As Lowassa outlines priorities
During the launching of the candidate’s election manifesto for CHADEMA and UKAWA as a whole in a rally at Jangwani grounds in Dar es Salaam, Lowassa said among other things he intends to ensure the government provides free education from primary to university level.
He said the country has a lot of money to support children from the grassroots level to university so paying school expenses for children will be one of his priorities.
Lowassa, a former prime minister, arrived at Jangwani grounds at around 3pm accompanied by leaders of the coalition, that is NCCR-Mageuzi, the Civic United Front (CUF), NLD and his host party, CHADEMA.
In his remarks, Lowassa said in the agriculture sector he will ensure he protects farmers and once they sell their goods, if the government pays at a later date, it must pay them with interest to the original sum.
“We want to protect efforts made by smallholders farmers and by paying their crop promptly or with interest later will improve their welfare as well as improve the sector as a whole,” he said.
In the health sector he promised to construct more health centers and hospitals in urban and rural areas to ensure that no person is left without medical access, and improving services to as to cut on traveling abroad for medical treatment.
Frederick Sumaye, also a former premier and a special speaker at the rally, said CCM Secretary General Abdulrahman Kinana had repeatedly invoked his lack of confidence in the CCM government, despite castigating those who shifted to opposition in recognition of the same weaknesses.
He said Tanzanians must know that if the test for an ethical leader is Kinana, then he (Sumaye) will be a saint as CCM has been running single party politics while in fact they were covering their political operations under two different political parties for a long time.
He said people have been blinded for a long time and now they want to see changes in the way the government is run, not relying on a single political party anymore.
"Inside CCM if you do anything (that does not conform to that set of rules) they attack you,” urging voters to shed the fear of the unknown, as they know the presidential candidate for a long time.
He made reference to the way the presidential candidate nomination process was handled in Dodoma, supporting the shift to opposition by former contender Lowassa, as well as explaining his decision to join the opposition camp so as to strengthen it in seeking change.
Sumaye said the government has failed to improve education sector which is deteriorating. They reduced the pass mark so as to create an impression of passing but the result is that the country produces incompetent students.
He said that Lowassa was the one who put Kikwete in power and people cherish his work for the country for many years.
He said the CCM leader has been attacking Lowassa on unclear charges of corruption, while no accusation has been raised against him for anything since he left office early 2008.
He dismissed charges about Richmond saying that it is not the prime minister who is head of the government but the president, while the prime minister is made to carry the blame so as to protect the president.
He made reference to an affirmation by founder president Julius Nyerere who once remarked at a meeting of the party’s National Executive Committee that his veteran prime minister Rashid Kawawa was made to carry burdens he was not supposed to.
Sumaye reiterated that plenty of evident corrupt actions had taken place in the years that Lowassa has been out of office, so the talk about corruption directed at him and not those in office at present does not hold water.
“When giraffes were loaded into planes and taken out of the country, was Lowassa present?” he demanded from the crowd, which roared back its appreciation of the contrast.
He similarly expressed disgust at the Julius Nyerere International Airport routinely failing to notice drugs being passed through it, or elephant tusks, and wondering if “Lowassa was there.”
Former Home Affairs minister Lawrence Masha and ex-Secretariat official Hiza Tambwe, once a CUF cadre, addressed the rally to boost morale and widen support for the UKAWA candidate.
Chadema national chairman Freeman Mbowe said the party’s election manifesto that it was anchored in wide national interests.
He distributed the party manifesto to UKAWA parliamentary candidates in Dar es Salaam constituencies.
He said change doesn’t mean to get rid of the current authorities but that the lives of Tanzanians should change as well.
NCCR-Mageuzi national chairman James Mbatia told the crowd that Lowassa has a good education and was well versed in Development Studies, so he will be able to form a government that is clear about its tasks.
He said that district commissioners and state security officials were recently meeting at Ngurdoto Hotel in Arusha. They were planning to ruin opposition campaign plans, he remarked, advising the candidate to be careful with them.
SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY
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