{UAH} Allan/Pojim/WBK: MUTIGA: Show our leaders how to inspire change from the top - Opinion | Daily Nation
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MUTIGA: Show our leaders how to inspire change from the top - Opinion
You know a new wind is blowing in Tanzania when you begin to read articles like this one in far off Australia:
"Malcolm Turnbull (should) follow the example of Tanzania's new president," wrote editor Rowan Dean in the Courier andMail newspaper.
The columnist compared what he described as the "procrastination, indecision and waffle" that he said has marked the new Australian Prime Minister's first 11 weeks in power with John Pombe Magufuli's flying start as president of Tanzania.
"Where Turnbull has headed off parading around the world pontificating at pointless exercises like the Paris climate change conference, upon winning last month's election Magufuli cancelled all further overseas travel and first and business class airfares for government officials. Where Turnbull has presided over endless economic (talking shops) where 'everything is on the table' and 'nothing is ruled in or ruled out', Magufuli immediately ditched all such seminars being held in expensive hotels, insisting government ministers use their own boardrooms."
Magufuli richly deserves this praise.
There are endless debates among political scientists about how change comes about in society.
Some nations thrive because they are rule-based societies where institutions are strong and the bureaucratic and judicial institutions are impartial and well respected by all, allowing people to unleash their creativity and engage in business without fear of arbitrary decisions that might bring them down.
Sometimes, especially in poor countries on a very low level of development and with weak institutions, you need a charismatic leader to pull society up to a new level and (hopefully) eventually help to develop the institutions that tend to follow when people becomes prosperous.
Paul Kagame and Meles Zenawi are examples of charismatic individuals that have transformed their nations after a long period of conflict.
Kemal Ataturk took over a backward and fading kingdom and fashioned modern Turkey in his image.
Lee Kuan Yew did the same in Singapore. Could Magufuli be the next great leader in this tradition on the continent?
The early signs are promising.
He has shown that just by taking simple steps such as scaling back the outrageous amounts MPs spend on cocktails and parties and making impromptu visits to public hospitals to ask why patients are spending nights on the floor, one can send a strong message to the public service that it's time for change.
I must admit I was not in the Magufuli camp during the campaigns although with these things I am guided by Winston Churchill's comeback when challenged on why he kept changing his mind: Eating your own words has never given any man indigestion.
Having travelled through Tanzania in the pre-election period I had sensed the thirst for change that many urban youth felt, a yearning for an end of single party dominance that united youths from Harare to Nairobi to Kampala to Lusaka through the 1990s and which explained the strong support the Tanzanian opposition enjoyed in urban areas.
But Magufuli has shown that change can come from within the ruling party, too, if reform-minded people take the helm.
(The irony is that Edward Lowassa, the defeated candidate at the last election deserves credit for Magufuli's rise in CCM after he threw his weight behind the Public Works minister when it became clear his own candidacy would be blocked during the presidential primaries by the ruling party mafia.)
THE RIGHT LEADER
Can the changes Magufuli is implementing be sustained?
There is criticism that the new President is engaging in tokenism.
There is also the fear that the powerful elite may resist change.
Magufuli should shield himself against running out of steam by ensuring he invests in systems that work alongside the edicts he has issued from the top.
However, one cannot understate the importance of a perception of incorruptibility and honesty at the top.
The rapid economic expansion in the first Kibaki term in Kenya owed almost entirely to the feel-good factor unleashed by the fall of Kanu.
By contrast, many people are frustrated by Jubilee simply because they don't see the "fire in the belly" at the top to make people's lives better.
Magufuli is that rare leader in the region with an unmistakable desire and will to bring change.
Kenya should be wary because the sleeping neighbour next door may not slumber for much longer.
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