Retired Mozambican President Armando Emilio Guebuza
Retired Mozambican President Armando Guebuza has called for the two contending sides in today’s election, the ruling party and the opposition camp, to bow to people’s wishes in order to maintain peace and order.
Guebuza, who served as president for two five-year terms from 2005 to 2015, said African leaders in power and from the opposition should not assume the monopoly of power but should allow democracy to prevail.
He was speaking to The Guardian on Sunday at Protea Courtyard in Dar es Salaam yesterday.
“For that matter, I call upon the two sides to respect the results of the election which are to be conducted tomorrow (today).
He was giving an assessment of the African Union Election Observer Mission (AUEOM) which he is currently leading in Tanzania. The mission is composed of 50 poll monitors.
“You should understand that this peace you are enjoying is not an overnight creation, but it was deeply entrenched in the spirit of love.
If you do not love each other there can be no justice - and that is a very fertile ground for chaos,” he warned.
“…I know Tanzania well; it having been host to many liberation movements including my own party, Frelimo,” he added.
He reminded that even after the reintroduction of multiparty politics, Tanzania remained the same and therefore this trend should be carried on.
“I have observed the situation in Tanzania. I have spoken to leaders of both the ruling party and the opposition.
I have spoken to other leaders charged with election management, and all of them tell me that this year’s election is the most hotly contested one. But this should not spell chaos and breach of the peace,” he stressed.
He narrated how his country, Mozambique, was ravaged by internal wars to the extent of causing abject poverty and famine.
He revealed that whenever one visited Maputo, the country’s capital, they could be led to believe that all was well, but after visiting just a nearby village one could not believe the extent of poverty that people were facing.
“It happened even during my rule. People were dying of hunger, so I had to design different mechanisms, one of which was to create a credit system and another was to prepare councils of reconciliation even at the grass-roots level,” he added.
He revealed that this measure was important because, even with the fertile land that the people owned, they could not work on it due to insecurity. It was after the establishment of such measures that people eventually started to regain mutual trust and work together.
He narrated that his country established a system of providing food supplies under which a family could get an amount equivalent to between Sh 400,000 and Sh700,000, depending on the size of the family, and this was just for food.
Guebuza said that in any country with internal wars the starting point was always harsh words and hate language, accusations and counter accusations, and therefore called for avoidance of the same during and after campaign rallies.
Comparing the nature of campaigns in Mozambique and Tanzania, the retired head of state said that in Mozambique there was a lot of singing and wearing of uniforms than what he observed in Dar es Salaam.
He was happy, though, that the rallies were conducted peacefully throughout the more than two months, according to reports that he received from various circles.
“I can say that, according to what I observed here, the campaigns are less expensive than those in my country despite the fact that we acquired our independence belatedly and we are still very backward,” he added.
He hailed the cordial relations between Mozambique and Tanzania which started a long time ago from the era of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, who had the vision of a formidable continental body.
He added that Nyerere forged strong relations with all Mozambican leaders prior to and after its independence in 1975.
SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY
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