On
October 14, 12 years ago, the Tanzanian nation lost its founding
president, Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, at Saint Thomas
Hospital in London.
The
then Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa, announced on national
television: “Today, I have the sad duty to announce that Mwalimu
Julius Kambarage Nyerere has died”. Mkapa continued in a sombre
voice: “The man known to all as “Mwalimu” had finally
succumbed to leukemia at the age of 77”.
Mkapa
urged Tanzanians: “Nyerere bequeathed this nation with peace and
stability and I want to appeal to all to unite and co-operate to
accord Mwalimu the respect that he deserves.” Sadly, nothing of
this sort is happening today under the current gathering of
opportunists.
Mwalimu,
a charismatic leader, academic, with a sense of humour, left a
unique mark in our history as a nation that needs to be recounted
often for the younger generation to understand what it meant to be
a Tanzanian under Nyerere’s incorruptible leadership in those
years.
It is sad that today some young Tanzanians are
talking of non-sense like breaking the union of Tanzania while our
artistic leaders are amassing wealth, selling the country at a
throw away price to crook investors as if thieving and corruption
are noble duties. Very sad!
Nyerere was not a perfect
human, and in fact his socialist economic model almost brought the
country to its knees, but he was a perfect Tanzanian who never did
anything bad against his nation knowingly. Unquestionably, Nyerere
did nothing for his personal gain or against the interests of the
nation, unlike many of our African leaders then and today.
Nyerere’s integrity, intellect, wisdom, humility,
civility, honesty, and nationalism, compounded with his respect
for human dignity, love of freedom and quest for human-centred
development, is what differentiate him from other leaders who
became leaders for the sake of writing histories and fattening
their pockets.
On
that day the United Nations General Assembly in New York stood in
silent tribute to him. The President of the Assembly, Namibian
Foreign minister Theo-Ben Gurirab, called him “a venerable world
leader and one of Africa's most charismatic and respected elder
statesmen.”
The United States President Bill Clinton
observed, “Nyerere's death is a huge loss for Tanzania, Africa
and the international community as a whole,” while the US
Secretary of State, Ms. Madeleine Albright, who attended the
funeral, described Mwalimu as a giant on the world stage as well
as an eloquent spokesman for the developing world.
Nelson
Mandela said: “The freedom of his country, the liberation of
other oppressed peoples and the unity and decolonisation of the
African continent were part of a single struggle for a better
world”.
The
late Zambian President, Frederick Chiluba paid this tribute:
“We've been robbed of great leader” while President Yoweri
Museveni of Uganda said: “"By overthrowing Idi Amin
dictatorship, Nyerere gave us a fresh start”.
Tony
Blair, the British Prime Minister, commended Nyerere's achievement
in subordinating tribal rivalries to national identity and noted:
“The fact that Tanzania is today a country at peace with itself
and its neighbours is in large part a tribute to Mwalimu.”
The World Bank president, James Wolfensohn who knew
Mwalimu well, in official statement said: “For the men and women
who have served the great cause of development in the world, one
of the lights of our lives went out today. Nyerere was one of the
founding fathers of modern Africa.”
Wolfensohn further
added: “He gave Tanzanians a sense of nation with a few
parallels in Africa and the world-bound by a common language,
Swahili, and a history almost entirely free of internal divisions
and conflict.”
The
African National Congress (ANC) stated: “Mwalimu Julius Nyerere
was an outstanding leader, a brilliant philosopher and a people's
hero - a champion for the entire African continent. He shall
always be remembered as one of Africa's greatest and most
respected sons and the father of the Tanzanian nation.”
Kenya’s Prof Anyang’ Nyongo, observed that
Nyerere stood taller than his compatriots in reputation,
performance and respect, while another world renowned scholar,
Prof Ali Mazrui, commented that Nyerere combined two rare
characteristics, integrity and intellect.
The British
paper, The
Independent,
said: “Mwalimu was a statesman of principle, intelligence and
charisma, political philosopher, militant, and idealist, an innate
democrat who was one of the few modern African leaders to take and
maintain power through the ballot and to give it up willingly.
The
Independent
added: “Nyerere provided Tanzania, not with (economic)
prosperity, but with dignity and with long-lasting stability in a
turbulent period of African history,” while the BBC praised him
saying: “Dr Nyerere stood out as an African leader who ignored
the trappings of power.”
Yes,
Mwalimu, our Father of the Nation, or as Museveni says, the
greatest black man to ever have lived, truly, we miss you and your
leadership!
NEXT
WEEK: Nyerere in his own words.
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