AfricaPress-Tanzania: ONCE upon a National Assembly session in Dodoma, when incumbent President John Pombe Magufuli was the Minister for Works, he made remarks that triggered laughter amongst fellow legislators.
The laughter stemmed from the fact that, they were couched in somewhat humorous terms, but they were simultaneously meant to convey a very strong message.
Minister Magufuli said that modern roads were among the highly impressive achievements that the CCM government had spearheaded.
He then dropped literally the proverbial bombshell – that, it was on some of those very roads that some opposition party members were marching to voice their grievances!
For any intelligent listener within the debating chamber and beyond, the message Dr Magufuli sought to relay was obvious.
It was that, the Opposition camp, and more-so through legislators who were in the august house to represent their voters, should have the decency to acknowledge and appreciate that the CCM government had been instrumental in spearheading many praiseworthy socio-economic developments.
Against the backdrop of the October 2020-scheduled General Election, that look back comes in handy.
On the aspect of road infrastructure, it is significant to note, and to some extent amusing, that, opposition party leaders, from the grassroots upwards, travel on some of those very roads during trips to Dodoma for Bunge sessions, as well as wherever else.
A rhetorical q uestion arises: who was behind the construction of those roads, if not the CCM-led government ?
Isn’t it utterly nonsensical, then, that some of the very individuals who are beneficiaries of smooth rides along those roads should be spewing insults at the government by shamelessly yelling that it has done nothing? The answer of course is YES!
For the sake of argument, indeed, let’s pose and speculate how those at the helm of a given party other than CCM would feel, if they were the targets of mudslinging mischief centred on idiotic accusations of the current CCM-led government having achieved nothing!
Viewed from a different angle, though, the insults ( as part of a primitive propaganda machinery) being spewed on the government, and CCM as the ruling party from a section of the Opposition camp, aren’t wholly surprising.
They are indicators of competitors who wonder whether given the huge strides recorded by the CCM-led government, and their lack of concrete nation building programmes, they stand even a remote chance of winning the polls.
