The circus is still in town

There are many characters straddling the political scene but few can work a crowd like one Bishop Josephat Gwajima. He has come to be the face of those with doubts about Covid-19 vaccines, saying he wants to be ‘educated’ on them but with different players and not the ones leading such efforts now, who, he says should instead offer their resignations to the president.

Amidst all this, he appeared before a parliamentary ethics committee and, again, managed to make headlines for all the different reasons.

To some of his critics, he is a deeply flawed character with as many contradictions as they come.

Others have wondered what could be his really motive in his Covid 19 vaccines doubts, with some saying he should not go against his leader, both in government and in the ruling party, CCM. These think that Bishop Gwajima is misled or walking a ‘wrong’ path in preaching a different tune from that of his leader.

He has countered, saying the president has been categorical about Covid 19 vaccines, that it should be a question of free will for everyone.

In the process exposing what appears to be a bitter family feud in the open.

There is no single political character in the country who can claim to be either black or white. They have flip-flopped on many things in the past.

For now, the controversies about Covid 19 vaccines do not appear to be an exhausted horse.

He is not the only MP from CCM to be summoned before a parliamentary committee for allegedly bringing the honour into disrepute. The other one is Jerry Silaa, a youthful MP who once talked about MPs and taxes as the debate about a new tax on mobile money transactions was raging.

For better or for worse, CCM has had bitter disagreements in the past, some of which are still alive today and can easily be ignited by the slightest of matters like our political union.

It cost one the presidency and denied another the same. The debate about our Union has had many other political casualties too. There is corruption which has drawn political blood especially around party primaries.

Even the way forward on a new constitution is not a matter anyone can claim CCM members share the same thoughts as their national leadership.

Why should it be any different with Covid 19 vaccines? Compared to those other issues, this one is not as divisive as them. What of the new tax on mobile transactions?

It is something that may not even hurt CCM’s political fortunes in the near future.

There are times when one feels like they are part of an audience captivated by a never ending drama on television.

In some ways, there is a return of to 2015 when Bishop Gwajima’s Sunday prayers made national headlines.

This time too as matters get personal, the audience to his prayers has continued to swell with each passing Sunday.

CCM has always been a party moving from one crisis to another and the different opinions on Covid 19 vaccines are yet to turn into political dynamite.

Our minds and eyes are glued elsewhere. We are at a point in these stories where the truth no longer matters. Those engaged in endless rounds of shouting matches with Bishop Gwajima are unlikely to dent his credibility. He has been here before some of them appeared on the national stage.

He has mastered his own stage.

They are playing by his rules and that did not go well to other previous individuals he faced-off, some for years over matters few remembered what they were real about.

By the time we move on from this ongoing public show, few of us will remember what it was all about in the first place.

After Haji Manara is wearing green jerseys now, working for a team he once claimed not even all the money in the Bank of Tanzania will make such an ‘anathema’ happen.

Life is entertaining that way, easing our pains to other difficult daily realities.

The circus is still in town.