EDITORIAL: Change is in the air in once-sleepy Lindi

Kasera Nick Oyoo

What you need to know:

If you have just arrived in the United Republic of Tanzania, or are reading this online from elsewhere on the globe, Hapa Kazi Tu is the catch phrase that won Dr John Magufuli the presidency just over 17 months ago. It is a pledge to get things done.

While the twitteratti glitterati in our cities and towns are busy finding fault on social media highways, our brothers and sisters in Lindi Region have taken the message of Hapa Kazi Tu quite literally.

If you have just arrived in the United Republic of Tanzania, or are reading this online from elsewhere on the globe, Hapa Kazi Tu is the catch phrase that won Dr John Magufuli the presidency just over 17 months ago. It is a pledge to get things done.

Let’s just say this opinion is not qualified to pass as evidence of research. First, it is based on what yours truly has gathered on a whirlwind tour of Lindi and Ruangwa districts in Lindi Region but not on a clearly structured sample frame.

Second, since the sample frame was not structured, our visit and engagement has given us an inside look without the benefit or strictures, which come with a representative sample. Yet, even random samples can count for something, hence the conclusion that Lindi (here used to mean Lindi and Ruangwa districts) are showing signs of resurgence and change not seen in the southern region for many years, and here is why.

Lindi is a sleepy little town in which everyone knows everyone else (or nearly so).

English playwright William Shakespeare is credited with writing such great plays as The Comedy of Errors. You have to have read some of these Shakespeare plays to appreciate why people behind ongoing campaigns against Dr Magufuli such as #ReportersUnder DrMagufuliEra are such a farce.

Going back in time, Lindi was famous for witchcraft and the occult. Like all other areas where the occult takes precedence, whether in Africa or elsewhere in the world, Lindi found it difficult to break the cycle of poverty. The region was always holding a begging bowl for relief food. While the evidence is not conclusive, it does point to a willingness by the residents themselves to ensure that they break this cycle.

To hear 25-year-old Nasrani Namepomeka speak of a new reawakening of Lindi is as refreshing as could be. Nasrani belongs to a community-based organisation, the Lindi Support Agency for Welfare Organisation (Lisawe), whose forte is to assist the community in education that empowers them and enables them to shun outdated and backward beliefs.

Nasrani says without batting an eyelid that the election of Dr Magufuli and his Hapa Kazi Tu slogan could not have come at a better time. “The fact that Dr Magufuli has not been full of sweet words is highly significant. When we go to the villages and homes we find a community that has decided to embrace this slogan and work for their wellbeing,” she says.

That statement echoes what Ruangwa District Executive Director Andrew Chedzue has to say. Chedzue says that while he has been in Ruangwa for only seven months, he has seen a deliberate let’s-do-this-ourselves attitude from the farming community that he believes will ensure that the district surpasses its target in production of food and cash crops.

Stunting rates, which were well above 70per cent in the 1990s, have come down to about 53 per cent – a massive drop – while severe malnutrition has almost all gone down to single digits. It is easy to discredit these figures if released by government sources. But the sight of healthy looking children carrying farm implements along the Ruangwa route, the healthy crop of maize and abundance of variety in the markets do not lie. Something good is in the air.

So these folks are not looking to criticise government just for the sake of it although they could choose to. As Mama Rukia Said Mtani of Kilwa Njia Nane told this columnist, the millions promised by the immediate former president are nowhere to be seen and Tasaf is “a fake”, adding that there is rampant corruption and the needy do not get the assistance they need. “However, I am glad that Dr Magufuli is not making false promises his government won’t be able to keep,” she says.

Mr Chedzue’s parting short is that Ruangwa will soon emerge the country’ top food producer. This is not to mention investment in value addition and the big game changer in liquefied petroleum gas. Lindi kuchele. Watch this space.