`Leadership failing Nyerere`s legacy`

By The guardian team
14th October 2009
Many dissatisfied by level of public accountability
Founding Father, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere.


As the nation marks the tenth anniversary of the death of the Founding Father, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere today, Tanzanians have expressed mixed feelings about the level of accountability among public officials.
Both academicians and politicians described Nyerere as an exemplary leader with qualities that most leaders holding public offices lack.
Prof Issa Shivji, who lectured at the University of Dar es Salaam and is now heading the Mwalimu Nyerere Professorial Chair in Pan-African Studies, said Mwalimu was a strong personality who believed in leadership principles, a quality not found in most leaders of our time.
The don was speaking at a special forum organised at the Diamond Jubilee Hall in Dar es Salaam ahead of the Nyerere Day today, to revisit Mwalimu's legacy.
He said until his last days, Mwalimu was a great believer of socialist policies and openly opposed the capitalist mode as it did not provide for the poor, who constitute the majority in the country.
Shivji said one of the most pressing challenges that the present leaders are facing, especially in developing countries, is exercising leadership in systems which enrich a few at the expense of the majority poor.
According to him, the capitalist system has promoted corruption and brought problems to the ordinary people and no solutions to the poor majority, mostly residing in rural areas.
“Mwalimu Nyerere fought against the capitalist system, because he knew that it promotes classes of the haves and the have-nots; classes of those who are suffering and those who are enjoying the national cake,” said Shivji.
“People now have no humanity at all, they think of how to generate and accumulate wealth - a tendency that Mwalimu didn’t allow or entertain during his leadership,” he added.
He, however, said the world was now tired of capitalism, a system which he blamed for fuelling corruption all over the world, and that some big nations were now thinking of adopting some socialist values.
Speaking at the same occasion, State Minister in the President’s Office (Public Service Management) Hawa Ghasia said Mwalimu was an example of good leaders who adhered to leadership ethics.
She said all leaders were trying to compare themselves with Mwalimu, a clear sign that for many he was an exemplary leader.
NCCR-Mageuzi national chairman, James Mbatia, said in his open letter to the public yesterday that his party would remember Mwalimu for being a champion of educating the public practically on matters of human dignity.
“This is shown in his life. Mwalimu Nyerere as a father of a family; in his profession as a teacher, in his socialist politics and in his leadership as the chairman of a political party, and particularly in his position as the first President of Tanzania,” Mbatia said.
He added: “For him, human dignity was a fundamental right given by God; it was the responsibility of the government to protect this right and it was a must for the society to develop it.”
Mbatia said “Nyerere taught us that God is one; Tanzania is one, and Tanzanians are one. He also reminded us that our National Anthem starts with the word God.”
The NCCR-Magaeuzi chairman said Nyerere insisted on national unity particularly by using one language, Kiswahili and the word Brethren (Ndugu).
“He believed and showed practically that the presence of classes in the community was against humanity,” he said.
Nyerere Day is marked annually on October 14 – the day Mwalimu died at a London hospital. He was born on April 13, 1922 at Butiama village in Mara Region and served as the first President of Tanzania, previously Tanganyika, from the country's independence in 1961 until his retirement in 1985.
Nyerere, son to Zanaki chief Nyerere Burito (1860-1942), is known by the Swahili name Mwalimu or 'teacher', which was his profession prior to politics.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
REF: http://www.ippmedia.com/

14th October 2009