False news, empty rhetoric bad for us
Last week had both good and bad news. The good news included President Samia Suluhu Hassan addressing the UN Climate Change Summit (#COP29) in Glasgow, Scotland, on November 2.
One of the bad news was that someone thought it was a good idea to spread fake news to the effect that a newspaper published over there spoke in glowing terms about our President and her regime.
When this piece of fake news came to my attention via the social media platform Twitter, it first fooled me into believing that a former Tourism minister in the Tanzania government had seen it fit to enthusiastically spread this falsehood.
It is difficult to understand this kind of enthusiasm by our ex-minister who must be missing the ministerial status.
What was your end game, ex-Tourism minister? Did you see this as an opportunity for the Presidency to see you as able, willing and ready to fly the national flag again? Was it one of those loyalty pledges to enable you get back into the ministerial cabinet once again?
In tagging the President, did you believe that the
President would not have this matter fact-checked before making any decisions on it? Have we reached such desperation…?
We will never know the answers to these questions. But, what we know for a fact is that, in the larger scheme of things, these cheap stunts are not doing the Presidency any good.
What the Union President needs would resemble what the new Minister for Energy, Mr January Makamba, did – and continues to do.
Let us compare our ex-Tourism minister’s stunts with those of Energy Minister January Makamba.
While the former is focused on creating false narratives – what we would call ulaghai in Kiswahili – Mr Makamba focuses on being a true midfielder, to use football lingo.
In engaging with the parastatal power utility Tanesco – a provider whose myriad problems down the ages are well-documented – Mr Makamba is dealing with decades-old problems, many of which successive political leaders have papered over for narrower, selfish reasons.
On the other hand, Mr Makamba’s whirlwind tour of the oil-rich Arab countries – and faithfully reporting back to the public what his mission was all about – shows the sort of accountability needed in public service.
Some people may not like this; but, I bet, there are politicians, cabinet ministers even, who are willing, able and ready to bite the bullet for Her Excellency the President – if you will.
Given that public leaders get fired and reinstated in office, we should not be shocked if our ex-Tourism minister is reinstated in power. After all, people like him are good at selling false narratives as a matter of course.
Remember that this very same politician sold us the narrative that top world football clubs were queuing at his front door seeking to promote our Serengeti football teams at their cost!
These two approaches – one: to make-believe; and, two: to respond responsibly to the ultimate power brokers – are as different as are day and night.
There is a core element of Tanzanian power brokers who wield enormous power, and believe that politics is a game of throes of sorts, in which winning at all costs really matters. Since they are obsessed with winning ‘cheap-shot narratives’ that cannot stand the test of time, faking news is their sole purpose for existence.
It is bad enough that they wield power – and gain trust from the people who, for some reason, put them in power. Is it possible that we, Tanzanians, are all the same?
We have real problems with electing political leaders who tell us the truth. We are happy to elect leaders who, like many of us, are ne’er-do-wells: lazy and irresponsible, foul-mouthed folk who are no better than their next lie!
It seems that we are averse to straight talkers: honest, intuitive persons who do not open their mouths for clicks, but with real intention to say something that will change our nation’s well-being for the better.
In order to benefit from the potential wealth that God has bequeathed our country, we must begin to accept that only truth, diligence and honesty shall see us through – not empty rhetoric and political stunts, including falsified narratives.
