We wish, however, to sketch aspects that we believe can contribute to keeping stakeholders on the democracy-enhancement-law enforcement-good governance track.
Journalistic ethics forbid us to take sides in the controversy over the spirited campaign by Prof Ibrahim Lipumba to regain the chairmanship of the Civic United Front (CUF), from which he resigned before last October’s General Election.
We wish, however, to sketch aspects that we believe can contribute to keeping stakeholders on the democracy-enhancement-law enforcement-good governance track.
After 20 years at the helm, Prof Lipumba should remain an ordinary CUF member, but he would nonetheless play a highly helpful role as advisor. Chairman-for-life posturing casts the party, and the opposition at large in a bad light and weakens its case of branding as undemocratic, the ruling CCM, which changes guard at five-year intervals.
The credentials of a senior CUF official, Mr Julius Mtatiro, as a political and socio-economic analyst, risk erosion, given the difficulty of striking a judicious balance between being, as it were, player and referee.
Mr Mtatiro has declared that the party would take action, whose nature he did not clarify, if police would not take action against the alleged abortive attempt to kidnap the party’s deputy secretary general and director of finance, Mr Jorah Bashange.
But Ilala Regional Police Commander Mbaralah Maharagande says three people have been arrested in connection with the incident. Since the police has already set in motion the machinery of getting to the root of the incident, Mr Mtatiro’s suspicions that the law enforcers may drag their feet, is utterly reckless and indefensible.
Viewed within the broader context of the declaration referred to earlier, it implies that CUF plans to resort to unlawful, and potentially peace-disrupting measures, if police investigations and attendant actions or decisions, do not take the course that the party would consider positive. Inflammatory and holier-than-thou sentiments do CUF a disservice rather than promoting trust and hope.
A big re-think is pertinent, especially among leaders who are enjoined to be role models, particularly intellectuals like Prof Lipumba and Mr Mtatiro who should be fountains of wisdom.
KEEP CHILDREN IN SCHOOL
Poverty appears to be a key driver as young girls drop out of school in droves all over the country to work as house helps or barmaids or engage in prostitution. Boys also drop out of school in large numbers to work in mines or take up other menial jobs for which they are paid peanuts.
It is an alarming situation that cannot be left to continue unabated. Efforts must be made now to reverse the trend. One way of doing this is for the government to take action against parents or guardians of school dropouts, who are married off or take up odd jobs.
Village governments should ensure that stern action is taken against those who block children from joining Form One even after passing the national Standard Seven examination with flying colours.
For the sake of national prosperity, the school dropout menace must be curbed as part of wider efforts to build a foundation for the skilled manpower the country badly needs.
