Mr President you are on the right track, but then...

What you need to know:

Transfer of power in Africa has seldom been easy, many have been bloody and savage and some even comical like the recent one in The Gambia. My spontaneous answer was a reflection of Africa’s problems; the continent has never known good governance except for three exemplary great leaders viz. Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Leopold Senghor of Senegal and Julius Nyerere.

I was once asked while on a flight by a fellow passenger, “Why are you proud being a Tanzanian?” My spontaneous answer was that Tanzanian is a democratic country where diverse political views are expressed without intimidation.

Transfer of power in Africa has seldom been easy, many have been bloody and savage and some even comical like the recent one in The Gambia. My spontaneous answer was a reflection of Africa’s problems; the continent has never known good governance except for three exemplary great leaders viz. Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Leopold Senghor of Senegal and Julius Nyerere.

Mwalimu was an intellectual and a formidable believer in what the Western media refer to as his experiments with “African socialism”.

To me this was not an experiment, it actually inspired an entire generation of Africans and liberal Westerners and gave eager aid officials around the world something to pin their hopes upon.

After 23 years as President he left peacefully in 1984, a rare event in Africa and is even today fondly referred as Father of the Nation.

I remember him as a devout Christian attending early mass almost every morning, he accepted a modest salary compared to his contemporaries like Jomo Kenyatta and there was never a whiff of scandal surrounding him and his relatives. He promoted extreme high standards of personal behaviours and while he may have irritated some of his compatriots, he also inspired them.

Some historians have compared him with St. Francis of Assisi who, when he found some of his friars building a house for themselves, jumped up on the roof, began tearing off the tiles and screamed “this is not why I created our order”.

Another quality that I liked was the clarity of his values and his willingness to say things, which other African leaders would not.

In 1978 on the 17th anniversary of Tanzanian’s independence, Nyerere denounced OAU’s pandering to Uganda’s dictator, Idi Amin, to quote “Blackness has become a certificate to kill with impunity” referring to thousands of Ugandans killed by the dictator. Nyerere pointed out that Amin had slaughtered more people than the white-lead minority government of Southern Africa in their protracted wars against Black Nationalist guerrillas.

Mr President, let’s learn from this history, you are on the right path just like Nyerere was but your team will fail you if corrective measures are not put in place. It was reported recently that 900 million shillings were collected in 10 days in Dar es Salaam from traffic offenses, this is not news to feel happy or proud, it reflects a city that is no longer peaceful, is under seize and the people are harassed.

I met a group of 5 businessmen who went to Dar in December 2016 with the objective to survey possibilities of investing to a tune of $20 million.

There aim was to see first hand about the ease and cost of doing business in Tanzania. These were Tanzanian born and are now living in diaspora-they are very successful businessmen and simply wanted to be part of the new Tanzania that Mr President you are building.

They decided it was not a good climate yet to invest-every corner in the city centre had traffic police stopping cars, checking documents and imposing fines--Sh30,000--and if the drivers protest the fine doubles with the threat of having their vehicle towed by a breakdown vehicle.

For any reasonable person why tow a car which is moving this is nothing but harassment in the name of good governance albeit it must be commended that the fines are not going into personal pockets. So it is not amazing that 900 million was collected.

The same story is repeated with TBS and TFDA-lots of unnecessary red tape and fees that make the cost of doing business super high, I think we are most costly in the region, TBS takes 500 US $ for each item certification.

There are so many taxes and harassments, nuisances and persecutions that people are giving up their businesses.

The blame is on you as head of state thus please look into this affair with an open mind and put corrective measures.

All agree that big time, shark-like corruption has significantly gone down but on the streets people are still facing low-grade corruption by government workers thought it must be said that the corruption is more discreet but has increased in magnitude (instead of Sh10,000 it is now Sh100,000. We need investment and sustainable growth, which is people centered, not people aversion.

It seems it is you and sometimes the Prime Minister who are waging the war against corruption; where are other leaders-RC, DC and institutional heads ? What is their role?

Your Excellency Mr President, you have brought a positive wind of change, people have accepted and appreciate your efforts

Do not let them down, there is a lot of commonality between you and the father of the nation, your intentions are noble and good but look out your team may derail your dreams and vision.