In the Papers: The Campaign Gets Personal

The 2010 general election campaign turned nasty on Thursday after Chadema’s presidential candidate Dr. Willibroad Slaa made the unusual decision of attacking one of his opponent’s wife. At a campaign rally in Babati, a small city in Manyara, Dr. Slaa accused President Kikwete’s wife, Salma, of corruption and the misusing of public funds:

The President’s wife is not the President. Mama Salma is going around the country [campaigning for her husband] using government vehicles; she is being received by regional [sic] and district commissioners, and this is against protocol. She is using State House money out of procedures and this is another form of grand corruption…In my trips in this region I have been told that she is moving with a 20-car entourage and each car is worth Sh200 million, fuelled by government money. This is grand corruption.’

Union versus Zanzibar sovereignty: The Guardian is leading with a story today about an apparent deadlock over operating charters for new private universities in Zanzibar due to some ‘legal contradictions’ involving the mainland and the Isles. Zanzibar’ Education and Vocational Training Minister Ali Suleiman explained to the paper his government’s reasoning behind the hold of:,

‘We know that President Kikwete handed over university charters to several universities last month but Zanzibar’s universities were not there to receive theirs because, as far as we are concerned, the President of Zanzibar is the one supposed to present certificates of university charters to Zanzibar universities…It is true the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania states that higher education in the country is a Union matter. However, operating charters for universities based in Zanzibar are supposed to be handed over by the President of Zanzibar,” he said.

Is democracy still alive? The Daily News is reporting that CUF has decided against fielding a parliamentary candidate for the Muleba seat in Kagera and thrown its support to the CCM candidate Prof. Anna Tibaijuka, the former UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of the UN-Habitat. Responding to some critics who have attacked the move as undemocratic, CUF Director of Political Affairs Mr. Mbarala Maharagande said that his party respects people of [such] high profile like Prof. Tibaijuka, regardless of their political affiliation. He went on to say that,

‘Our chairman, Prof. Ibrahim Lipumba, who is vying for the union presidency has refused to field a candidate in this constituency as a sign of respect to Prof. Prof. Tibaijuka. [He] knows her as a serious academic and diplomat…If you will elect Prof. Lipumba as a president, he will make sure that prof. Tibaijuka is in his cabinet. Our chairman has already pledged to form a government of national unity.’

Things that make you go hmmmmm…(UPDATED)

From today’s The Citizen:

A staunch supporter of the Father of the Nation, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, businessman Mustafa Jaffar Sabodo, yesterday contributed Sh100 million to the opposition Chadema “to strengthen democracy in Tanzania”.

Mr Sabodo presented a cheque for the the donation to Chadema chairman Freeman Mbowe, who was accompanied secretary-general Willibrod Slaa and the party’s director of finance, Mr Anthony Komu.

A press statement issued by Chadema yesterday in Dar es Salaam quoted Mr Sabodo as saying that although he was a cadre of the ruling CCM, he wanted liked see that a strong opposition and thriving democracy in the country.

The statement, signed by Chadema director of communications and publicity Erasto Tumbo, said Mr Sabodo termed Chadema as “a serious opposition party”.

The businessman has not hesitated to criticise the CCM government, particularly on good governance issues.

“I am a member of CCM, but I want to see a thriving democracy and growing opposition with a sizeable number of MPs in the National Assembly,” Mr Sabodo said.

Now, as Nathan Chiume pointed out to Zitto Kabwe earlier today on Twitter, while this may help transform the up coming general elections, giving CHADEMA a real opportunity to compete with CCM in close parliamentary seats across the country, it does nothing to curtail the big money influence in our political culture, a real problem in our still infant democracy.

Furthermore, why is a CCM supporter giving money to the opposition, presumably after giving money to CCM as well? Yes, I know that Mr. Sabodo says it’s because he wants to forster democracy etc, but the manner in which he went about it only works to re-inforce a pervasive idea permeating in the public imagination that the political elites are working hard to consolidate power and make sure it remains within an exclusive clique of self-perpetuating and self-serving individuals. A self-described CCM kadre giving considerable sums of money to another political family does nothing to counter-act that perception, if anything it adds fuel to that fire.

And then came the shenanigans of this weekend’s CCM national convention. We were forced to endure, live, on four different TV channels, the extraordinary sight of a former opposition presidential candidate, standing up at his rival’s national party convention and cheering him on, ‘Mrema atia fora mkutano wa CCM’ [Mrema steals the show during CCM’s conference] (Mtanzania Jumapili, 11th July 2010). Also, there attending the meeting was Civic United Front (CUF) Chairman Prof. Ibrahim Lipumba, cozily mingling with delegates. It should be noted that both Mr. Mrema and Mr. Lipumba are former CCM stalwarts, the former was a Home Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister during the Mwinyi administration, the latter was ‘Mzee Rukhsa’s’ Economic Adviser. So it’s no surprise that their presence there felt like a homecoming of sorts.

It does not end there. In Zanzibar, we are about to have a coalition government between CCM and CUF,  no matter the outcome of the election, meaning that, essentially, the notion of an opposition party as we currently understand it, will cease to exist in the Isles.

My worry is, with this new-found entente-cordiale between the major political parties , who then is supposed to hold the government of the day accountable? What credibility amongst the electorate will the opposition have, now that it looks like money is flowing in both directions and from the same people?

It simply makes you go hmmmmmm.

UPDATE: Mr. Mustafa Jaffar Sabodo apparently has a wiki page. This is his entry:

Mustafa Jaffer Sabodo was born in Lindi, Tanzania to Muslim Gujarati Indian immigrants of the Khoja sect. He is an economist, consultant in international debt-finance, philanthropist and a businessman. He has business interests in India, France, Kenya, Sudan and Zimbabwe.

In 2003, he offered to finance the growing of pulse for export to the tune of TZS 100 million.

The Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation National Lottery was the brainchild of Sabodo, who donated TZS 800 million towards a project that established the lottery.

Last Sunday, he published an amendment of his will as an ear piece ad in the Sunday News, ‘Sabodo’s Will’ (Sunday News, 11th June 2010). It is also alleged that Mr. Sabado built the first private statue of Mwalimu Nyerere following the latter’s death and then mysteriously took it down from where it was erected – in the car park of the New World Cinemas. Who is this man that is funding our political parties and what are his motives?

(Photo: Chadema National Chairman Freeman Mbowe (second left), receiving a cheque worth  TSh100 million from a Dar es Salaam businessman Mustafa Jaffar Sabodo. Looking on is Chadema Secretary General Dr Willibrod Slaa. By The Citizen)

Breaking News: It’s an Election Year After All

This is an election year. But for a long time, it really never felt like it.

This is partly due to the fact that the 2010 presidential campaign promises to be a boring affair. I mean everyone, justifiably so, assumes that President Kikwete will be re-nominated by his party, CCM. It is also expected that he will proceed to win another landslide in October. He is unchallenged within his party, which seems to operate under an unspoken rule that says an incumbent ought to be allowed to run unopposed for their second term ‘to allow for the implementation of “any unfinished” business’ they may have.

But also one does not see any credible challenger emerging from the opposition. Civic United Front (CUF) are likely to nominate a man who has lost three elections in a row in Professor Ibrahim Lipumba. That does not inspire much confidence, does it? Chadema, well I am not sure what exactly they are up to. The party’s nominee for the 2005 election, Chairman Freeman Mbowe, has decided to run for parliament this time around. In The Citizen’s Political Platform today (link unavailable), Florence Mugarula writes that it ‘remains unclear so far…whether the party will be fielding a presidential candidate.’ Another former losing candidate, the Tanzania Labour Party’s (TLP) Chairman, Augustine Mrema, has also decided against vying for the presidency this election cycle and instead has chosen to run for the Vunjo parliamentary seat in Arusha. So, with all that in mind, I guess it’s fair to say that come November 1st, Mheshimiwa Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete will still be President of the United Republic of Tanzania.

For me, however, this election year holds particular fascination for what it might reveal about the next one in 2015. That is, which figures will emerge during the campaign, start to distinguish and position themselves as contenders for the next general election. And following Vice President Ali Mohammed Shein’s decision to run for the Zanzibari presidency, everyone is now talking about it. If Mr. Shein wins his party’s nomination, a prospect that appears highly likely as he seems to have the party’s establishment behind him (also my understanding is, he is also CUF’s preferred candidate as they see him to be the man who would consolidate the recent gains made in the ‘Muafaka’ reconciliation process), then Mr. Kikwete would have to select a new running mate. And whomever the President chooses he immediately becomes the front runner and the favorite to win CCM’s presidential nomination five years from now.

Rai Mwema has already begun to speculate on who might succeed Mr. Shein. Last week apparently it was former Finance Minister Zakia Meghji, former Prime Minister and Diplomat Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim and they even threw the retiring Zanzibari president Amani Abeid Karume‘s name into the mix. In this week’s edition, a few other names have been added: former PM Edward Lowassa, Foreign Affairs Minister Bernard Membe, Water and Irrigation Minister Prof. Mark Mwandosya, Home Affairs Minister Lawrence Mwasha, Deputy Minister of Defence Dr. Emmanuel Nchimbi and another former PM Frederick Sumaye (link unavailable). MwanaHalisi are also suggesting something similar on their front page today but they’ve gone further, claiming that President Kikwete actually wants President Karume to succeed him in 2015 (link unavailable).

Despite all this speculation, the consensus seems to be, whomever the President picks, it will be a big tell as to who he wants to succeed him after he leaves office. Of course it could also be the case that Vice-President Shein is merely being parked over there in Zanzibar so that he could take over in five years time. After all, isn’t it also another of CCM’s unspoken agreements that a President from the mainland should be succeeded by a politician from Zanzibar?

Anyway, all of a sudden the election campaign has burst into life. I can’t wait for 2015.

(Photo: Wednesday 23 June 2010 morning newspapers by Salim Ally)