Magufuli tickles delegates amid nomination tension

The CCM national chairman, President John Magufuli, applauds during the lunch party he hosted for the party’s National Executive Council members in Dodoma on Sunday. PHOTO | STATE HOUSE

What you need to know:

It goes without saying that factions could have been sprouting within the party that has dominated Tanzania’s politics since independence

Dodoma. It is an open secret that delegates to the just-concluded CCM decision-making meetings had arrived in Dodoma with divergent views, expectations and aspirations that could have potentially split the ruling party.

With a total of 32 members picking up forms to seek CCM’s nomination for the Zanzibar presidency, it goes without saying that some factions could have been sprouting in the party that has dominated Tanzania’s politics since independence.

The Kiswahili adage “Usione vyaelea ujue vimeundwa”, literally translated as: “if you see a vessel floating, understand there has been great craftsmanship”, may have been clearly pronounced in the way the party’s chairman, President John Magufuli, handled the delegates.

Live Nec meeting

For the first time in the party’s history, the 167-member National Executive Council (Nec) meeting was broadcast live last Friday. That was the meeting that nominated Dr Hussein Mwinyi to be the party’s flag-bearer for the Zanzibar presidency in this year’s General Election.

President Magufuli was aware that some members of his party had been secretly accusing him of fronting Prof Makame Mbarawa as his preferred candidate. On the other hand, the current Zanzibar President, Dr Mohammed Shein, was being accused of fronting Mr Khamis Mussa Omar as his preferred candidate.

Interestingly, both Prof Mbarawa and Mr Omar did not make it to the best three.

“When you are a leader, people will always have something to say against you…Some used say that I had my own choice of candidate. Now that Prof Mbarawa’s name ended at the Central Committee (which analysed five candidates and delivered only three names to the Nec), I don’t know what they will say now,” said Dr Magufuli.

With a live broadcast, such a statement meant a lot to delegates.

Samia Suluhu Hassan

It was a joke but one that was quite charm-offensive to over 1,800 CCM General Congress delegates on Saturday.

In a deliberate effort to market Dr Mwinyi to people that make party decision at grass root level, President Magufuli recalled how he had picked Dr Mwinyi to compete with Vice President Smia Suluhu Hassan for the position of his running mate during the 2015 General Elections.

“If Samia were not a woman, Mwinyi would have been the Vice President now and you know what it means to compete with a woman. We Sukumas are fond of light-skinned women,” said President Magufuli as the audience broke out in laughter.

Aware that some quarters would be attributing Dr Mwinyi’s meteoric rise to his father’s political achievements (Dr Mwinyi is a biological son of former President Ali Hassan Mwinyi), Dr Magufuli described the younger Mwinyi as a down to earth person who was no riding on his father’s accomplishments.

Even after losing out to Ms Samia Suluhu Hassan, said Dr Magufuli, Dr Mwinyi remained calm.

“I then picked him to be my Defence minister….For someone to be your Defence minister - responsible for overseeing the operations of defence forces - you must have a deep trust in him…. If someone from Zanzibar will come out and say Mwinyi is not fit for the Zanzibar presidency, I will be very surprised,” said Dr Magufuli.

‘Shikamoo? No way!’

In the Swahili culture, shikamoo greeting is used when a young person is greeting a significantly older person as a way of showing respect. Dr Magufuli told the CCM’s General Congress delegates to ensure that someone who assumes power in Zanzibar is younger than himself.

“Being president of the United Republic of Tanzania, I don’t want to come to Zanzibar and say shikamoo to Zanzibar’s president,” said Dr Magufuli, sending delegates into yet another period of laughing and the chanting of party slogans.

Dr Mwinyi is 53 years old while Dr Magufuli is 60 years old. Dr Mwinyi’s closest contender in Zanzibar will be ACT-Wazalendo’s Maalim Seif Sharif Hamad who is 76 years old.

Whether the age issue will come to haunt CCM when President Magufuli’s constitutional tenure in office ends, remains everybody’s guesswork. What Dr Magufuli said, however, was that Tanzania’s founding president, Julius Nyerere was older than his successor, Ali Hassan Mwinyi. Mr Mwinyi was also older than his successor, Benjamin Mkapa who was himself older than Jakaya Kikwete. At 69, Mr Kikwete is nine year older than President Magufuli.

‘No friendship in leadership’

There was yet another laughter at the CCM’s Jakaya Kikwete Convention Centre on Saturday when President Magufuli said there was no way he would be cajoled into choosing someone into a leadership position on purely friendship reasons.

“Even my predecessor Mzee Kikwete had his own close friends but he left them aside and chose me,” he said. He did not name Mr Kikwete’s friend.

However, the laughter that campaigned that statement was in apparent reference to the friendship between retired President Kikwete and Edward Lowassa.

Mr Lowassa and Mr Kikwete have been close friends for decades. Both Lowassa and Kikwete picked nomination forms in 1995 but they were unsuccessful. In 2005, Lowassa strongly backed his friend Kikwete and the two were dubbed “Boys to Men” because of their strong political union that eventually enabled Kikwete to defeat all his rivals within the ruling party.

Mr Lowassa went on to become Mr Kikwete’s choice for Prime Minister before he resigned in 2008.

After resigning, there were unfunded claims that Mr Lowassa yesterday plotting to undermine Mr Kikwete’s administration and CCM chairmanship. He categorically said in parliament in 2011 that:”I did not meet with Kikwete on the streets”.

‘They will steal your daughters’

On Sunday, President Magufuli made the delegates to burst into laughter when he said he had given the task of building the Chamwino State House to the National Service in order to maintain respect for Tanzania’s freedom.

He said being the largest State House in Africa, the government received numerous requests from foreign companies, asking to engaged in the building exercise.

“But if you give such a task to your neighbour, he will know even the way you do your beddings…If that neighbour happens to be stronger than you, he will steal your girl children,” he said.

‘You don’t sweat doing push-ups in Dodoma’

President Magufuli’s push-ups during the 2015 election campaigns may still be remembered by many, but what he said on Sunday at the Chamwino State House may have united the delegates even more. He told the delegates that Dodoma’s temperatures were cool so much so that when doing morning pushups, you don’t really sweat.

“Unlike in Dar es Salaam, here, you don’t sweat when doing push-ups,” he said.