By Nyasigo Kornel
When Mwalimu Julius Nyerere set out with a vision to facilitate equal distribution of wealth in Tanzania, it did not take him long to discover that one cannot distribute what he doesn’t have! One must produce and generate wealth and then perhaps engage in the luxury act of distributing it.
Academicians have done a lot on researching what stuck our way to richness and came out with multi-facts spotting the wizard who have made Tanzania craw like snail in development, yet the undeniable causes being lack of pragmatism and visionary philosophy to our country.
Dr. Joseph Kyembe who is researcher and consultant to Poverty Africa recently presented paper that challenged the academic arena, he is of the opinion that the poverty in Tanzania is due to lack of visionary approach.
He says that there is no mystery behind some countries being rich and others poor. Rather, Dr. Kyembe says that it is a result of the policies they chose and the institutions they put in place. Although this sounds simplistic, he says it is nonetheless a truism which developing countries ignore at their peril.
“When Mwalimu Julius Nyerere set out with a vision to facilitate equal distribution of wealth in Tanzania, it did not take him long to discover that one cannot distribute what he doesn’t have! One must produce and generate wealth and then perhaps engage in the luxury of distributing it,” says Dr Kyembe.
He is of the belief that it is depending on a politicians understanding of how the wealth is generated, one might as well set out with a clear vision of distributing wealth and resources to all 35 million Tanzanians!
Prof. Awagual Oseuogou a Representative of Poverty Africa from Ghana to the symposium says that a quick look at Tanzania in the last 50 years points at the futility of citizens investing in political visions that are purely driven by a misplaced understanding on how to fight poverty.
“What would be the most appropriate vision for leadership in this country? Oops you missed that one. First as citizens, we must assign ourselves the responsibility of seeking to understand how the world works! Do we have such things as free services from government?” says Prof Awagual.
John Ooko, a Kenyan Representative argues strongly saying no, the government taxes us before accumulating enough to offer whatever it refers to as free.
Dr Kyembe supports the Ooko’s foresight arguing that Tanzania’s case is even worse because the government approaches donors to assist in implementing its ‘free projects’.
“The false belief that other people will always act in the best interest for others is what leads to misplaced visions for Tanzania and by extension Africa,” says Dr. Kyembe.
Mbaga Selestine one of the spectator to the symposium raised his contribution that look a bit anonymous but rather with sparking reality, he welcomes the audience to the season of vision peddling in Tanzania saying that all the political leaders seem to have suddenly dreamt up some wonderful vision for this country.
“At this rate, the country might as well dispense the whole idea of vision 2010 and simply assign those seeking political office to deliver manna from heaven,” he says.
Both sides of the political divide share one vision in common: that of fighting poverty. What is a vision?
A leading African American Economist, Thomas Sowell once quoted in his books saying; ‘Visions are like maps that guide us through a tangle of bewildering complexities.’
He adds, ‘A vision is our sense of how the world works. For example, primitive man’s sense of why leaves move may have been that some spirit moves them, and his sense of why tides rise or volcanoes erupt may have been along similar lines.’ What vision does your local member of parliament, or your favorite political party espouse?
Mbaga believes that the leaders ought to analyze the type of visions articulated from socio-economic needs. At political party level, freebies are paraded for all to see, ranging from ‘free’ primary education, to ‘free’ high school education.
“Depending on mwananchi’s (citizen’s) sense of how the world works, this political deliverables are either ‘free’ or some scientist ought to point out to them that no such thing as ‘free’ exists in reality,” he says.
The Kenyan counterpart Solomon Okuta is of the vision that tribalism exist in Tanzania in a silent way though noticed but not spoken.
Solomon says that another popular vision is that of ‘our turn to eat the national cake’! If you share a similar understanding of the primitive man’s premise of what makes leaves float, then it is very possible that you believe that the biggest problem in Tanzania and by extension Africa is tribalism!
“You find one institute with one dominant tribe, speaking on this in Tanzania means nothing but it is silent growing parasite. Not-at-all; it is the national cake”, he says.
He advises that as long us we continue to allow the government to hold the biggest cake on this land, all energies will be used to access it, and the most potent strategy at the moment is that of tribe and clan.
He warns by alerting on how this cake is baked saying that when foreign aid rolls in, all lucrative contracts are generated in readiness to be dished out to ‘correct’ tribesmen.
“When we assign the government the duty of doing business other than acting as a regulator, and supervisor, we promote the expansion of the cake in the public domain (‘Mali ya Umma’) as opposed to private domain,” he says.
Second, he admits that if you wait to have a share of the national cake, your vision is likely to promote tribalism! What we ought to be working on at the moment is how to shrink the national cake and divert the energies of brilliant Tanzanian minds to acts of productivity and self ‘baking’ of cakes.
Solomon argues that we can shrink the national cake by urging the government to desist from punching more holes in our pockets and derailing our continental positioning by running to donors in order to offer ‘freebies’.
He advises that instead, we must put in place policies that will promote economic freedom of our populations in order for them to engage in businesses and productivity.
Dr. Kyembe challenges Tanzania tycoons for only contributing to the church building, and political rallies shunning from supporting education.
He asks that next time you meet a wealthy person, ask him what products he offered on the market! If the wealth is as a result of the individual having come from the right-clan in control of the ‘national cake industry’ and has produced nothing for the market, then you are looking at another stupid vision for the country.
Lastly, Tanzania and Africa will enjoy prosperity by simply diversifying the constituency of leadership thereby managing to counter external onslaughts that have for a long time taken advantage of ‘one-man or one clan’ type of leadership. It is our responsibility as citizens to figure out what makes volcanoes to erupt!
Tanzania must be pragmatically proactive and not reactionary. Tanzanians must take cognizance of both internal and external dimensions. Looking within for the source of underdevelopment before considering external factors will be a step in the right direction.
There are no magical elixirs in the quest for growth: prosperity occurs when the right incentives are in place. It happens when government incentives induce technological adaptation, high-quality investment in machines, and high-quality schooling.
It happens when politics is not polarized between antagonistic interest groups, but there is a common consensus to invest in the future. More importantly, broad and deep development happens when a government is held accountable for its actions.
No comments:
Post a Comment