This is Edwin Mtei. This is Tanzania. This is the kind of maturity our country had just 20 years after Independence. Leaders could disagree strongly, yet still respect each other and keep working together.
Let’s go back to December 1979. You are the Minister of Finance.
You take some IMF visitors to see President Julius Nyerere. The President does not want to meet them, but you believe they are important because the country’s economy is in serious trouble.
You understand the situation well – you were the first Governor of the Bank of Tanzania, Secretary General of the East African Community that had just broken up, and now you are in charge of finance. The President refuses and gets angry.
You leave State House with your visitors, very upset. You, the Minister of Finance, are furious, and your Commander-in-Chief is angry too.
You go back to your office. Your colleague, the Minister of Agriculture, comes with a message that you must see the President again, this time about buying a plantation from an investor.
You know the Treasury is empty and the government is struggling to pay salaries.
You go to the President and say no to what he and your colleague want. You are even angrier now. Back at the office, you write your resignation letter.
On your way to deliver it, the President’s assistant gives you a letter from Nyerere. You don’t read it. You hurry to the President and hand him your letter.
He asks, “Did you get my letter?” You say yes, but you haven’t read it. You give him yours. He accepts it.
The President says your resignation letter should be the official public record. You resigned instead of being sacked.
The whole country starts preparing for demonstrations. People say, “Hatutageuka jiwe la chumvi.” The protests are against your position.
You are seen as an enemy of the nation. But soon, the same President sends you abroad to represent Africa at the International Monetary Fund – the same organisation whose visitors he had turned away.
This is Edwin Mtei. This is Tanzania. This is the kind of maturity our country had just 20 years after Independence. Leaders could disagree strongly, yet still respect each other and keep working together.
That maturity held our nation together. Today, 60 years after Uhuru, that maturity is gone, and the country feels very divided. It makes me sad to see how much we have lost.
This is the same spirit Mzee Mtei helped build when he co-founded Chadema with his friends. He believed in strong opposition, but without violence or hatred. You can read these ideas in his book, From Goatherd to Governor.
Today we say goodbye to Governor Mtei. He goes to join Nyerere. He goes to meet his old friends – Bob Makani, Sylvester Masinde, Victor Kimesera, Brown Ngwilulupi, Mama Mary Kabigi, and many others. Edwin Mtei’s life has come full circle. He lived a full life. We should celebrate what he achieved and remember his journey.
He was the founding Governor of the Central Bank. The word “Gavana” really meant Mtei. Mwalimu Nyerere kept calling him “Gavana” even after others like Nyirabu, Rutihinda, Idris Rashidi, Daudi Balali, Benno Ndulu and more took the job.
I don’t know if any hall in the Bank of Tanzania carries his name. If not, the Bank should think about it. Now that there are branches all over the country, it would be right and honourable to name one of them after Edwin Mtei.
To our leaders today, there is a lot to learn from Mzee Mtei’s life. I am not saying we must copy everything from their time. As Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney (former Governor of the Bank of Canada and later the Bank of England) recently said, “Nostalgia is not a strategy”.
Looking back at the good old days is not enough. But we can learn from the past even as we forge our own interpretation of it. Our elders could disagree without hating each other.
They could hold different views without quarrelling or destroying one another. They could make different decisions without killing each other. They believed deeply in respect and human dignity.
We must find our own way to disagree without destroying respect, without fighting, without killing or tearing each other apart.
That, in my opinion, is the best way to honour our elders – and the best way to honour Edwin Mtei.
Hamba Kahle, Tata!
Arusha, 24/01/2026
Zitto Kabwe is retired party leader of ACT-Wazalendo and a former MP
