Africa-Press – Tanzania. PRESIDENT Samia Suluhu Hassan has described the late former President Benjamin Mkapa as her role model on issues related to diplomacy and how heads of state can wisely resolve political challenges.
The Head of State made the revelation at the symposium held in Dar es Salaam yesterday, organised by the Benjamin Mkapa Foundation in honour of late President Mkapa’s life and legacy, a year after his death.
President Samia cited an example on how the late third phase President addressed the Zanzibar political crisis of 2001.
She recalled that following the political crisis in the semiautonomous Indian Ocean Islands, President Mkapa formed a panel of Tanzanians that visited various countries to explain what had happened and how the country was working to resolve the problem.
She said the panel comprised the then Minister for Foreign Affairs, Jakaya Kikwete, Ali Mohamed Shein, who was the Minister for Legal Affairs and Good Governance (Zanzibar) and herself, then presiding as the Minister for Youth, Employment, Women and Children’s Development.
“I learnt a lot of issues related to diplomacy and politics through this task we were assigned by President Mkapa …I also learnt how leaders can rationally resolve political challenges,” President Samia said.
She said that the decision by the third-phase president to form the panel paved the way for Zanzibar’s political reconciliation and allowed the country to proceed with her businesses without any hurdles.
President Samia further described the late Mkapa as a unique person who was ready to share information and knowledge. “When you get an opportunity to meet and talk to him you will learn a lot,” said President Samia.
She further noted that after retirement, President Mkapa also engaged in regional and international issues such as peace mediation.
Until his death Mkapa was the facilitator for Burundi peace talks and Chairman of Africa Leadership Forum.
He also led several regional peace mediation initiatives and afterwards continued to seek reconciliation in Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Great Lakes region.
In his memoir titled ‘My Life, My Purpose’ President Mkapa said that the political crisis in Zanzibar weighed heavily on his shoulders.
“The deaths that occurred in January 2001 in Unguja and Pemba disturbed and saddened me greatly…. We were used to hearing of such deaths in other countries, not in ours,” he further said “the decision of our fellow citizens to seek refuge outside the country also made me sad, and shamed our nation. We are used to receiving refugees, not creating refugees…. Our people expected too much from me in bringing this crisis to an end. Political parties, likewise, expected too much from me.
High Commissioners and Ambassadors, and their Governments, all the time wanted me to do much more; sometimes without regard to constitutional requirements and the limits of my powers.
“But, more importantly, they forgot that one person couldn’t solve a crisis like this, unless he can make miracles, and I could not make miracles.
The only miracle option I had was to revert to African traditions and ways of resolving conflicts, under which even before colonialism, our elders, when confronted by a major crisis, used ‘to sit under a tree’ discuss, listen to each side, weigh each argument, without regard to how long it took to reach an agreement,” wrote the late leader.
