OPINION: Live Nyerere’s legacy in its entirety to make it meaningful
It has been a week full of memories of nation’s greatest son and statesman, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere. A lot have been said and done in recent weeks as the natio prepared to mark two decases without Nyerere. He passed away on October 14, 1999 at a London hospital.
Symposiums and workshops dominated commemorations. Hence, a lot of rhetoric.
Some attempted to remind Tanzanians who Mwalimu was. There are those who also equated themselves to him. And, that’s exactly where problems begins.
Most of those who seek to compare themselves with Mwalimu in a bid to make us believe that they were the ones truly toeing his legacy, have been selective. To a great extent they have not been true to themselves because most Tanzanians know them inside out.
They only pick a few things that appear to be in line with what Mwalimu stood for. Their intention is to make us believe that they were true followers of Mwalimu. But they leave aside things they have done which Mwalimu would never have accepted. This kind of selectiveness does not fit a good leader.
To show that this does not fit the definition of a good leader, Mwalimu himself confessed in his speech when retiring that he had committed a lot of blunders during his time in power. He went far by asking for forgiveness from Tanzanians.
But our leaders want us to see only one side of their leadership. They want to make us believe that they are angels and have committed no mistake.
But because we can see and comprehend what is going on around us, we all know that among people who make serious errors and blunders are our leaders.
So who are they trying to tell a lie to? We need to be very careful with a leader who tries to show us that he is perfect while we know that he is not. Leaders are not supposed to be egocentric.
The other day, former President Jakaya Kikwete reminded such leaders that their persona status will not be raised or lowered through how they present and carry themselves among those who they lead.
Leaders who want to compare themselves to Mwalimu but show us their positive side only should know that by doing so they distance themselves from Mwalimu as he was not a person who wanted to elevate himself above the rest despite all the things at his disposal.
Besides, how can leaders today boast themselves of emulating Mwalimu and cajole us to believe that they were righteous while majority of Tanzanians languish in poverty? If this country had such good leaders, there is no way majority of people would be destitute the way they are.
Mwalimu knew this and that was why he did not try to show that he was perfect. He knew his shortcomings and he said so at the end of his leadership.
So, likening oneself to Mwalimu while showing behaviours which are contrary to what the Statesman did does not help such leaders.
Because Tanzanians are clever and are very much knowledgeable, leaders should not bother to force into them what kind of leaders they are.
Leaders should just try their best to serve the nation and Tanzanians will be there to judge them. If they are doing justice to their positions, Tanzanians will know and if they are not up to the task, Tanzanians will also know.
Our leaders should not put themselves in trouble by trying to force to believe that they were equal to Mwalimu because they are not. Mwalimu was of its kind and since him, if we want to be true to ourselves, there is no one who has reached even half of what Mwalimu did for this country.
The best we can do is to make sure that we stood and live by what he believed on.
