NEW SPEAKER’S PLEDGES: WHY SHE SHOULD WALK HER TALK
What you need to know:
- The holder of a Master’s Degree in Law (University of Dar es Salaam, Class of 2003) – and a PhD holder from the University of Cape Town (2007) – Dr Ackson was appointed a Member of the Union Parliament, by President John Magufuli on November 16, 2015.
Long before the proverbial ink had dried on the resignation letter of the immediate past Speaker of the Union Parliament, Mr Job Ndugai, 59, Tanzania was blessed with a replacement Speaker in the name and person of Dr Tulia Ackson (‘Mwansasu’), 45.
The holder of a Master’s Degree in Law (University of Dar es Salaam, Class of 2003) – and a PhD holder from the University of Cape Town (2007) – Dr Ackson was appointed a Member of the Union Parliament, by President John Magufuli on November 16, 2015. Then she contested for – and won – the Mbeya Urban Parliamentary seat in the 2020 Elections, whose general results were highly controversial.
What with one thing leading to another, Ms Ackson was elected Deputy House Speaker by fellow parliamentarians in 2015 – a position she held under Speaker Ndugai before finally replacing him after the Tuesday polling this week, sweepingly winning the position against eight opponents by 100 percent of the votes.
We have purposely gone to these relatively great lengths on Dr Ackson’s background to show that her overwhelming electoral victory as the new Speaker, coupled with her experience, equips her with what it’d take to successfully walk the talk on what she pledged to do for Tanzanians.
Among her pledges are “to lead a strong Parliament that’d effectively hold the Government fully accountable”… and that “she’d work on all concerns regarding ‘Parliamentary Independence’ to ensure that it’s authority is restored”…
For more detail on this, please go to our yesterday’s edition. Suffice it here to say that the new Speaker comes as a light at the end of a long dark tunnel that would lead us to where the three traditional pillars of government – the Legislative, Judiciary and Executive – once again become “independent from each other, BUT each having more-or-less similar degree of authority.”
We sincerely wish Speaker Ackson Godspeed on this.
LET'S PROTECT WETLANDS
Yesterday, February 2, was World Wetlands Day (WWD), an environment-related celebration dating back to 1971 when environmentalists met to reaffirm the need to protect wetlands.
Wetlands are a distinct ecosystem that is flooded by water, either “permanently” or “seasonally.” Indeed, wetlands do have considerable benefits to Nature and living organisms, including humans. The benefits include water purification; groundwater replenishment; stabilization of shorelines and storm protection; water storage and flood control; processing of carbon (carbon fixation, decomposition and sequestration), as well as processing nutrients and pollutants”…
Although the importance of wetlands has been known for generations, it was only on August 30, 2021 that the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 75/317 to proclaim February 2 ‘World Wetlands Day.’ This was after studies established that the “nearly 90 percent of the world’s wetlands have been degraded since the 1700s, and we are losing wetlands three times faster than forests”.
The studies also showed that “wetlands are critically important ecosystems that positively contribute to biodiversity, climate mitigation and adaptation, freshwater availability, national economies – and more! Tanzania is endowed with riverine/Rift Valley and coastal wetlands from all of which the country can immensely benefit in terms of agriculture, aquaculture, etc.
We, therefore, should join the world in highlighting the critical importance of wetlands to our existence as earthlings.
