OBLIQUE ANGLE : Why leaders must respect the laws

On Thursday, Tanzania woke up to a video clip that had gone viral—a student beating executed by a number of teachers. The incident reportedly happened at a secondary school in Mbeya.

Reports have it that a teacher had left students an assignment in English. Some did not work on it—for various reasons, of course. Two days later the teacher came and demanded to be shown the students’ work.

Those who did not do it were punished. However, there was this student whose punishment went abuzz, literally causing the government to spring into action.

We must admit that our society has deep-rooted problems. It’s like it has turned into a “man-eat-man society”. We hear stories of innocent people suffering brutal beatings in the hands of law enforcers. You’ll also recall the ‘Panya Road’ saga that rocked Dar es Salaam some months ago. And then, just recently, the police undertook street displays of their prowess and when questions were raised, the public was informed these were just part of their routine exercises.

But, ask people who have been in this country long, and they will tell you that there was nothing “routine-like” in the displays. A potentially bitter confrontation was building up ahead of the Opposition’s so-called Defiance Day aka Ukuta.

Why? It all starts with lack of respect to the powers vested on some of us. We put aside the values long established by our forefathers. Whoever finds themselves in some sort of authority, tend to think they are not respected unless they terrorise their subordinates. In most of Africa, we witness top leaders disregarding the constitutions of their countries. A constitution is, in my opinion, a sacred document. If the top leader in a state starts violating it, then there is no way society will remain safe.

When a leader disregards the Mother Law, he sends signals to his subordinates to do the same with regard to the laws, by-laws and regulations they are supposed to enforce. Revealing as well is the Ibrahim Index of African Governance—that most comprehensive survey of its kind launched on Monday. It chronicles just how little improvement most African nations can claim in the past decade on a broad set of governance criteria.

The Post says the report analyses how the effectiveness, or lack of it, on one measure, such as rule of law, might affect another, such as free elections. Almost half of Africa’s 54 countries scored worse than ever on Safety and Rule of Law rating in at least one of the past three years, which measures personal safety, national security, accountability and the judicial system.

So, even as we condemn the senseless cruelty by the teachers, we need to look at the bigger picture. Let us ask ourselves why our society has reached this point where taking the law into our own hands—maiming and even killing fellow humans in the process—has become as ordinary a thing as attacking domestic flies.

Let’s fix our system.

Ciao!