Easter wisdom for Samia in fight of her life

Tanzania’s ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), is feeling the heat amid a moral dilemma. Observers warn that it risks meeting the same fate as South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC), which suffered its worst performance last year, forcing President Cyril Ramaphosa to seek post-election coalitions.

Founded in 1977, CCM is now struggling with dark clouds gathering ahead of this year’s General Election on October 28, party mandarins are on an overdrive to steady the ship. If recent reports are anything to go by, President Samia Suluhu’s administration is a victim and a peddler of paranoia. Normally, paranoia sets in when a leader or party is more than just worried. Call it a lack of confidence and irrational distrust of others. That’s exactly what’s unfolding.

Days after veteran opposition chief Tundu Lissu of Chadema was detained, his party was barred from participating in the upcoming crucial vote. The Independent National Elections Commission said on April 12 that it cracked the whip after Mr Lissu failed to sign the electoral code.

But the opposition camp says it demanded key reforms before it could sign up.

There’s a new slogan that ‘no reforms, no election.’ Whether claims against Mr Lissu, alongside a treason charge, are valid or otherwise, the optics are damaging. With this, President Suluhu has handed critics reason to believe she’s cooking ‘something.’

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We should put ourselves in the Tanzanian president’s shoes. Usually, when poll fever and paranoia set in, it's normal for African leaders to lash out at imaginary enemies, including the media, civil society, and other independent voices. When an incumbent seeks re-election, the paranoia peaks. Mr Lissu, Chadema, and other collateral damages deserve our pity.

As an admirer of Mama Suluhu, I believe this is the time to appear to level the playing field by upholding political freedoms even if she doesn’t mean it.

Actions and reactions that are fodder for speculation can be avoided. MP Babu Owino visited Dar es Salaam in February, was held for three hours at Julius Nyerere Airport, only to be denied entry. Does the system feel threatened?

Political purging driven by fear of opponents has ruined great leaders. Remember President Richard Nixon of the US? His condescending attitude, mistrust, and obsession with secrecy led to the Watergate scandal. He exploded from his paranoia.

Perception matters a lot. This Easter, let’s trust President Samia, East Africa’s only woman president, to stop playing into rivals’ hands. Already, a ‘rushed’ January 2025 resolution by CCM congress endorsing her for 2025 has led to claims that party rules were flouted. Can she chart her path away from the conservative and all-pervading CCM syndrome? Yes, she can!

In my view, President Suluhu has done a sterling job. It’s time to reap from her scorecard. Tanzania’s GDP has expanded from $69.7 billion in 2021 to $85 billion under her watch. Today, a reliable railway connects Dar and Dodoma. There’s enough food and bigger healthcare gains.

And after she took office in 2021, President Suluhu freed political detainees and reversed a retrogressive policy stopping pregnant learners from going to school. She has also forged closer EAC regional ties such that Tanzanians may never again burn chicken imported from Kenya.

Out of these feats, she should make a convincing case for her re-election. Intimidating Chadema or silencing critics is pointless. There’s one moral question, though: Will she do the right thing, even if it means risking her seat? The Tanzanian leader, in my view, is a cut above the rest. She deserves a dignified re-election devoid of propaganda. 

But let Tanzania’s electoral laws be enforced fairly to build trust in the poll's outcome. East Africans simply want Tanzania, the United Republic, to succeed. On electoral matters, it shouldn’t be a laughing stock like ‘Ssebos’ and the ‘kizungu mingi’ folks.  

Indeed, Africa doesn’t need more strongmen. It only needs visionary people leading with integrity.