YOUR BUSINESS IS OUR BUSINESS: Why are Tanzanians abjectly poor, pray?

Under the prevailing circumstances of near-abject poverty for most ordinary Tanzanians, the headline to the news report on page six (6) of the Mwananchi edition of January 19, 2020 was about the catchiest ever in recent times.

‘CAG wataja sababu za umaskini nchini Tanzania,’ the headline screeched from the (publishing) rooftops, so to speak. Roughly put, this is ki-Swahili for ‘CAG reveals the reasons for poverty in Tanzania’ in Her Britannic Majesty’s lingo.

If the headline was meant/intended to grab readers’ attention, it succeeded beyond measure... At least for me, anyway!

For starters, I got the impression (from the headline) that what I was about to read regarding Tanzanian poverty was the work of the chief of the National Audit Office of Tanzania, the government Controller and Auditor-General – and whose acronym is ‘CAG!’

The CAG is a most powerful official whose mandate is enshrined in Article 143 of the 1977 Union Constitution, as read with Sections 11 and 12 of the 2008 Public Audit Act.

So, when a headline ‘talks’ of a CAG publicly laying bare the reasons for poverty in Tanzania, the impression is that the government Controller and Auditor-General – after having meticulously gone through the official books of account, et cetera, et cetera – has itemized the causes/reasons for the poverty, sharing the findings with the wider world through popular mass media organs.

One would, of course, be wrong here. This is if only because the acronym ‘CAG’ in the press report under question is NOT that of the government Controller and Auditor-General. In this particular case, it stands for the ‘Cavalry Assemblies of God’ (CAG), headed by bishop-cum-apostle Dunstan Maboya... Sheesh!

In that press report, Bishop Maboya was said to have pontificated that most Tanzanians are poor because of two fundamental reasons: they’re overly lazy – and have very limited thinking capacity... Mama Mia!

The apostle postulated this at a forum at the Mlimani City Hall in Dar es Salaam to ‘educate’ (for lack of a better word) participants on how to emancipate themselves from abject poverty by thinking their way out of the deep trap!

Noting that God didn’t intend His creations/creatures to be born, live and die in poverty, the apostle said (hard) work is crucial to surmounting poverty.

He even cited the Biblical Book of 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15: “Our orders – backed up by the Master, Jesus – are to refuse to have anything to do with those among you who are lazy and refuse to work the way we taught you. Don’t permit them to freeload on the rest of you...”

In My Book of Things, Tanzanians are NOT poor because they are lazy, thick-headed – or both!

Besides, the Motherland is brimming with natural resources ranging from precious minerals and natural gas to arable land, water sources and ‘blue economy’ potentials.

This is to say nothing of a stable government down the years, as well as a steadily-growing national Economy. According to the World Bank – citing data by our very own National Bureau of Statistics – “real gross domestic product (GDP) growth was 7.0 percent in 2018, slightly higher than 6.8 percent in 2017.”

[/www.worldbank.org/en/country/tanzania/overview>].

So: exactly why are ordinary Tanzanians so poor for so long, pray?

Why, indeed? I know I’m poor ‘cos I was swindled... Any takers?