{UAH} Pojim/WBK; Race for Ikulu: Take a break and pray - Opinion/Editorial - thecitizen.co.tz

http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/oped/Race-for-Ikulu--Take-a-break-and-pray/-/1840568/2492870/-/2p5k56z/-/index.html

Race for Ikulu: Take a break and pray - Opinion/Editorial

In Summary

Because he was an accomplished storyteller, he reduced complex biblical teachings to simple, yet graphic terms—down to the family dinner table level—and spread laughter everywhere.

In the mid-1980s, retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa once served as president of the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) based in Nairobi, Kenya, where he endeared himself as one of the best ecumenical leaders.

Because he was an accomplished storyteller, he reduced complex biblical teachings to simple, yet graphic terms—down to the family dinner table level—and spread laughter everywhere.

In one such story, he recounted a dream in which he died and was given a conducted tour of both heaven and hell. He decides he would start with Hell, where he finds a well laid out banquet for all, but there was one strict rule: All had to use a long golden spoon held at the hilt—an impossible undertaking, as residents of Hell would soon learn. Each struggled to feed on their own. As a result, they all starved amidst plenty.

But the guys in Heaven got smart. They each chose a partner across the table to who they extended a spoonful of delicacies and also got fed the same way. That was Tutu's definition of development co-operation.

Zoom back nearer to the Sekenke range of hills, the abode of a fabled bird called Shunta. In the legends of yore, Shunta could heal practically every human ailment with a crude "surgical" procedure known as kunuuna in the local dialect of the Wanyiramba. Shunta the surgeon would make two or three incisions adjacent to the ear-lobe and just a whisker away from the eye. She would then rub in some herbs, often in powder form, and plant a small horn in the affected area and then suck in air to fill the vacuum. The procedure would eventually cause some blood to collect in the empty horn and the contents would provide the specimen for diagnosis. Typically, the horn will have been gouged out of a dead goat or ram.

But, alas, the legendary Shunta couldn't heal herself and there are no prizes for guessing where this is going. The moral of the story is that this lovely country we call Tanzania demonstrates lack of resolve to act on grand corruption and, despite the sterling performance that delivered victory during the wars of 'liberation' across Africa, we now cut an ugly picture of a whimpering latter-day Shunta. We remain one of the continent's well-endowed nations but fall hopelessly short when we fall ill.

Quite often, we turn to voodoo at the slightest suggestion that we are "unable" to heal ourselves. And so we remain a nation of artificial guarantees predicated on juju and tin gods when all we need is extra effort at honing our skills.

Take, for instance, the infighting within the ruling CCM for the highest office in the land—the presidency that everyone seems to be looking up to for personal gain when the rest are dying for leadership. It is no wonder that Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere often warned us to beware of a hard sell.

Each of us who were lucky enough to live under his tutelage have, had occasion to testify that Mwalimu personally occupied the "hallowed" precincts of State House for over two decades with scant blemish.

But going to Ikulu is now a dance by any other gig. We have in our midst "unwilling brides" who want us believe they are being pushed into it by popular acclaim as well as those who claim they have what it takes simply because they are young and energetic. In between, we have the not-so-young riding the high crest of experience.

In crude shorthand, we are faced with what Shakespeare once described as "sound and fury … signifying nothing". Last Tuesday (October 14), for instance, we observed the sad day, 15 years ago, when the founding father of this nation left to join his ancestors.

And, lo and behold, all our presidents-in-waiting seized the hour to preach hoary sermons purportedly informed by what Nyerere stood for. From 'p' to 'p' (peon to president), speaker after speaker stood up to question our intelligence in scripts that fell short of a resolve to atone for our collective loss of direction.

While we rail at apparent ineptitude within the ruling party, the main opposition parties have precious little to show for all the bravado about allegedly weak leadership, notably on how President Jakaya Kikwete supposedly keeps eating his own words over public pledges with the opposition on the way forward for the proposed new constitution.

This is utter nonsense. The man we call JK is walking a simple, well scripted matrix of his party which he doesn't want to suffer defeat. You would probably also do the same.

In matters touching on the forthcoming general election, it would be churlish to expect JK to suddenly become everyone's father and open up.

What the opposition is asking for amounts to facing Goliath and begging the behemoth to share his armour in order to pave the way for an elusive level playing ground. It has never happened anywhere and it won't happen anytime soon.

Yet there's still a saving grace even in this voodoo-driven nation. Coy brides and chest-thumping applicants eyeing that seat at Ikulu need some quiet, personal time for prayer.

Mr Mpinga a senior journalist based in Dar.

Race for Ikulu: Take a break and pray - Opinion/Editorial - thecitizen.co.tz

http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/oped/Race-for-Ikulu--Take-a-break-and-pray/-/1840568/2492870/-/2p5k56z/-/index.html

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