CROSSROADS : Missed opportunities in law making

Come to think of this. Is our Parliament not the most powerful institution in our land? Yes, if it were to use all powers vested in it by the Constitution. It can change the Constitution, it can boot the Executive and it can deny the Judiciary the budget it needs. Many of our successes and failures as a nation are tied to the action or inaction of the august House.

The talk of town of late has been how international mining companies have been “stealing” from Tanzania. Opposition figures for the last two decades have raised the issue in Parliament but the majority MPs (from ruling party) ignored them.

It had to take the goodwill of President John Magufuli to take action and save the country from the plunder of her natural resources. Had the President not acted, things would most likely have gone as usual and for the greater loss of Tanzanians in general.

Thanks to the President’s goodwill-- early in the week, Parliament approved three bills, which will enable the government to renegotiate with investors on the mining and energy. The Natural Wealth and Resources Contracts (Review and Re-Negotiation of Unconscionable Terms)] Bill, 2017, and The Natural Wealth and Resources (Permanent Sovereignty)] Bill, 2017, are going to be a game changer.

When tabling the bills, the minister for Constitution and Legal Affairs, Prof Palamagamba Kabudi decided to borrow some wisdom from William Shakespeare, the man regarded as the greatest writer in the English language. The law don, quoted Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar play- “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries….”

The quote often used when talking of missed opportunities in face of natural phenomena that human beings usually have no control over. For example, high tides are needed by ships to enter a port or leave, people have no control over them. Ships waiting are supposed to take the opportunity when the high tides appear to do the needful.

In the case of Shakespeare’s play, one Brutus wanted their army to tackle their rival forces without delay, failure to, they would lose soldiers and get defeated. Put this in our perspective, how many opportunities have we missed that have caused the nation great losses?

Although we say that better late than never, and we commend the law makers, we should not forget the past. The Members of Parliament in the last decade and a half all along had countless opportunities to make better natural resources management laws to ensure our nation benefits from her resources. They did what they thought was best, which now the President has told us it was wrong.

Opposition lawmakers and activists many times said we had a raw deal. No one was willing to listen to them, because the majority is always right. Right in the name of being loyal to what their party wanted. Only now, we know that the country was being robbed in daylight. Wonders will never cease in dear motherland.

All those years the majority MPs in Bunge who passed the contentious laws claimed they were doing so in the name of national interests. Then why did they get it wrong? Will Tanzanians ever get an apology for wrong doings done by leaders including enacting bad laws that have cost the nation dearly?

Who will take responsibility for the “sins” of the past by the executive, judiciary and parliament? If we admit our wrongs as a nation, we are not likely to remake them again. If we pretend all is well… we make same mistakes again and again. Thanks to president, he has been categorical that in privatization the government was wrong.

The author is an assistant lecturer at Dar es Salaam University College of Education (DUCE)