Mbatia: This is what will create happiness in Tanzania

Dar es Salaam. The political opposition party NCCR-Mageuzi yesterday named nine issues, including reconciliation, which may help to bring happiness to the Tanzanian people.

Speaking during the party’s New Year greetings, NCCR-Mageuzi chairman James Mbatia said other factors which make Tanzanians unhappy include unemployment, degradation of democracy, oppression of petty traders, human rights violations, farmer-herder conflict, new taxes, frequent price increase and lack of student loans for higher education.

“These issues have caused stress to many Tanzanian citizens and contributed to some people committing crimes in families and communities. This situation has also caused many people to not care about protecting themselves from disasters or disease outbreaks,” he said.

According to him, Tanzania was poorly ranked in the World Happiness index.

“We all have the responsibility to restore happiness for everyone in Tanzania,” he said.

Mr Mbatia mentioned that some of the things that need to be done to bring happiness include promoting unity instead of divide, transparency for the national interests, and giving hope where it’s lost.

“In order for this to happen, some leaders must stop being arrogant, and instead, take accountability as leaders of the nation,” he said.

In regard to the ongoing debate about the national debt - which erupted after the speaker of the National Assembly, Job Ndugai, issued controversial statements - Mr Mbatia said Tanzanians should discuss the facts and not attack the person who raised the issue.