Recently, Chadema’s meeting has urged everybody to participate in their national mass rallies in protest of political kidnappings and killings, which is expected to be on 23rd September 2024. Superficially, it looks like they have a point, but a critical examination of Chadema’s top brass reveals a different picture.
Chadema’s top leaders are “wapiga dili,” or political opportunists. This article exposes the hypocrisy and self-interest within the party’s leadership and concludes they are not to be trusted.
Please do not get me wrong, I am pissed off just like everybody else with what evil is being unleashed on political figures in the country but in the same breath, I cannot obligingly agree to be duped by Chadema’s calls of mass demos to destabilize the nation nor do I buy on their unsolicited advice to bow down to the British colonial masters.
That we are incapable of investigating disappearances, tortures and murders! I will skip investigating turbulences in this article since it demands a separate discussion sometime soon.
Tanzania is not new to political assassinations. We have been on this track before, and somehow, we got to our senses and retracted ourselves to respect human rights. Chadema’s top brass fears for their lives, not ours.
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They are inflaming the youth to reject everything, including the union structure. They are the ones stoking extrajudicial means to secure their political aspirations.
Chadema is agitated, but they retreat like folding wings when the truth arrives. They lack the courage to finish what they start because they carry too much baggage—too much to risk losing.
During the draconian rule of the late President, Dr John Pombe Magufuli, most Chadema luminaries imposed self-eviction orders upon themselves. They sought and secured refugee status in Western and Arab nations, confirming beyond reasonable doubt who pays the piper.
Chadema’s modus operandi strongly indicates that they are foreign agents even though they have registered as domestic agents. They receive foreign donations, and they never declare them to relevant authorities.
We all know too well that whoever pays the piper calls the tune. It is high time a proper investigation was carried out into how Chadema mobilized its massive financial bootleg and who the major contributors and biggest spenders were.
This will help us know how much of the Chadema purse is allocated. Once forensic auditing is concluded and the findings are publicly shared, we may experience the shock of our lives.
The once-Chadema supremo, now in the safe hands of CCM, Mchungaji Peter Msigwa, has been revealing Chadema’s closely guarded secrets. He confirmed our worst fears. Chadema is not a political party; it is “ALI BABA AND FORTY THIEVES.” Msigwa has proven beyond reasonable doubt that Tanzania’s multiparty democracy is not working.
In the opposition, there is no democracy. Elections are rigged in favour of those close confidants of Chairman Mbowe. And, those who are not are hard done by. Chadema is a one-man organization, and others have to support him or will see the wrath of the chairperson. Msigwa, for his goodwill, is now slapped with a letter of recanting his allegations
or is threatening to be sued for defamation. In that libel application, the plaintiffs demanded Tshs 5 billion compensation for what? Is Chadema is still regarded as a vanguard of tolerance of contrarian opinion after this? Certainly not! That aura of moral invincibility is now ashes drowning in a toilet.
Even Tundu Lissu, the Vice Chairman, is unhappy and is on record decrying the election fraud in Chadema. He has been quoting Nyerere to indicate that his days in Chadema could also be numbered. He has said if CCM were not Nyerere’s mom, even Chadema would not be his mom. He could bolt out once Chadema has departed from its core principles.
He did not elaborate on those core principles, but I know they have none except “eating.” Tundu Lissu is unhappy with how his sidekicks were massively rigged in the recent Chadema elections. He knows that after these elections, Mbowe will control the central committee, and he will decide who will run for the presidential sweepstakes from Chadema.
Tundu Lissu has been sidelined. It is now possible to get even with Mbowe, but Tundu Lissu will decamp before the general elections to ACT Wazalendo. Then, he will stake out his presidential claim, splitting the opposition political stocks to the delight of CCM. In this matter, revenge is very sweet.
Chadema has called for mass demos after they were massively rigged out in the 2020 elections. On the day of the mother of all demos, top brass developed cold feet. Some were apprehended by the police in their homes, while others were scared stiff after receiving mysterious telephone calls that promised them nothing but horrors.
While most of their gullible followers attended, they quietly returned home since they had no reason to fight for their leaders. That demonstration failed miserably. After that, most of Chadema’s top echelons fled the country to pay homage to their foreign financiers.
Even Tundu Lissu is not clean. As much as the assassination attempt very touched us on his life, he cashed in on our sympathies. After his health improved following the attempt on his life, his first destination was in the US rather than in Bunge House. I could not read the bigger picture during that time, incensed by his tragedy.
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I thought the speaker of the House was cruel to deprive him of his payments. Job Ndugai was very right. If Tundu Lissu had the stamina and robust health to travel to the US, he certainly had enough of everything to attend parliamentary sittings. Tundu Lissu disregarded his parliamentary oath and the voters who had elected him to represent them. He was, indeed, Judas Iscariot swathed and cuddling in sheepskin.
Of late, Tundu Lissu has embarked on his own “GO FUND ME” campaign. He is badgering us to sacrifice basic needs so that he can buy a brand-new SUV. It never crossed his mind that the hoi polloi he was pleading with had never owned an SUV in their entire lives but were content to place “ugali na maharagwe” on their floor mats.
Asking them to contribute to the “Mheshimiwa” SUV was selfish. Tundu Lissu and Mbowe agitate for constitutional reforms, but inside Chadema, they entertain no such debate. Both are beneficiaries of the termination of term limits—a powerful legacy bequeathed to them by the founding fathers of Chadema: the first BoT governor, Mr. Edwin Mtei, and Bob Makani.
The duo knew this principle: unless Chadema was a democratic political party, it could not unseat CCM. Their pathetic successors did not believe in that vision and have transformed Chadema into a family business venture. Chadema demonstrates why multiparty democracy has failed in Tanzania.
If we do the maths and count every single cent that we have nourished political parties, we can understand why Tanzania will always be poor. We spend money to cough up new billionaires every year in the political parties while our collective lot wallows in untold poverty and miseries. We cannot eke out a “primitive accumulation” until we slice the fat imposed by multiparty democracy.
During the 2020 elections, we garnered many lessons from the opposition. Some rejected Edward Lowassa from being their presidential flag bearer, not because of ideological differences, but because they sensed money had changed hands and were left out from even picking the pieces from the Lowassa Jackpot.
When CCM came calling, they hastily decamped and imposed self-exile, claiming their lives were in danger. After the election, they returned demanding restoration of their former ranks, haemorrhaging huge fissures in the opposition outfits. Do we still have hope in the opposition?
This demonstration distraction is not about the cost of living, but the status quo in Chadema feels it is next on the chopping block. Lamenting in his X account, Godbless Lema shared photos of his sobbing wife and first daughter. He said his family is already mourning his political assassination because he had received mysterious calls threatening him.
Chadema is not impervious that this demonstration is about putting pressure on the regime to leave them alone. Chadema is not clamouring for a reduction in the cost of living because the agitators of Maandamano are loaded. Most do not know the cost of one kilo of Sugar or Sembe, so they are not miffed about issues closer to the heart of the poor.
The police have already banned the planned demonstration. On 23rd September, the police will conduct military exercises and collect garbage in areas where the demonstration will occur. If that is insufficient, the police will barricade the homes of Chadema’s top instigators.
The tamed Chadema leaders will quickly shift their demos to the X platform, where they will whine about how the police had interfered with their political activism. Expect a lot of inspirational speakers there, draining their emotions of inadequacies and a sense of powerlessness to effect change according to the dictates imposed by their pot-bellies.
Tanzanian youth should learn that Tanzania of Nyerere altruism is a goner and will never return. Everybody is on his own. Stop wasting your best years with these political con men whose contract with their bellies is and will still be intact.
Develop valuable skills and forge your way out. Stop depending on political opportunists to bail you out. The time you spend squandering during this demonstration will be regretted sometime in the future.
Be self-reliant and distance yourself from political movements that only benefit a small group of elites. Look at the Arab Spring, Bangladesh, and Kenya—once the youth did the heavy lifting for politicians, they were left with nothing. The aftermath of protests has only put them in a more vulnerable position than before.
However, if you believe politics is your true calling, start by addressing the biased opposition-focused constitutions before preaching about our constitutional crisis. We’ll start paying attention when the “axis of evil” connecting Mbowe and Tundu Lissu is finally broken. Charity begins at home before you try to spread it across the nation.
Some Chadema Gen-Z refuse to accept my wisdom and resent me for it, just as scripture foretold: They will reject the wisdom of my words. They claim the national constitution holds more importance than Chadema. Clearly, they haven’t been keeping up with their scripture lately.
If you can’t be trusted with small matters within Chadema, how can anyone trust you with significant national issues? Focus on gaining practical skills, find a sustainable job, and stop wandering. Interestingly, most of the passionate demonstrators are unemployed. Will protests pay their bills? We all know the answer to that.
Learn from history and be wiser.