Prof Muhongo, thinking deeply of what? You are good only for the lions, the tigers and the cheetahs!
Verdict on Muhongo spells doom in our leadership
Songa wa Songa
By SONGA WA SONGA
IN SUMMARY
IN SUMMARY
You are likely to be familiar with only the last one—MP! Well, all the other seven are his earned titles, thanks to his vast academic wealth and experience; stronger than the legislative one he easily landed through Presidential nomination.
His profile on Wikipedia begins thus: Sospeter M. Muhongo, FGSAf, FTWAS, FAAS, CGeol, EurGeol, MASSAf, FGIGE, MP.
You are likely to be familiar with only the last one—MP! Well, all the other seven are his earned titles, thanks to his vast academic wealth and experience; stronger than the legislative one he easily landed through Presidential nomination.
In a nutshell, Prof Muhongo (pictured) is geologist extraordinaire. He is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of African Earth Sciences. He is a fellow of several highly learned professional societies including the Geological Society of London, the Geological Society of America, the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences and the Tanzania Academy of Sciences. The list of his professional accomplishments and awards is endless.
The game-changer
Prof Muhongo joined the Cabinet as minister for Energy and Minerals in May 2012 after a reshuffle that saw his scandal-hit predecessor William Ngeleja kicked out.
The tough-talking newcomer entered as a technocrat reformer who was bent on showing rhetoric-loving politicians how to do it.
It was murmured, rightly so, that Prof Muhongo was either at par with or second only to Dr John Magufuli when it comes to having facts at his fingertips. Comedy group Orijino Komedi once joked that Dr Magufuli, while serving in the Fisheries and Livestock docket, could tell in a minute how many fish, chicken, ducks, pigeons, cattle, goats and sheep were in Tanzania with their categories such as the sick and pregnant ones.
In his first press conferences, Prof Muhongo appeared to have all the answers to all the questions. In fact, unlike other ministers who at times ask technocrats to reply to some specific technical questions, Prof Muhongo seemed to know everything.
Research, evidence, facts and due diligence were his ethos, so it would seem. Undoubtedly he proved to be intelligent, confident, thorough, bold, tough yet vicious, especially to journalists, who would pose “uneducated” questions—the usual boring ones such as, “What are the challenges…?”
Prof Muhongo would cut you short before you finished and with one abhorrent look, would ask where you went to school and whether you really graduated. And if you missed a fact or figure in your question, he would tongue-lash you; lecture you and later regret and pity you and fellow Tanzanians in general for being allergic to reading.
Oftentimes, he would just say “That’s not a question. Next.” Few, if any, would raise their hand in such moments.
In fact, thanks to his tough talk and consistent demand for facts and evidence-based argument, Prof Muhongo has been silently and at times loudly accused of intellectual arrogance. Scribes are not the only group that has seen the bitter side of the academic.
Honourable ladies and gentlemen who used to sit with him in cabinet meetings may be having stories that they would not tell because such gatherings are supposed to remain secret. But we know a thing or two about his public utterances in parliament.
One such speech, which emerges amongst many that stand out, was his exchanges with Simanjiro MP Christopher ole Sendeka in May as MPs debated the Energy and Minerals ministry’s 2014/15 budget proposals. To prove his obsession with formal education and passing exams as the only proof of intelligence, the good professor went as far as digging out (from God-knows-where) the Form Six results slip of Mr ole Sendeka.
In a nationally televised proceeding, Prof Muhongo held the paper in his hand and said of Mr ole Sendeka who had challenged his budget speech:
“The way he spoke I thought he was a genius. But I have received his secondary results here,” he said and continued to read before he was stopped by the Speaker, who said it was unwise to read someone’s personal documents in Parliament without his consent.
With that spectacular bold step, Prof Muhongo had warned all the other lawmakers that, “If you didn’t pass your exams, if you are not an intellectual like me, don’t dare challenge me.”
To those who admired his straight, no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is style of leadership, it was inexplicable shock and pain when the National Assembly on Friday passed a verdict on the escrow account scandal culprits who should exit the stage with Prof Muhongo’s name amongst the four.
Ironic twist
Ironically, the good professor’s downfall was the very weakness that he eschewed. He was accused of failing to do basic research, due-diligence and not asking intelligible questions around the escrow deal. Why he appeared the opposite of what we knew him for can only be answered by him.
Which begs the question: if a highly educated and seemingly principled man like Prof Muhongo, whose integrity was never in question when he joined public service, was caught with his hands in the escrow cookie jar; then can Tanzania ever get a smart, dedicated and untainted leader we want?
Songa wa Songa is a senior reporter with The Citizen ssonga@tz.nationmedia.com
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