Prime
How Tanzanian lawyers enabled the emergence of Magufuli
Former TLS President Fatma Karume. PHOTO | FILE
A word that sticks to mind related to the mayhem witnessed in the United States’ Congress at the tail end of President Donald Trump’s White House tenure is ‘enabler’. By this, it was argued vociferously by a few that all the senators who refused to disassociate themselves from Trump’s brazen disregard for the rules of the game were doing his bidding and in the process acting as his enablers.
Further afield in the United Kingdom, the essence of the word was aptly captured by none other than former British PM, John Major, whilst speaking against the actions of certain individuals in the government of the just departed PM Boris Johnson.
Major noted during a parliamentary select committee hearing that: “The blame for these lapses must lie principally- but not only - with the prime minister, but many in his cabinet are culpable too.
“And so are those outside the cabinet who cheered him on. They were silent when they should have spoken out and then spoke out only when their silence became self-damaging.”
These experiences of enablers in the democratic West are a good basis upon which to cogitate on Tanzania’s very own version of enablers of the wanton disregard for the rule of law by the late President John Magufuli.
The groups culpable are several but for today I zero in on the legal profession, whom I consider to be number one in the pecking order of things.
It is my considered view that in our type of jurisdictions with a very limited legal infrastructure, lawyers are literally public watchmen and women. In other words they are men and women who should be ready to blow the whistle at the slightest whiff of misrule. Someone once said that ‘the price of liberty is eternal vigilance’.
One example of the egregious violation of inalienable rights quickly comes to mind. It was during the ministerial tenure of Magufuli that a Kiswahili weekly newspaper was following up on some skullduggery on his part. When Magufuli got wind of it he rushed to a police station and claimed that some journalists from the newspaper wanted to have him killed. The journalists were then rounded up only to be released soon after it was obvious that the whole thing was without foundation. At some stage, one of the journalists taken in, Johnson Mbwambo, would remark with bemusement that it is normally journalists’ lives threatened and not the other way round.
Such unhinged behaviour was so typical of the Magufuli we saw as head of state.
The question now is just where was the legal fraternity to read the Riot Act to Magufuli whilst he was a minister?
By failing to take any action the result was that Magufuli believed he was superior to others and consequently had the confidence to even put his name forward as a presidential candidate in 2015.
I must point out, though, that when he picked up the nomination forms he was in his slyness acting dumb.
How I only wish that at that particular moment in time the Tanganyika Law Society had come out loud and clear in cautioning the public on the prospect of having an enemy of free media in the highest office of the land. By sleeping on the job, the TLS - including yes the ZLS - as topmost legal entities, were effectively silent enablers in the emergence of Magufuli the fascist president.
Just to point out, the Tanzanian lawyers had actually one very effective tool at their disposal to act as a safeguard for democracy. I’m referring here to their old journal, The Tanzania Lawyer, which was published twice a year.
It is to my surprise how such a journal wasn’t published say quarterly. As I write, I can’t even recall the last time I came across it. It has died a natural death - that I can only attribute to the lawyers’ intellectual laziness. And this coming at a time the number of law graduates being churned out yearly is high.
A specific area where the journal could have acted in no uncertain terms as a safeguard of democracy was in the lead-up to the 2015 polls, where there were increasing calls for Tanzania to be led by a strongman. Others would then qualify it by saying a benevolent dictator. And so when Magufuli became president and was doing what he did best, to some he fitted well with that description of a dictator.
Just to digress momentarily. Magufuli did claim once that by putting his name forward he was merely ‘beeping’. What an indictment of our country!
On our learned brothers, I can’t help but lay a finger of blame at them as public educators for not at all guiding the public on all the inherent risks of entertaining the thought of a strongman at the helm of the nation. Whatever the pathetic failings of our national leadership, the lawyers were supposed to be the first defenders of the rule of law.
Crucially connected to this point is the curious matter I find about our lawyers and their Law Day. For reasons best known to them, they choose to invite the president of the republic annually to officiate. Now, did it ever occur to the advocates that they may find themselves having to invite a head of state who is diametrically opposed to their core interests?
What a cringe worthy moment it was for the learned friends to sit and listen to a Neanderthal at the apex of power.
I dare say on this score the legal practitioners have acquitted themselves extremely poorly. They need to atone for this. Amidst though the gloom, one bright spot was when the TLS former lady president, Fatma Karume, showed Magufuli to his face that Law Day is first and foremost an occasion for lawyers to come together and not a political leader talking down on them.
At this juncture, I must add that I find it most unfortunate that the lawyers didn’t see it fit to call out the president of the retired judges association, Thomas Mihayo, who said plainly that he didn’t see any dictatorial tendencies by Magufuli. It was all music to Magufuli’s ears. He patently began to think he could ‘walk on water’ if I can borrow from veteran journalist Jenerali Ulimwengu.
And as a reminder to our people with short memories, we had reached the precipice whereby the highest office in the judiciary was left vacant for more than six months. The current CJ was ignominiously put on a compliance probation and none of the learned friends deemed it fit to say anything. No officer of the court has spoken about this grave matter after the death of Magufuli.
Another disturbing matter that it is my earnest plea to the TLS leadership to deal with urgently through their ethics section is to summon one of the foremost legal minds in the country and a man famed for his sonority, Professor Kabudi, to explain himself over the ‘rubbish heap’ remarks he made during Magufuli’s reign. Those most demeaning words of oneself can’t go unquestioned. It is never too late to rectify a problem. The mental scars from Kabudi run too deep! This will be one way of bringing closure to some very painful memories of Magufuli riding roughshod over any norms of common sense.
My final note relates to how our women were on the receiving end of contemptuous language by Magufuli and yet the many women lawyers could only sit pretty.
Weren’t they all enablers surely??
