Chadema not moved by Magufuli’s drive

Dar es Salaam. The opposition Chadema has been in the news recently, this time pointedly rubbishing the hero’s welcome President John Magufuli has been enjoying since he began his famous crackdown on a bloated government expenditure and paralysis that for years, has gripped the public service delivery system.

While agreeing with the President’s swift action to unresevedly tackle the rot that threatens national development, Chadema is accusing him of ‘political plagiarism’ - the party claims Dr Magufuli is implementing their manifesto.

Naturally, this has sparked public debate. Whose manifesto is President Magufuli working to fulfill - the CCM or Chadema’s?

Events of the past few weeks could give a clue.

A month after he was sworn in, Dr Magufuli has proved, not only to Tanzanians, but to the world, that he is determined to deal with grand corruption in the country.

He has shown that he means business when it comes to restoring sanity in public service, especially in how public resources are managed.

To show his determination, even before he picked his Cabinet, Dr Magufuli had already sacked several senior public officials at the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) and Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA).

He accused the officials of sleeping on their jobs while the country was losing billions of shillings in unpaid taxes. The government has since recovered about Sh10 billion after some of the tax dodgers paid up.

To the majority of weary Tanzanians, this obviously is sweet music. But not to the opposition, as it turns out.

If Dr Magufuli has ‘stolen’ the manifesto, the question is what next for the opposition?

Political analysts have started to discuss what strategy the country’s opposition parties, particularly Chadema, will put in place come 2020 when we have the next general election.

Is it possible that Dr Magufuli might have exhausted all of the opposition’s ideas, or policies by that time?

That won’t happen, says Chadema’s deputy secretary general John Mnyika, in an interview with Election Platform.

Suggesting Dr Magufuli had “pre-empted” the opposition, Mr Mnyika said the President had just scratched the surface of the many issues his party was pushing for implementation.

Cosmetic changes

“We are advocating a total system overhaul. On the contrary, what Magufuli is doing is just applying cosmetic changes,” he said.

During campaigns, Chadema promised to fight corruption, put up a better system to run the executive and combat laxity among public servants.

Unfortunately, for the opposition, the same changes have won Dr Magufuli the hearts of the majority Tanzanians, just 30 days into office.

Reducing unnecessary expenditure, Dr Magufuli banned foreign trips by government officials. He said diplomats abroad will represent the country at international and regional events in their areas of work. In another move to cut costs, the President also said there will be no retreat for the newly appointed ministers.

The ministers would familiarise themselves with their work environment along the way. Dr Magufuli said the money which would have been spent on the retreat will now be re-directed to social services. Since the retreat will not be held, the President will save Sh2 billion

But the opposition says if he indeed is fixing the rot in government, he is cleaning the mess he and others in his party, CCM, are responsible for.

Says Mnyika: “Citizens must know that the problems this country is facing are a result of a spoiled leadership system created by CCM, which has been in the power since independence,” he insisted.”

To butress his point, that it may be too early to be optimistic, Mr Mnyika argues that Dr Magufuli has made “a serious mistake” in his Cabinet pick.

He cited the appointment of Ms Samia Suluhu Hassan as one of the serious mistakes, which Dr Magufuli has made.

Mr Mnyika, who has won the parliamentary seat in the newly-created Kibamba constituency, says in appointing Ms Suluhu, Dr Magufuli has shown an example of bad governance.

Elaborating, he notes that it was Ms Suluhu who stood against people’s views included in the proposed Constitution when she was vice chairperson of the Constituent Assembly.

The new Cabinet, the outspoken MP said at a campaign rally in Muheza recently, is a manifestation of how CCM is entangled in a web of poor leadership.

“This new Cabinet, which took Magufuli about a month to craft, shows us that we should expect nothing new from CCM.”

The Chadema MP adds that the opposition agenda is still on, and the focus is on challenging the Magufuli government over unresolved mega corruption scandals. One of them is the Tegeta Escrow Account scandal. “This is definitely going to be an agenda for the opposition,” said Mr Mnyika.

He remains adamant that there is a platform, come 2020, on which the opposition will face CCM. He cites the “piece-meal” manner in which President Magufuli is tackling corruption at the Dar es Salaam Port.

“It’s the whole system that requires change - the solution does not lie in sacking a few people like he is doing. Most of the people working there are also victims, victims of a rotten system that demands an overhaul if we are to register real change,” says the legislator.

Agreeing, Civic United Front (CUF) director of communications Ismail Jussa Ladhu said it was not possible for the opposition to lack agenda come 2020.

“If you look at ideology, we cannot fail to have an agenda in the next elections. What Magufuli is doing is a challenge not only to the opposition but also to CCM itself,” he said.

Childish claims

However, University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) lecturer, Dr Kitila Mkumbo, notes that Chadema’s criticism of the progress made by Dr Magufuli in addressing corruption and cutting down on public expenditure is unwarranted.

He adds that to claim that the President is using the opposition’s manifesto to deliver election promises is to be “politically childish”.

Says the UDSM don: “What Dr Magufuli is doing is to address the people’s problems that existed since the 1960s during the first government of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere.”

He notes that Chadema is “seeking relevance” through making controversial claims against the President’s popular movement.

“My advice to the party is that they must find other means of making themselves relevant.”

Another political analyst, Mr Richard Mbunda, agrees.

He notes that it will not be business as usual for the opposition under the new government led by President Magufuli.

“The relevance of the opposition in the current leadership may not be seen or felt, especially if it (the opposition) fails to be innovative enough to change tact in line with the changing (political) scenario,” he says, adding:

“If the opposition were careful they would have realised that since during campaigns, Dr Magufuli was talking their language. He is now living to his word by implementing what he promised during campaigns.”

“I don’t think he is copying from Chadema or someone else’s manifesto because what he is implementing is what he promised Tanzanians.”

Mr Mbunda suggests that Chadema’s outcry over the “stolen manifesto” is a sign of confusion within the party’s ranks on the way forward.

He explains: “By doing what he is doing, President Magufuli is leaving the opposition parties at a cross-roads. The problem is whether or not they must support him because he is doing what they have been fighting for many years.”

In his advice, Mr Mbunda said the opposition might continue to unearth other issues, which are still troubling the country for Dr Magufuli to tackle.

“They should not fear to do this because at the end they might take credit for setting the agenda for Dr Magufuli and his government. On the other hand they have to also be creative and focus on areas that Magufuli doesn’t touch and bring them up to the public,” he said.

Senior political lecturer at the UDSM, Dr Benson Bana, also noted that all political parties should have election manifestos that carry people’s agenda and in this case, because manifestos of different parties did not differ considerably, it is no wonder that opposition would also want to take credit in Dr Magufuli’s implementation of CCM manifesto.

“They just differed in context and definitions, but they have the same issues and purposes. But, to common wananchi, if the problems, which have been troubling him for ages are addressed, he cares less about where the agenda is coming from,” said Dr Bana.

Support him

He said Dr Magufuli had articulated his own ideas during the campaigns and what Chadema should do is to support him by providing cooperation.

“The opposition parties now have a job of articulating agenda that would carry them forward and endear them to the members of the public ahead of 2020 General Election because Dr Magufuli has pre-emptied them on their agenda of corruption,” he said.

The opposition parties could now shift their focus to other agenda such as agriculture and other social services.

“We need responsible opposition and not just people who are protesting everything,” he said.

For years, the crusade against grand corruption has been Chadema’s main agenda though during this year’s elections commentators were arguing that the party failed to capitalise on its main agenda after it appointed former Premier Edward Lowassa, who quitted the ruling CCM, their presidential candidate.

The major argument from the stakeholders was that it could be difficult for Chadema to speak hard on grand corruption because Mr Lowassa was forced to resign as prime m Minister in 2008 following a Richmond scandal.