There is a new African leader in town and his name is John Magufuli. He is the new President of Tanzania after taking over from Jakaya Kikwete.
The handover was not an act of political choreography, but an outcome of a hard-fought election, where the revolutionary party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi, scrapped to victory with 58,46% of the vote on October 30, 2015.
Most people may not have known or heard that there were elections in Tanzania. Tanzania had its own internal differences. Election results were challenged in some areas, but national good prevailed over personal interests. The country has demonstrated a certain level of maturity ahead of most, if not all African countries. Global television cameras were not deployed in Tanzania because the election campaigns did not produce human blood on the streets, neither was there violence nor broken limbs. Western countries did not issue those security advisories, warning their citizens not to travel to Tanzania because of elections, as they often do with other African countries. Tanzania must be credited for overcoming those stereotypes.
But elections are just political processes that produce leadership and that process is over and done with for Tanzania. The challenge now is to decipher what lies ahead. Tanzania has been battling a cholera outbreak recently due to lack of access to clean water and sanitation. By 2014 about 12,3 million of Tanzania’s mainland population was living in poverty. This was a slight decrease after the country gradually, but in a measured manner, shifted from its African socialism ideology built on collective farming model known as Ujamaa, to embrace a more neoliberal approach. Perhaps this is evidence of how off-tune South Africa Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema is in modern day economics.
The Tanzanian government has been building more schools and connecting more families to electricity and improving access to water. Over the years, Tanzania has made significant investments in farming, business and trade, including improving infrastructure networks in rural areas to promote economic growth.
As the situation may prove today, these are just enablers, whose potential has yet to be transformed into meaningful development benefits for the people. This is the real challenge the new President, Magufuli, faces today — to translate potential into gains or face a massive regression into poverty again.
If Magufuli’s earlier approach to governance is anything to go by, Tanzania stands on the verge of economic boom if the new brooms are determined to steer the country to the promised land. So far the new President, in less than two months in office has dealt with corruption, civil service ineptitude, embezzling of public funds, put in place austerity measures, cut down on government spending and others. This is no mean feat for an African President, whose future survival rests on political patronage. He is, however, aware that when people are happy and are not dying of hunger and cholera, he will get a new term, come next elections.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
There is bigger fish to fry. The recent natural gas discoveries in Tanzania signals a potential shift in global gas production, as the country is endowed with more than enough to make it global leading gas producer for many decades to come. Petroleum and gas production may not be new in Tanzania, but the recent discoveries over the past few years remain unmatched and have challenged the existing framework that governs the petroleum sector. The government needs to quickly tighten the sector before it is open to robbery investment.
In addition to the framework headache, there is a dilemma on whether to go African or Western to make the most out of the gas deposits. The African model would be ideal, but not so much efficient considering its susceptibility to corruption and lack of predictable commitment. But should it happen, it means putting together a group of African conglomerates, through their governments’ support to produce and supply energy to African countries.
The wise Dangote has already inaugurated a cement plant, which takes advantage of the possibilities of cheap energy costs to boost his company’s production. He has already put himself in line as a potential investor in gas production. An African-driven approach would be one way to cut the cost of energy in most countries on the continent, which will subsequently have a knock-on effect on other production sectors resultantly boosting economies.
The Western model would be a replica of the same in Angola, Mozambique, Nigeria and other African oil producing countries, where Western companies bring their equipment and staff and extract the gas before exporting it unrefined to their home countries, where the processed energy is sent back to the producing countries at higher prices.
The model benefits the government in meagre taxes if any at all and a small shareholding proportion, while the real chunk from beneficiation is taken to the home countries of the investing countries. This model has historically proven unrepentant from its robbery thrust.
●Tapiwa Gomo is a development consultant based in Pretoria, South Africa
