Nyerere ali[oyasema haya September 1, 1990 Tendwa alikuwa mdogo? Mbona kayasahau?
Suppose I was a young man. I would have said that I am resigning. But Im a mature person. I am waiting to go back to Butiama, and that is why I like saying I am moving out. My time has come, and it came long ago, but I extended it for the last five years for reasons known to us all. That is why I am saying I am moving out, rather than saying I am resigning. You can resign and come back next year. But I do not have the intention of coming back next year. I am moving out Julius Nyerere quoted in African Concord (June 15 1990).
And at 3 p.m. on August 17th at an Extraordinary CCM Party National Conference in Dar es Salaam he made it official. In a vintage one and a half hour speech Mwalimu Nyerere ranged over most of the matters exercising the minds of Party members. Brief extracts:
THE ARMY. Three things have helped our nation to maintain the unity and tranquillity which we enjoy at present the Swahili language, the Arusha Declaration and the one- party system. Perhaps I should add a fourth: the patriotic and political army.
THE CCM PARTY. Those who are nowadays called party leaders are not true leaders. They are just people who cause irritation
. had all our leaders had the inclination and habit of helping the citizens we would not be where we are, in a situation so abysmal that the President of our country is forced to solve even minor problems.
ON MULTI-PARTYISM. If one cost of changing from our system of one party democracy and trying a multi-party system is to make our army keep out of politics, this alone seems to me a sufficient reason for continuing with the present system
. When you divorce your wife and then marry another and you discover that your second wife is a disaster (laughter) it is difficult to return to your former wife. If we try multi-party democracy and then fail the likeliest system to ensue thereafter will be a one-man dictatorship or military rule.
ON HIMSELF. I shall cease to be Chairman
at the end of this meeting but I shall not cease to be a member and an active member of CCM.
REACTIONS
Mwalimu Nyereres departure has evoked considerable local and international comment. Here is just a small selection:
PRESIDENT MWINYI said that Tanzanians were most unhappy about his decision but they had received it with respect and honour .. . Mwalimu had bequeathed to him a Tanzania which enjoyed unity, peace and stability; a Tanzania with a good reputation and respect in the world ..
GBENGA AMUSAN in AFRICAN CONCORD wrote that Tanzanians had good reason to call him Mwalimu the teacher who knows how to teach the world glorious, long- lasting lessons in selfless service to humanity irrespective 01 colour, class and creed.
AHMED YAHYA in AFRICA EVENTS: It is in his ideals beyond bread and butter politics, that history will see him to have made his mark. He fired in his people a throbbing faith in the finer nuances of moral goals
. He gave Tanzanians a unique stamp of self-righteous superiority, in a way that no other leader in Africa has. But in being rigidly too true to his beliefs and doctrines, he has been like that other rare creature, the Panda in the wild, not extinct but doing little to avoid that sorry fate.
RICHARD DOWDEN in the INDEPENDENT: Discredited? Downcast? Just a little disillusioned? Julius Nyerere, the man who inspired a generation with a philosophy of bootstrap DIY socialism, flicks away the suggestion of failure as if it were an irritating fly
the charm, the smile, the bursts of laughter, the challenging, ironical way of talking at 68, Mr Nyerere still weaves a spell
he is the most influential African political thinker of his generation .. . (but) his ideas have been tarnished by their implementation under his leadership.