TALKING POINT : Will APRM Forum give Tanzania new governance impetus?

As part of continental efforts to revitalise the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), a series of meetings are planned for next week in Nairobi.

Starting with the 78th Meeting of the APRM Panel of Eminent Persons on August 21 and 22, the events will culminate in the 25th Summit of the APR Forum scheduled for August 26.

Civil society outreach

There will also be informal consultations of the national governing councils from all AU member states participating in the peer review mechanism as well as a civil society outreach.

To a keen follower of the APRM process, the choice of Kenya as host of the events is not accidental. There is a very vibrant movement of young Kenyans actively participating in the drive to make the APRM and most of the AU processes people-centred and grounded as part of the revitalisation drive.

The forthcoming Nairobi processes are not just symbolically important in that they signal a new era in Africa’s governance landscape, they also represent a turning point for Tanzania. At a time when President John Pombe Magufuli is deciding to defer his travels abroad to focus more on domestic issues, Africans are eager to see him in Nairobi next week, but the billion-shilling question is: is JPM willing to make just his second trip outside the country since he was sworn in nine months ago? Only time will tell.

Also, while Kenya has offered itself for a second-generation peer review that is set to be completed by December 2016, Uganda is another African country that is also ready for a second full review. In a region where Tanzania is considered the epitome of democracy, it must be puzzling to have not heard from us as to our readiness for renewed action on the direction of the mechanism.

It is rather sad that Tanzania has made no meaningful progress after the completion of its peer review at the 18th Summit of the APR Forum held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in January 2013. The official launch of Tanzania’s Country Review Report and its annexed National Programme of Action worth $880 million is still pending four years after it was due.

Calls by civil society that the APRM should be launched minus pomp and colour to minimise costs have fallen on deaf ears on the part of the government, which was recently preoccupied with the constitutional review process and the 2015 General Election. The APRM Secretariat has been the lone voice in trying to revitalise the initiative in the face of various challenges. The planned launch of the continental APRM Day saw only three of the National Governing Council members in attendance at the Centre for Foreign Relations in Dar es Salaam.

Of late, not much has been happening at the focal Ministry of Foreign Affairs following the exit last year of Mr Bernard Membe. In Kenya, President Uhuru Kenyatta’s election as the new APR Forum chairman in June 2015 was followed by his intensive briefing by all key national structures of APRM. It means therefore that Mr Kenyatta is fully aware of the new road map for the mechanism to lead such a revitalisation.

In Tanzania, Dr Magufuli needs to be properly briefed before embarking on the appointment of a new governing council to replace the outdated 20-member organ currently led by Prof Hasa Mlawa of the University of Dar es Salaam. One tends to believe that the reconstitution of the local APRM structures should in itself serve to revitalise and give the mechanism new impetus.

Elsewhere, the APRM’s revival is being worked upon. In Midrand, South Africa, where the APRM is headquartered, the retired and tired Assefa Shifa was recently replaced as CEO by the more energetic South African academic and activist, Prof Edward Maloka.

In neighbouring Uganda, the expiry of the tenure of that country’s national governing council was almost immediately followed by the appointment of a new team to take over. This was despite fears that newly appointed Prof Joseph Okello Onen was not a proper replacement for Bishop David Zac Niringiye, who had radically led the Uganda National Governing Council to great popularity until mid-2014.

How will Tanzania cope?

It remains to be seen how Tanzania will cope with the ambition to rejuvenate the mechanism.

It is not known whether President Magufuli will travel to Nairobi, but one thing is crystal clear: his non-attendance might be construed as his holding the forum in low esteem and taken as a gauge of the extent to which Tanzania subscribes to the principles of accountability, inclusiveness and broad-based participation that guide the APRM.