Revisiting Mwalimu Nyerere’s book ‘Tujisahihishe’

I have chosen at this juncture to revisit Mwalimu Nyerere’s book which he wrote way back in 1962, soon after he had resigned as Prime Minister of the newly independent Tanganyika in January 1961 in order to concentrate on his leadership role as President of the then ruling political Party, TANU.

The book was intended to provide certain policy guidelines for the new leaders of the newly independent nation, by pointing out the major mistakes which must be avoided by such leaders.

I believe that this is worthwhile and useful, in view of the fact that in recent times, it has become quite fashionable for politicians, in some of their speeches, to quote the words of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, the respected founder and father of our nation, in order to support their particular or specific arguments.

In some cases, the relevant words are quoted selectively, or even out of context. But, as some ancient guru once said, “even the devil can quote the Bible” to suit his argument.

For example, one politician was reported to have quoted the following statement by Mwalimu Nyerere, that “if change cannot be effected within CCM, it will have to be done outside of CCM”.But he carefully avoided mentioning the kind of ‘change’ which Mwalimu Nyerere was talking about on that particular occasion, thus denying his listeners the opportunity of understanding the actual context within which Mwalimu Nyerere was speaking!

In fact, Mwalimu Nyerere on that particular occasion was agitating for change in the procedures for nominating the CCM Presidential candidate. Previous procedures had provided for the said candidate to be nominated in great secrecy by the Central Committee of CCM.

That is how his immediate successor, President Ally Hassan Mwinyi, was nominated. He disliked this secretive process and referred to it as “mizengwe”, which must be abandoned.

Mwalimu Nyerere was of course disenchanted by many other decisions and actions which were taken by the CCM leadership at that material time, including the so called ‘Zanzibar resolution’ which did away with the leadership code enshrined in the Arusha Declaration; the attempted breach of the Union Constitution by Zanzibar when it joined the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC); the leadership’s failure to prevent the adoption by the National Assembly of the G.55 motion calling for the establishment of a Tanganyika government within the Union, which he felt would lead to the break up of the Union itself ; the massive sale of public enterprises, and several others.

He was, in effect, criticizing his successor President for his failure to deal with these matters firmly, and also urging him to dismiss his top advisers, namely the Prime Minister and the CCM Secretary-General from office, for their failure to advise him properly. But that is a different story, to be told on another day.

CCM responded positively to Mwalimu’s call for a change in the nomination process, and introduced an entirely new open system whereby any aspiring member of CCM was given the opportunity to apply for consideration. That is why we had more than forty applicants this time round.

This is an appropriate time to revisit Mwalimu’s book. Since we are now actively making preparations for this year’s general elections, which will usher in a new government of the United Republic, as well as a new government for Zanzibar, I thought I should also join the fashion parade and quote some very helpful words of wisdom from Mwalimu Nyerere’s book titled Tujisahihishe, in order to remind the current generation about the immortal guidelines which are contained therein, especially because the majority of those who are aspiring to be elected to the various leadership positions this year were ether not yet born when this book was written, or were too young and therefore unable to absorb the import of its contents. We must mend our ways (Tujisahihishe) What follows below is a paraphrased translation of the kiswahili text of Mwalimu Nyerere’s book “Tujisahihishe”, in which he focuses primarily on one major human weakness, or what our catholic brethren would call the ‘cardinal sin’, namely ‘ubinafsi’, which in English may be described as ‘self centeredness’ or ‘selfishness’.

Says Mwalimu Nyerere:- “with the exception of a few problematic events whose occurrence human beings are unable to prevent, such as floods and draughts, many of the other human problems are caused by ubinafsi (self-centeredness), which takes a variety of forms and appearances. Very often we hear people asking ‘what does the future hold for us’?

It is of course possible that there are those who have genuine and valid reasons for asking such questions, but in a large number of cases, such questions are motivated by personal selfinterests, for there are those who think that TANU was formed for their personal benefits.

They seem to believe that TANU has a contractual obligation to reward them! They seem to forget, or to deliberately ignore, the fact that TANU was formed for the benefit of the whole community. For such people, even if TANU is doing a sterling job for the community, they will still feel that TANU is useless because it is not giving them the personal benefits which they desire to obtain. This is self-centeredness.

If our members, and especially those who are in leadership positions, fail to judge our party’s performance on the basis of services rendered to the community, and instead decide to judge the usefulness of our party on the basis of its having failed to satisfy their personal desires and ambitions, then the party will not last very long. Such members are a kind of dangerous disease in our Party”.

The other symptoms of selfcenteredness. Thereafter, Mwalimu Nyerere proceeds to point out the other symptoms of ubinafsi. He calls them ‘makosa’, i.e. ‘errors’ (which reminds me of Shakespeare’s ‘comedy of errors’), and lists them using the words ‘kosa jingine’, as follows:- (i) “ Another error which is related to self-centeredness, and is like a fatal disease, is fitina, (which in English means ‘antagonism’ or ‘mischief’).

He continues as follows:- “Despite the fact that we have a binding rule which requires our members to make a sworn promise to always say the truth, and never to engage in antagonism or mischief (nitasema kweli daima, fitina kwangu ni mwiko), yet we do have some of our members who are notorious mischief makers.”

(ii) “Another error which arises directly from self-centeredness is normally committed at the time of elections. Sometimes this mistake is committed by ordinary members, at other times by those who are in leadership positions, or those who are aspiring to become leaders.

I have stated elsewhere that our leaders must emanate from the party members themselves, without using any cunning devices, tricks of any kind, unethical strategies, or deception methods. But there are cases where our members select their leaders without giving proper consideration to the issue of their suitability for the relevant leadership position.

It is totally unwise to select a leader because he is your relative, or close friend, or other personal relationships. It is equally unwise to reject a person for similar reasons.

What must be done is to select a person of unquestionable integrity, a man of principle, on the basis of his ability to perform the tasks associated with the particular leadership position to which he is aspiring. (iii) Another error is the lack of desire to acquire new knowledge, or to raise one’s general awareness.

One of our rules requires members to educate themselves to the best of their abilities, and to utilize the knowledge thus acquired for the benefit of the community. Some of our people believe that education means going to school, either within or outside the country.

But it should be understood clearly that education does not necessarily mean going to school. Education is a process of learning, which also includes the willingness of the individual Party member or leader, to learn to understand the true reasons behind every situation in which he finds himself.

For example, if our village does not have enough water, we should endeavour to find out the reasons for this shortage, and thereafter, armed with this knowledge, proceed to find a viable solution. Similarly, a political party which does not bother to find out the true reasons for the problems which face the people at any given time, will most certainly fail to find a viable solution for such problems.

And a leader who pretends to know everything and is therefore not willing to learn, is a dangerous liability to our Party. (iv) Another error is the tendency by some leaders to treat their own personal views as ‘the views of the people” (wananchi).

We often hear a leader claiming that “all the wananchi in my area are of this opinion”, when in fact such leader has not consulted anyone there regarding that matter, but feels no shame in making such absurd claims.

(v) Another error which arises out of self-centeredness, is the devisive tendency by some leaders to create a distinct group of followers and call it ‘our group’, as opposed to ‘their group’.

These will most often eventually develop into antagonistic groups, trying to undermine each other, and thus creating serious rifts within the Party. Mwalimu Nyerere concludes his treatise with the following words: “I have attempted to shortlist a few mistakes which we must avoid in our Party.

I have done so not for the purpose of passing judgement on other people, but in order to enable each one of us to make his own self-judgement, and mend his ways accordingly. This may be difficult, perhaps easier said than done; but it is of utmost importance”.

/Daily News.