Tanzania: Why President’s address to Dar City elders is a big deal

Tanzanians will be gazing towards Dar es Salaam today where President Samia Suluhu Hassan will be making her maiden address to the city’s elders.

Although The Citizen could not independently establish the content of the message that the President will deliver, history has it that it was during an addresses to Dar es Salaam city elders that former presidents delivered some major statements which defined their regimes.

For instance, it was in the presence of a similar audience that founding President Julius Nyerere declared war on Uganda on November 2, 1978 - and just as soon mobilised the Tanzania People’s Defence Force (TPDF) to counter the invasion of north-west Tanzania by Uganda dictator Idi Amin’s army.

Former president’s Ali Hassan Mwinyi, Benjamin Mkapa, Jakaya Kikwete and John Magufuli also inherited the approach.

Mr Kikwete used the approach on a number of notable occasions to effectively calm political and social temperatures during his two-year term as President of the United Republic of Tanzania.

In April 2010, during the countdown to general elections, Mr Kikwete found himself on the wrong side of voters when he reacted to workers’ threat to strike if government failed to meet their demands on wage increase and betterment of working conditions.

Mr Kikwete issued a strong-worded reaction, saying if workers were planning to use their votes as a bargaining chip in their demands, he would be ready to forfeit them as he would be elected by other people. The statement earned Mr Kikwete and his party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), a backlash from workers, activists and opposition politicians, some of whom, started appealing to workers for their votes “which have been rejected by Kikwete.”

In reaction to Mr Kikwete’s statement, the then acting secretary-general of the Trade Union Congress of Tanzania (Tucta), Mr Nicholas Mgaya, was at one point quoted as saying:

“You can’t force a person who has rejected our votes to accept now... rather we have to give our votes to the one who needs them and therefore Tucta will decide on who will be the right presidential candidate to support”.

So when he addressed Dar es Salaam elders sometime later, Mr Kikwete urged Tucta to call off its planned strike, promising workers that their paychecks would increase in the 2010/22 financial year.

It was during that address when Mr Kikwete uttered his famous Kiswahili quote: “Akili za Mgaya changanya na zako” which could be literally translated as “Don’t regard Mgaya’s assertion as gospel truth”.

Another incident happened in December 2014 that saw Mr Kikwete making use of Dar es Salaam elders as a platform to make a strong decision.

During that time, the then President Kikwete fired the then minister for Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development, Prof Anna Tibaijuka, for accepting a Sh1.6 billion payment from proceeds of the controversial Tegeta Escrow Account scandal.

The scandal led to the resignation of a number of other cabinet ministers and former Attorney General Frederick Werema.

Mr Kikwete’s successor, John Magufuli, spoke to Dodoma elders just hours before the October 2020 General Election where he called for the voting to be conducted peacefully.

Speaking yesterday (May 6, 2021), Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner Abubakar Kunenge said President Hassan will address city elders at a meeting to be held at Mlimani City Hall today (May 7).

He said over 900 elders are expected to attend, noting that a special procedure was followed to pick the elders who will meet the President while others should monitor the meeting through various media outlets.

“We urge those who have been invited to attend this meeting to come in time, we expect that by 2 pm all the elders will have arrived. And the arrangements of how they will get to the venue will be communicated to them, plus transportation,” he said.

Political analysts say President Hassan’s decision to meet with Dar es Salaam elders today could be a way of setting the stage for the type of her leadership path in the next four years.

By meeting them, analysts say, the President could be trying to show in advance how she appreciates and needs their support and advice when dealing with major national issues.

“It’s still too early to think there could be a major issue. She is setting the tone of her leadership,” the executive director and policy analyst at Tanzania Citizens’ Information Bureau, Mr Deus Kibamba, said.

A lecturer at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, University of Dar es Salaam, Dr Richard Mbunda, shared a similar opinion on the fact that the tradition was started way back by Mwalimu Nyerere.

“The decision to speak to elders builds them respect and popularity,” he said.

He noted that it was also a strategy for the leader to gain the public’s attention when addressing something of national interest through a meeting with the elders.

“Tanzanians will be more aware of the event and pay more attention to know what was happening,” he said.

Speaking to The Citizen yesterday, some of the elders said the move by the president to meet with them is good and they expect the listen to the direction that she wants to take the country in.

“All I can say for now is to thank the President for this gesture,” said the chairman of Dar es Salaam’s elders’ council, Mr Salim Matimbwa.