Former Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism Ezekiel Maige

Former Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism Ezekiel Maige yesterday warned the National Assembly against the new trend where some MPs gang up against top government officials.

The former minister (Msalala-CCM) said it has now been proven that government officials who take tough decisions for the benefit of the masses turn out to be enemies of the few individuals, mainly the rich ones.

Maige made the remarks in Parliament yesterday when contributing to debate on estimates of the Ministry of Energy and Minerals which was wound up yesterday.

Quoting some lines from Scriptures, Maige who fell victim of the same parliamentary politics early May after he was axed from the ministerial position, said he warned MPs in April. He told them that some MPs were carrying the agenda of some people in the society and were all out to ensure some ministers and government officials who made decisions in favour of the masses were removed from their posts.

Maige was removed from the ministerial post in a cabinet reshuffle by President Jakaya Kikwete after MPs accused him of mishandling the allocation of hunting blocks to tourist hunting firms. There was also a scandal surrounding the ferrying of live wild animals abroad under dubious circumstances.

Maige said if the trend is left unchecked ministers and government officials would not be able to work, especially if they touched interests of the haves in the society.

Maige was referring to speculation that was rife for the whole week in Parliament that some oil dealers travelled to Dodoma to bribe some MPs so that they could engineer the ousting of Minister Sospeter Muhongo and Permanent Secretary Eliakim Maswi. This was after their oil companies were denied of an opportunity to supply heavy funnel oil to Independent Power Tanzania Limited (IPTL) plant for emergency power generation.

MPs from both sides, opposition and CCM camps, were claimed to have received the bribes from oil dealers to facilitate the plan before other MPs smelt a rat.