, tofauti na sasa viongozi wanafanya makosa ya wazi kabisa kwa makusudi kwa nia ya kujinufaisha kama vile kuingiza nchi katika mikataba mibovu nk.Kwa mfano tunaposema tunavutia wawekezaji waje wawekeze nchini ,roho yangu inauma kwa kuwa siyo kuwekeza bali ni waje wavune shamba la bibi.Kila siku inaripotiwa jinsi wawekezaji wa migodini wanavyotuibia dhahabu kwa kusafirisha mchanga toka migodini kwenda kwao kupembua dhahabu ,ni hatua gani zimechukuliwa kuzuia hilo? katika msingi huo hao wawekezaji wa nini? bora tuendelee kubaki na madini yetu ardhini kwa vizazi vijavyo kuliko upuuzi huo wa kusema uwekezaji.

 

[PakaJimmy]

Jenerali alikuwepo enzi za Nyerere!... na si mtu wa kusimuliwa uwezo aliokuwa nao Nyerere!
Nashangaa yeye kutamka maneno kama hayo kumhusu Mwalimu!...Itachukua muda mrefu sana kwa dunia kumpata mtu mwenye bongo ya aina ya Nyerere!..kwahiyo kuwalaumu hawa wa sasa ni kuwaonea tu, maana hata watakaokuja 2030 hawatagusa anga za Nyerere!