The President’s New Year’s resolutions

President Samia Suluhu Hassan ushered in the New Year with a message to the country that had both; reflection on the past twelve months and a resolve to get some things done in the next twelve months. To the president, the New Year will be about delivering after twelve months of making reforms in the public sector.

There are no opposition equivalent of the President’s address, but what would they have made of her New Year’s resolutions?

On some issues, such as the reforms intended for political parties and election laws, opposition parties have offered divergent views though most of such views converge on that the government’s planned reforms do not go far enough. Others in the opposition are outright convinced that the reforms are a ‘defeat’ to them because they did not deliver on the issues they raised.

A related matter was about improving the voters’ permanent register and the country gearing up for the local elections at the tail end of this year. She urged the people to participate fully in those elections. Hopefully, those elections will be held under a new, comprehensive and improved law which will give the best picture of what awaits the country in 2025 during the general election.

On other issues like the shifting timeline of completion of some strategic projects like the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), her tone though firm, pointed to the fact that she understands the frustrations of the people about the never ending delays and issued an ultimatum. However, for the SGR to perform as intended, it will need more than an ultimatum. The country must sort out power blues first. We are a country of never ending excuses in delivering reliable power ranging from claims of underfunding the power utility company, political interests interfering with technical expertise to rains falling in the ‘wrong’ places.

The President pointed to some of the economic sectors which performed better or are on the mend like tourism. Generally, she was upbeat about the country’s economic health. She pointed to measures taken by the government to ease the pain to the common man and woman including tackling inflation. However, the common man and woman need more than government statistics to understand the government’s explanation of the economic situation. After all, they recently ended up paying more for transport across the country, which in turn leads to other economic difficulties for them.

The conversations and debates were not about the uplifting economic figures the President presented.

The President also noted that this year the country will mark 60 years of the Zanzibar’s revolution as well as sixty years of the Union. She was thankful that the country’s borders are secure. In recent past, with the on and off public celebrations, they were one-sided affairs which did little to nothing to provide insights or inform new generations of their country’s past. Hopefully, as the country celebrates reaching ‘retirement’ age, whatever celebrations are held will be inclusive affairs and conducted in ways that are useful to a generation of young people to learn about their country.

The President talked about the process of preparing a new development vision for the country. Civic United Front’s (CUF) chairperson, Prof. Ibrahim Lipumba faulted the country’s Development Vision 2025, arguing that the reasons it failed to deliver in some key issues was down to transparency issues. To him, the government must commit itself to democracy and good governance for the new development vision to succeed. The President also mentioned start-ups and their place in the country’s economic development. There was also the new education curriculum which is aimed at delivering education that reflects the realities of a changing world. Continued improved in the agricultural sector and reforming public parastatals.

For this to work, tough decisions must be made on upgrading the current operating system so that it performs better in the current hardware. Where we are now is such that the country has not upgraded its software of Ujamaa operating system to better deliver the outcomes in the Free-market hardware where it is installed. Anything less, and it is a mismatch leading to glitches and failures in delivering the intended outcomes.

Above all, the President’s address to the nation was her presenting her scorecard in an election year. It was crucial to project an image of a person in charge of the country on the right path. She will need a far better 2024 to convince those with doubts.

Happy New Year good people!