Devolved system of government may just be what Tanzania needs

[LEX STEELE]

Tamisemi wameshindwa Vipi??

 

[danimutta]

Guys, this is probably the most informed and timely form of governance we in Tanzania need - DEVOLUTION. You see all this noise and public uncertainty about the Presidency in Tanzania is due to the fact that we have an imperial Presidential system whereby the national destiny begins and ends with the President and his/her appointees. The devolved/strongly decentralized system of governance is about one thing - Power To the PEOPLE in other words true democracy. We do not have to copy and paste Kenya's system because with 47 county governments, it is very expensive and weird. In Tanzania we need between 15 and 20 counties.
Currently our President decides where almost all development projects should go and so decrees at public rallies! That becomes part of CCM manifesto (ilani ya Chama) and government ministers must implement or else. He appoints more than 500 people (MINISTERS; RC;DC;RDD;CEOS;JUDGES; etc). On the other hand Ministers and their bureaucrats based in Dar formulate their development priorities with strong bias towards their constituencies (ahadi kwa wapiga kura wangu). So the nation's development agenda is at the mercy of the President and government bureaucrats based in Dar Es Salaam. What we need is fair and equitable allocation of national resources to all Regions through devolution. People at the grassroots must be allowed to formulate and implement their development and social welfare programs. To start with we must create a formula whereby those Regions which have been left behind in terms of development should get the lion's share of the devolved budget to enable them catch up with those ahead. Mr. Zito amply highlighted the status of very unequal distribution of development in Tanzania by vividly showing that over 70% of people in Kilimanjaro enjoy clean and safe water compared with other Regions some with figures less than 30%! In summary the most important aspect of our new constitution should be about giving more powers to the people at the grassroots - by taking most of these powers from the President; equitable distribution of national resources and strengthening independent institutions for checks and balances and good governance. With the current state of affairs neither the Warioba or "Katiba Inayopendekezwa" are anywhere near the form of constitution which we deserve for sustainable national development, good governance and democracy. It is by so doing that we will no longer depend on the PRESIDENT to fight UFISADI because it is the independent institutions (including the free press) which does that in democratic states.

 

[LEX STEELE]

Kama devolved govt ingekuwepo imagine watu wa mikoa au wilaya mbalimbali wangejipangia mipango Yao ya maendeleo ya namna gani??

 

[simplemind]

It is funny how you are so sure that I did not write the article while in actual sense I did......ralphtz, Raphael-Tanzania, get it?
As for the prominent Zanzibari, i refer you to an article in a recent issue of the Daily News that was headed 'union stalwart samia is CA vice'
And what I've done here is not steal someone else's ideas for any form of publishing purposes or gain so i doubt that this qualifies as plagiarism!

Please, Samia is CCM Zanzibar.Samia is expected to tow party line, she speaks " masters voice" serikali mbili kuelekea moja.Zanzibaris desire is not one ,two or three government system. Zanzibaris desire is maamlaka kamili.

 

[Mama Obama]

As Tanzanians explore structures of government to adopt, I suggest they consider devolution.

Devolution refers to the statutory transfer of powers from the central government of a sovereign state – in this case the Union Government of Tanzania – to governments at a sub-national level – in this case the regions. It differs from federalism in that devolved powers ultimately reside in the central government, thus the state remains, de jure unitary.

Isn’t this the solution to our little problem? It offers us some kind of a midpoint between those who think that we need one government (Unionists) and those who are of the view that we need three (federalists). I subscribe to the view that none of the above will work to quash dissatisfactions fully, and that the latter will lead to the eventual collapse of the Union. As patriots, we should shiver to even entertain such a thought!

Now, imagine a scenario of three tiers of government: The Union government, the regional government and the local government. Each of the 26 regions of the country, counting Zanzibar as one, has its own regional government, consisting of a regional executive committee and a regional assembly.

The governors and the lieutenant governors are the chief executives and deputy chief executives of the regions respectively.

Of course, the Union government still controls the major revenue bases (income tax, Customs, corporate tax, VAT etc), but the regional governments collect some taxes such as property tax and all taxes on beer and gambling.

A given fraction of the union government’s revenues are shared out among the regions according to a given formula that takes various parameters such as population and land area into account.

Powers devolved to the regional governments include regional agriculture, regional education and health services, regional transport, intra-regional trade, regional planning and development, disaster management and emergency services, regional public works, coordination of local governments et cetera.

All powers not assigned to the regions remain as powers of the Union government. Each region has two senators who represent it in the senate, and is divided into a number of constituencies, depending on its population, for representation in the national assembly.

Each region also serves as a single member constituency for the election of women representatives to the national assembly. In accordance with the Union Treaty, should the president hail from one side of the Union (Tanganyika or Zanzibar), then the vice president must come from the other side.

In the above model, for one, the Zanzibaris will enjoy a reasonable amount of autonomy from the Union. They will have an assembly and executive, serving under a “Governor of Zanzibar.”

They will have authority to make and implement decisions that fall within their exclusive jurisdiction. However, they will have to recognise that they are part of a larger state, Tanzania.

Secondly, it guarantees the safety and continuity of our Union by establishing a strong Union government, unlike in the proposed federal structure. It also honours the Union treaty’s provision of having the president and vice president come from different sides of the Union.

Lastly, it brings with it all the advantages of having a devolved government, including more localised representation of political views, more localised spending of resources, promotes democratic and accountable exercise of power, balances economic development in the country, gives powers of self-governance to the people and enhances the participation of the people in national socioeconomic development, protects and promotes the interests and rights of minorities and marginalised communities.

If properly administered, each of our regions could be turned into a self-sufficient economic territory!
Devolved system of govt may just be what Tanzania needs - Letters - www.theeastafrican.co.ke

Devaluation needs displine which for now many of our leaders do not have. Maybe after President MAGUFULI succeed to change the attitude of many Tanzanians on working hard and taking responsibility. For now with corruption attitude, devaluation will make few Tanzanians very wealth like what we are seeing in Kenya and living the rest very poor.

 

[Drifter]

Whoever entertains such notions as "devolved government", "federal state", "majimboism", etc. must have missed the fundamental goal of the architect(s) of the "one-party state rule" evolved into the current "state party" monopoly rule.

Even the merger of TANU and ASP into CCM was not just a wishful ideal but a concrete strategy towards that end. And what that end was? Consolidating all state power into one single political entity under a dictatorship of one person - at a time or clique of the party elites (as you may wish to see).

Whoever thinks that such a knit could be subject to untangling through just logical discourse is living in a dream world.

 

[tpaul]

Kama devolved govt ingekuwepo imagine watu wa mikoa au wilaya mbalimbali wangejipangia mipango Yao ya maendeleo ya namna gani??

Kwani wakenya wao na watu wengine wanaofuata utawala wa namna hiyo wanajipangiaje mipango yao mkuu? Your argument is vague and baseless.

 

[tpaul]

Devaluation needs displine which for now many of our leaders do not have. Maybe after President MAGUFULI succeed to change the attitude of many Tanzanians on working hard and taking responsibility. For now with corruption attitude, devaluation will make few Tanzanians very wealth like what we are seeing in Kenya and living the rest very poor.

You've nailed it mkuu. This is the fact though in Kenya capitalism has hit them hard because they adopted it very early since independence. Therefore, their current situation may not have culminated from the form of government per see but it hailed from the type of political economy they adopted from their colonizers.

 

[Yoda]

Hakika tunahitaji serikali za majimbo kujikwamua kwenye umaskini kwa kasi ya SGR.