After the internal elections that toppled a long-reigning chairperson, Freeman Mbowe, and some of his lackeys and installed Tundu Lissu have fractured the party, with the former sympathizers garnering a third of party loyalists and the latter scooping about two-thirds of them. Chadema cannot afford to ignore these debilitating fissures as it is heading to the general election. Of interest, after the bitter, polarizing elections, the “new kids on the block” had promised to quickly thaw the rancour and the recriminations, but what I see right now is anything except that. This article revisits the root causes of Chadema’s growing cracks and offers some suggestions on how to vitiate them.
Newly coronated Chadema’s top brass had promised to close ranks, acknowledging the elections had left the party in doldrums, incapable of launching a successful triumph in the forthcoming elections. Behind the empty rhetoric, there has not been a genuine effort to patch up past differences. What I see is widening cracks getting completely out of hand. The alleged beating of Bawacha’s publicity secretary in Njombe confirms that Chadema is smouldering, albeit not wholly choking, in the furnace.
From what many news sources indicate, the Bawacha publicity secretary could be eyeing the Njombe parliamentary seat and has been vigorously making her case. That doesn’t seem to suit the designations of some top Chadema leaders. Her rivals have also complained that she has been openly campaigning without waiting for national party guidelines and kickoff. That her meetings have not been sanctioned by the national organs. She is smelling blood that with a little more effort she may bag the Chadema nomination and eventually floor CCM candidate the ballot box. She feels the electorate resonates with her personality and message. Bowing to pressure to cool off now may compromise her loftier aims: be an MP.
A reconciliation meeting before Chadema vice chairperson John Heche turned sour after she was forced out of a meeting while her rivals had ample time to advance and cement their grouses against her. When she came back, she found her goose was already not only cooked but eaten, and there were not even leftovers reserved for her. Looks like the ban order went against her. She couldn’t overturn it: no more unofficial meetings for her and that she must patiently wait till the bell rang for all to plunge in. She was furious and openly protested at the top of her voice to no avail, and one of the bodyguards just knocked her down. The police have echoed similar ugly scenes.
She was issued with a PF3 form and hurried to the hospital, where she was hospitalized. Somewhere in Mbarali, one Chadema official has either suspended or dismissed certain key members in the run-up to the elections. Some have suggested that behind those expulsion decisions lies a determination to control the narratives of the incoming elections. Those who oppose the sackings feel the election template has been flipped to favour certain candidates aligned to certain national leaders.
As if these internal disputes are not enough, Chadema’s top brass has been reluctant to move on from the 19 women special seats MPs whose matter is still being fought in courts. The high Court directed Chadema to observe principles of natural justice and by implication reinstate them, but overblown egos pushed Chadema to appeal. It was my expectation that Chadema would have let “bygones be bygones,” but Tundu Lissu, in particular, holds grudges against them indefinitely. He is the one sabotaging any effort to reconciliation.
He is on the record urging the 19 MPs to ask for forgiveness! Tundu Lissu is yet to move past his presidential election loss to Magufuli and is still bitter that those 19 women representatives did not empathize with his painful predicament. Tundu Lissu is still inconsolable that those women MPs undermined his cause by placing self-interest above national ones. Effective leaders keep their eyeballs on the real ball and refuse to let minor distractions derail their goals. If Tundu Lissu can forgive Dr. Wilbard Slaa, what is stopping him from doing the same to the 19 errants? Interestingly, both Dr. Slaa and the 19 errants were enticed by CCM to break ranks with Chadema. The two cases are almost identical. Tundu Lissu may defend himself that Dr. Slaa has asked for forgiveness, but the 19 women MPs haven’t, but those are petty issues. We forgive and forget not because of the conduct of the wrongful party but because we can raise ourselves above the fray. Tundu Lissu ought to do the same if he is to shatter the ceiling of election achievement left behind by Edward Lowassa. However, rummaging for election loss scapegoats through “No reform, No election” will receive the strongest rebuttals.
How can the 19 MPs seek clemency for an offence the High Court has cleared them? Where are Tundu Lissu and Chadema’s claims to the rule of law and good governance? I peek very little to support such flimsy claims. Somewhere in Same, one Chadema District leader has thrown fireworks into the just-concluded elections. He is agitating for the nullification of the elections of the secretary general, deputy secretary general and a couple of members of the central committee. He said he had written to the secretary general demanding an explanation of whether there was a quorum during that fateful meeting!
However, the complainant contradicts himself when he indicates he has no issues with the election of the Chairperson and his deputy. He had said those two elections were above reproach. The problem to the complainant was that the meeting and its disputed quorum of those two elections happened in the same hall and on the same day. The complainant cannot genuinely reconcile his diametrically opposite stances without running into contradictory averments. If the election of the chairperson and his deputy were carried out properly, so were the consequential elections. The reason is that the same people and almost the total number of participants were statistically insignificant to raise those accusations.
Still, the underlying causes of such in-house bonfires can be understood when the new leaders seem to refuse to humble themselves before their own members. Elections in political parties in Tanzania depend on the top leaders; if they have a reason to dislike a candidate or have their own preferences, his candidature is sunk on arrival. When the former Premier Frederick Sumaye aspired to challenge Freeman Mbowe for the Chadema chairperson docket, he found a well-choreographed opposition in his own backyard. Sumaye couldn’t even retain his own coastal regional chairmanship. He swiftly learnt his lesson that all political parties are just the same. He reluctantly returned to CCM and has accepted his fate: it is over for him.
Chadema’s top brass is obsessed with an anti-election “No reform, no election” while deep down there are serious cracks demanding the central essence of the party focus and attention on mending fences. No political party can win elections when its leaders keep throwing fireballs wherever they go. You can imagine that if a credible rival challenges Mr. Sugu in Mbeya or John Heche in his own backyard, how much of Chadema will still remain unscathed. Both expect Chadema to ratify their parliamentary nominations. A failure to abide by that will spew haemorrhages.
Part of the weakness of political opposition in Tanzania lies in lacking government jobs to bribe those perceived as rivals to contain the fallout. It could have tamed many runaway political ambitions in check. Chadema lacks that gravy train to appease her fractious senior members who lost out in party nominations. The majority view winning the parliamentary seat as the golden prize and will do anything to undermine serious rivals. What is happening in Chadema fits into this assessment.
As Chadema crisscrosses the country to sensitize and popularize her election banner of “No reform, no election,” it will do well to remember that without party unity, all they are pursuing are darkness and slippery paths. They need to reach out to whoever has disputes to resolve and close ranks. A team divided never triumphs, and Chadema is no different. Chadema must now gazette its election regulations because any perceptions of bias will lead to even more splinters. The youth behind Chadema are demanding change in the way the country is being governed, and that hunger begins inside Chadema. The youth wants to see free, fair, credible and verifiable elections conducted inside Chadema, while defending unpopular dinosaurs will not be easily forgiven or forgotten at the ballot box.
For the youth, the choices have never been more stark: Chadema conducts itself as a party ready to assume power or stand condemned into the archives of those who tried but had neither the plan, wit nor the pertinent ideology to win the forthcoming elections.
We are watching what kind of fallout beckons. The real problem for Chadema is a visceral notion that the “No reform No election” is a stratagem to exculpate herself why she was soundly beaten in the elections. It is not a credible strategy to bring CCM to the negotiating table for a simple reason: CCM is an empty shell without controlling the Exchequer purses. If CCM lose the general election, the stampede will be worse than the most formidable Tsunami ever experienced. Few will keep the faith once it dawns on them that the buttered bread is no longer with CCM. Most will flee to a political party that wins power. Tanzania is no longer in the hands of ideologies that can persevere despite being rejected by the electorate and position themselves to fight the next election battle.
Nope, what we have are mere belly worshippers and nothing else. They are more than willing to auction themselves to the highest bidder, notwithstanding the costs required. Sadly, even the opposition appears to strike the same notes, and it may be troublesome for voters to differentiate the two. No one is willing to be a sacrificial lamb, paving the way for our better tomorrow. Everyone is eager to eat first or bring chaos to the team.
Honestly, I never thought I would begin writing Chadema’s obituary before even a single vote was cast, but this is what I am beginning to do! How disgusting!
Read more analysis by Rutashubanyuma Nestory
