What is Mzee Mkapa doing after retirement?
 
2006-04-06 08:16:03
By Deogratias Mushi

	Mzee Benjamin Mkapa

It is now more 100 days since our country’s third president Mzee Benjamin Mkapa handed-over power to a new administration in December last year.

Since then, not too many people know exactly what the retired president is doing.

Many ask of his whereabouts because he had promised to engage himself in various activities like in the Blair Commission. They would now like to see how far he has gone with his plans.

To the best of my memory, the media has covered Mkapa not more than ten times since he left office three months ago. Why has it been so? It is a hard task to tell.

One of the few publicised events about Mkapa was when he was in Korogwe town, Tanga region, early this year, where he participated in a fund-raising event.

Another occasion was during the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) ordinary sessions in Dodoma.

The remaining occasions include state banquets and special dinner events he has attended.

The question is: Has the media deliberately decided to ignore Mkapa simply because he is not ’media-friendly’ right from when he was president?

Could we say that Mkapa has intentionally decided to stay away from the media, and he wouldn’t like his activities to be known to the entire public? At least he was bold about the competence of many local journalists.

His wife, Anna, also appears occasionally on the front pages of some dailies, though nothing is said about her famous fund Equal Opportunity for all Trust Fund (EOTF).

By the way, how is this fund doing? The public has the right to know of its development.

The case was different in the past. Even after retirement, the media continued covering founding president Mwalimu Julius Nyerere and did the same to Ali Hassan Mwinyi, the popular Mzee Ruksa.

Though the media covered him negatively in the past, Mwinyi has not run away from it, and instead he has shown solidarity and good cooperation with the print and electronic media.

During his trips abroad last year, Mkapa was reported to have plans for life after retirement.

Various sections of the international media reported him saying that after relinquishing power he would focus on mobilizing and attracting business to East Africa.

Days are going, and the retired president hasn’t demonstrated anything related to that.

When he visited Uganda a few days before his retirement last year, he was offered a teaching post at Makerere University where he was once a student. He never said whether he would accept the offer or not.

Mkapa is an ardent lover of the East African Community, and many consider him as a person who might still be needed for consultation in setting up the EAC structure.

He once said: ’’The collapse of the East African Community in 1977 was because it was held high by politicians and bureaucrats, leaving out the private sector and civil society’’.

We have set up committees that include a committee on the business community, the private sector and for governments to create awareness of the need for partnerships in development,’’

As the outgoing President of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Mkapa once called on the regional body to present a united front to combat poverty. If he would begin a local NGO to deal with such work, it would be of great importance.

As president, Mkapa respected opposition parties, giving them the chance to implement their ideologies.

He once extended an olive branch to the opposition, announcing that he would support a coalition government modelled on the Kenyan or South African structure to strengthen national unity, which he said had been undermined by pluralism since 1995.

With such a brave idea, couldn’t Mkapa now give his total dedication to the situation in Zanzibar, trying to bring lasting peace in the isles? Could he work with politicians, academicians and other civil leaders in this struggle?

As a president, Mkapa once directed the CCM top brass to initiate dialogue with the main opposition party, the Civic United Front (CUF) to work out a memorandum of understanding to make power sharing feasible, though CUF chairman, Prof Ibrahim Lipumba said the offer was ’’too political to be true’’. That was a brave idea that Mkapa could now implement in his capacity as ’ex-president’.

No doubt Mkapa’s term in office brought significant Tanzania economic progress, and the ex-president may cooperate with local business community in setting up economic programmes, which will implement macroeconomic policies and structural reforms.

Mkapa has one positive record in his history as president. The following are part of his success which he could now implement through a well established NGO.

In 2004 when he was still the president, inflation stood at around 4 percent, down from 27.1 percent in 1995 when he was elected.

Annual economic growth during his time as president reached 6.7 percent, up from 3.6 percent.

By 2005, foreign reserves had increased to an equivalent of eight months of imports, and revenue collections stood at about US US dollars 140 million a month, more than triple the amount for 1995-1996.

On 14 July 2005, Mkapa told parliament that his administration had achieved the economic fundamentals, which in turn boosted investor confidence in the country and in the government - a far cry from the situation when he was elected president.

Mkapa’s policies also led the World Bank and the IMF in November 2001 to cancel over US dollars 2 billion in debt - representing about half the amount the country owes - a goal he set on coming to power.

He privatised several state-run institutions like the floundering National Bank of Commerce.

All the above are achievements, which Mkapa can still support through an established private institution.

Though Mkapa’s critics say the country’s economic success is little more than a mirage, since a huge proportion of the people earn less than 1 US dollar day, the ex president can prove them wrong by showing now as ordinary citizen how he made such achievements.

Whether he is in Masasi, Dar or Lushoto, Mheshimiwa Mkapa, should come out and tell us what he is doing.

We have the right to know what our former president is doing. He deserves media coverage whenever necessary. deomushi@guardian.co.tz

• SOURCE: Guardian