By Richard Mshomba
Posted Sunday, October 13 2013 at 01:06
Posted Sunday, October 13 2013 at 01:06
In Summary
There is no single adjective that can do justice to
describe Mwalimu Nyerere, but if I were forced to pick one, I would say
he was “authentic.” He “preached” what he believed and practiced it,
wholeheartedly.
Mwalimu Nyerere will always be remembered as the
leader who did the most in shaping the trajectory of Tanzania’s
future. No one can predict the future, but it is hard to imagine that
Tanzania will ever again get another leader of Mwalimu Nyerere’s
calibre.
There is no single adjective that can do justice
to describe Mwalimu Nyerere, but if I were forced to pick one, I would
say he was “authentic.” He “preached” what he believed and practiced it,
wholeheartedly.
Now, if I may add, he was a philosopher, a
visionary, a strong leader, an exquisite orator, a freedom fighter, and a
faith-filled, humble person. It is no wonder that there are efforts
being made to have him declared a saint.
Of course, this is not to say that Mwalimu did not
make mistakes. His economic policies were a failure. However, no
matter what mistakes Mwalimu might have made, his intentions were always
noble.
He wanted everyone to perform his/her roles diligently and honestly and the fruits of development to be shared by all.
Mwalimu’s hallmark was his quest for, and
promotion of, national unity. He worked tirelessly to eliminate all
forms of discrimination. Sadly, lately there has been an escalation of
shameful religious hate speeches and shocking incidents of religious
crimes and, seemingly, a lack of effective ways of combating these
ills. There have also been widespread corruption and vast income
inequality, both of which are seeds of disunity and instability.
My family and I were blessed to meet Mwalimu in
1998. Even though we had tried to impress on our children the stature
of the person we were going to meet and therefore the importance of
being on their very best behavior, Mwalimu’s humility and the way he
talked to us as if he were just an ordinary person made them forget all
we had told them. They started running around. Mwalimu noticed our
uneasiness and said, waache wajukuu wacheze (let the grandchildren
play).
When he found out that I was an economist,
Mwalimu wanted to know what I thought of the African Growth and
Opportunity Act (Agoa) legislation which was being debated by the U.S.
lawmakers.
He wondered why the U.S., which had been pushing
African countries to implement free trade policies, was having such a
heated debate over opening its market to textiles from Africa. Even more
puzzling to him was the fact that at the time Sub-Saharan Africa
supplied only about one percent of U.S. total imports of textiles.
He made a remark to the effect that the US is
debating over opening a walkway (njia ya miguu) to African products
while they want us (African countries) to open highways (barabara) for
their goods and investments.
Since then, I have been following Agoa rather closely.
How fortunate we Tanzanians are that our first
President is a person we revere and remember with so much pride and
joy. Of course, to truly honor him, we must pay attention to his
teachings and follow his example.
The author is professor of economics at La Salle University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Email: mshomba@lasalle.edu
SOURCE: THE CITIZEN
The author is professor of economics at La Salle University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Email: mshomba@lasalle.edu
SOURCE: THE CITIZEN
