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Lowassa new PM
2005-12-30 09:56:15
By Bilal Abdul-Aziz, Dodoma
Edward Ngoyai Lowassa was yesterday confirmed as Tanzania’s new prime minister.
President Jakaya’s Kikwete’s nomination of Lowassa was revealed in Parliament which then voted to endorse the new prime minister to take over from Frederick Tluway Sumaye, who held the post for ten consecutive years.
Lowassa is expected to be sworn in today by President Kikwete at Chamwino State Lodge in Dodoma.
The Speaker of the National Assembly, Samuel Sitta, kept MPs and Tanzanians following live broadcasts of the session in suspense for a couple of minutes before opening an envelope presented to him by President Kikwete and announcing that Lowassa was the head of state’s nomination for the post.
Rapturous cheers greeted the announcement and Lowassa, who had sat pensively as he waited for the name of the nominee to be revealed, smiled contentedly from his seat as legislators congratulated him.
Attorney General Johnson Mwanyika then asked the House to endorse the nominee, and MPS voted in a secret ballot after long serving legislator Chrisant Mzindakaya had given a profile of the appointee.
As expected, the nomination of Lowassa, who is the CCM MP for Monduli, was endorsed resoundingly by the House in which CCM has a huge majority. A total of 312 MPs voted in favour of Lowassa against just two ’’no’’ votes. One vote was spoilt.
Lowassa promised to serve Tanzanians diligently in his new capacity, and thanked President Kikwete and MPs for having confidence in him.
Some analysts said the selection of Lowassa as prime minister had been the worst kept secret in Tanzanian politics in recent months.
’’Rumours that the next premier would be Lowassa have been making the rounds since CCM nominated Kikwete as its Union presidential candidate in May.
He was the one who was being mentioned a lot…I’m not surprised,’’one of the observers said after yesterday’s endorsement.
Lowassa was one of several prominent figures mentioned as possible candidates for the post.
Others included former Cabinet ministers John Pombe Magufuli and Prof Mark Mwandosya and legislators Mizengo Pinda and Prof Jumanne Maghembe.
Some watchers had expected President Kikwete to surprise Tanzanians by appointing the first woman prime minister in the country’s history, and those mentioned included Ambassador Gertrude Mongella, Dr Asha-Rose Migiro and Anna Makinda, who ruled herself out after declaring her candidacy for the position of deputy Speaker, which she won yesterday.
Lowassa was once a powerful Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office in Mzee Ali Hassan Mwinyi’s second phase government, but his star waned after he lost in the CCM presidential nominations in 1995.
He spent five years as a backbencher before immediate former President Benjamin Mkapa plucked him from the wilderness by appointing him Minister of Water and Livestock Development after the 2000 elections.
Having coming in from the cold, Lowassa’s profile rose rapidly and he quickly became one of the ministers who stood out from Mkapa’s Cabinet.
He, however, surprised analysts by deciding not to vie for nomination as CCM’s candidate ahead of this year’s Union presidential election. Kikwete won the nomination after beating off the challenge of nine other candidates.
Lowassa becomes Tanzania’s ninth premier since the country attained independence from Britain in 1961.
His predecessors are Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, Rashid Kawawa, Edward Sokoine, Dr Salim Ahmed Salim, John Malecela, Joseph Warioba, Cleopa Msuya and Frederick Sumaye.
After Lowassa’s nomination and subsequent endorsement, the appointment of the Attorney General and election of the Speaker, Tanzanians’ ears are now tuned to the selection of the new Cabinet, which is expected to be named before next Wednesday.
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