JUMANNE: No more national values, what happened?

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The rat race for monetary gain- while in the hay days of Ujamaa (Socialism) we used to laugh at a neighbouring country for its seeming ambition to create a “man eat man” society - have become so pronounced in our motherland that a larger section of the populace languishes in abject poverty.

The men and women of the fourth estate in Tanzania can attest that there are many so called private colleges (not universities) teaching journalism at certificate and diploma levels, producing products that cannot qualify for work in any newsroom.

It is just a money minting ploy. Similarly, in my chosen field (teaching), of late there has been a proliferation of private colleges apparently offering qualification for primary and nursery school teaching. Like in the case of journalism colleges, parents/students are duped.

Even if your child got the lowest mark or zero in secondary education and cannot qualify for any academic course, these private colleges are there to take the child in. Elsewhere, such suspicious colleges are called diploma mills.

Talk to the Confederation of Tanzania Industries (CTI), you will learn that one of the biggest drawbacks to Tanzania’s manufacturing sector, is the rise of counterfeits.

Cheating and making quick money in the most dubious manner possible is fast becoming a national obsession. The erosion of morals in our business sector is shocking.

When you go to a supermarket or pharmacy, you have to inspect every product to make sure it is not expired, let alone fake.

Dealers care least about selling poisonous or adulterated goods to consumers as long as they make money and are not caught.

You must have heard the story about counterfeit medicine. Imagine fake medicine sold for ailments including diabetes, cancer and heart problems. This is a regular occurrence in Tanzania; and greedy businesspeople are getting away with murder.

Even at family level, values are quickly diminishing. From the way people dress, eat and address each other, you can bet something is amiss.

The number of men and women, who are not taking their family responsibilities seriously, is on the rise. For instance, parents continue to carry the burden of delinquent children, some whom are over age.

It makes me wonder if Tanzania today is really a nation without national values. We are talking about a representation of the paramount values upheld throughout the common cultural experience of a nation.

When we look around, read newspapers, watch our TVs and listen to radio stations, do we have any values?

In our villages, our cities are there values that the young and the old alike can identify with and stand for in defining their lives?

In perusing the majority of national policies, I have only come across cultural policy mentioning national values.

Vision 2025, for example, does not state how the biggest scourges of our time - corruption and immorality - are to be addressed.

The only document that dwells a lot on national values is Mkukuta (II), that is, the National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty II.

Mkukuta goal 5 is about promoting and preserving a culture of patriotism, hard work, moral integrity, and self-confidence, as a matter of national values.

Some operation targets for goal 5, in instilling national values and traditions include : “Attitude toward hardworking, self-confidence, and self-esteem, creativity, innovation and moral integrity promoted and enhanced.”

Maybe the only national value working well today is national cohesion, and the remnant of values inherited from Nyerereism, that we are yet to sweep under the carpet.

We don’t hear our leaders talk much about national values. We don’t see it in practice along the activities of different ministries. This is a dangerous trend.

The civil society, academia and all patriots must rise and strongly fight to ensure that we are a nation of values that are critical to fulsome national development.

Ms Jumanne is  assistant lecturer, Dar es Salaam University College of Education (DUCE).