EDITORIAL: MP wrong to embrace witchcraft in this age

Arumeru East MP Joshua Nassari’s remarks on Wednesday that he now subscribes to superstitious beliefs due to the recent helicopter accident in which he cheated death narrowly, alongside two other passengers and the pilot, is truly a bolt from the blue.

It may erode the considerable popularity that he has earned, thanks to his impressive skills as a champion of the rights of the underprivileged. The legislator contradicts himself when he attributes the survival of those on board to divine intervention and, in the same breath, says he suspects that the crash was inspired by witchcraft--which he did not believe in up to this point.

At a media briefing at a hospital in Arusha, he said the sudden change of weather during the flight led him to believe that dark forces had been at work against him.

Much as we are all entitled to our beliefs, people in positions of power, such as MPs, should either shed the superstitions they hold on so hard or keep them private. Superstition is outlawed, a position that a legislator is obliged to uphold and even zealously propagate among wananchi.

Mr Nassari disgraces himself by voicing sentiments that, in some quarters, can be taken as worshipping a primitive science.

Linking the helicopter accident with witchcraft is scandalous, particularly when it is associated with an MP in the legislature of a country that counts itself among the ranks of a global village in which science and technology are by-words.

There is a risk here that some people may swallow Mr Nassari’s sentiments hook, line and sinker and be tempted to link past and future aviation and other accidents to presumed dark forces.

We sincerely hope that the legislator will do some serious soul-searching and drop his weird beliefs. This should also apply to others who have similarly derailed from the right social path.