January is plagued by the fact that he entered the parliament in an unconstitutional way. To us constitutional puritans, he is not a legitimate Member of the Tanzanian Parliament.
Having said that, despite his many personal flaws, January at the very least has the flair of engaging in a spirited and informed analysis of the issues as an exposed person, unlike many of our MPs, including the supposed new learned blood. I watched his evolution since at least the days of Youngafrican.com and offline, so I should know the basic things.
His stint at Ikulu was underwhelming, and this must have contributed to his departure. He has an ego half the size of Mount Meru and tends to drink like a future Mkapa. He fancies himself a writer, reads quite a bit, and would not shy away from calling you an elitist if it serves his argument -imagine that-. His reality is stuck with punctuations of a supposed life of hardship that he endured in the past so one can argue he may have a point in disassociating himself from elitism.
His recent move to tie development projects in his constituency directly to the gyrations of world financial markets is bound to backfire and burn his wings as he is flying too high too soon.
He seems to have a good grip on public opinion and express it as his own - sometimes admirably and articulately- on a number of issues, the energy crisis for one, MPs compensation being another.
The most concerning thing about January is his arrogance. Arrogance plus power is deadly. And I am afraid to think what will happen if he is given real power.
