Author: DR GEORGE MUTALEMWA
AfricaPress-Tanzania: SOME people shook hands with the former President Benjamin Mkapa, so many times that they cannot recall the frequency. However, many people never shook hands with him or even thought they could.
I was lucky to shake hands with him not once but three times, which I consider a rare treat given his fame and stature. The first time was in 2001 when he graced the occasion of the first graduation of St. Augustine University of Tanzania (SAUT) as the guest of honour.
I was a brand-new member of staff at SAUT and he shook hands with us as we lined up to greet him at the so-called Main Campus between the administration and academic blocks in Nyegezi. The Vice-Chancellor (VC) then, Rev Dr Deogratias Rweyongeza, accompanied President Mkapa as he introduced us to him.
Being a Tutorial Assistant and a graduand at the same time gave me a special feeling. The second time was during the same graduation when I was privileged to receive the academic excellence award. I remember how Mkapa beamed with joy as he gave me a hearty congratulation gripping my tiny hands with his healthy hands.
I was excited, honoured and humbled at the same time. The late Mkapa knew what academic excellence meant. My father, who passed away last year at 85, was also present and he literally leapt with joy at this news. The third time was in 2019 when Mkapa returned to SAUT as the guest of honour to mark the ‘launch’ of the 25th Anniversary of SAUT.
I was among the SAUT alumni present who were invited to share our memories of our alma mater. The occasion was led by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Costa Ricky Mahalu, who worked in Mkapa’s government as the country’s envoy to Italy.
When sharing my memories, I reminded Mr Mkapa a statement he made during our graduation of SAUT in 2001. It is a statement that I have used when teaching and as a welcome address to students as Head of Department and Dean of the faculty of Social Sciences and Communications: ‘What you are is God’s gift to you; What you will be is your gift to God’.
Meeting Mkapa again after nearly twenty years at the same university was a rare treat. I count myself lucky to have served SAUT since its beginning as its first graduate alongside my Journalism and Mass Communication classmates who never left SAUT, namely Zinaida Marwa and Peter Mataba.
Rev Dr Charles Kitima who is the second Vice-Chancellor of SAUT fondly refers to us as the first fruits of SAUT. During his last visit to SAUT in 2019, Mr Mkapa emphasised about university autonomy and academic freedom. Being a pioneer of the free market economy that favours the private sector, he was being consistent by supporting a private university like SAUT.
It is unfortunate that sometimes the University Senate and Council struggle to reconcile university decisions with political declarations. Indeed, while it is in President John Magufuli’s interest to promote public universities, it is not a contradiction in terms to promote private universities as well.
The public-private dichotomy has been subsumed by the emergence of public-private partnership. The appointment of SAUT alumni such as Hon.
Doto Biteko, Minister for Minerals, Dr Hassan Abbas, Chief Government Spokesperson and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Art and Sports and their former lecturer, Prof. Adelhardus Kilangi, Attorney General, is a living symbol of what the private sector can do for the government if the latter creates the right environment for the private sector including the civil society.
A man of substance does not mean he was an angel. Mkapa had his own shortcomings like we all have in different measures. Some of his actions and statements smacked of arrogance, or to put it clearly, intellectual arrogance. He thought carefully about what he had to say or write and how to do it effectively and efficiently.
He filled his speeches with facts and figures. He clearly showed that he read widely. He was an editor and as such he crossed his t’s and dotted his i’s. I believe my fellow editors of The SAUT Times then, Semu Mwakyanjala, Peter Mataba, Zinaida Marwa, Gaudensia Simwanza, William Gatambi, John Lewanga, Charles Mwebeya and others know this very well.
Now, working with people who didn’t match his professional standards was not going to earn him many admirers. This is because, as the late Rev Professor Ted Walters used to say, ‘the better is the enemy of the good’.
Fr Walters, a Jesuit priest, was the first Chief Academic Officer (Deputy Vice- Chancellor for Academic Affairs) of SAUT and taught us how to write and communicate effectively, the quality that characterised Mr Mkapa. As an example of actions and statements made by Mkapa that put a flea in many a Tanzanian ear was his dubbing some Tanzanians as lazy to think ‘wavivu wa kufikiri’.
Certainly, for people who were slow thinkers must have felt offended. In this connection, Mkapa refuted to be interviewed by Tanzanian journalists arguing that they were not analytical or fit to make meaningful interviews. He was comfortable to be interviewed by the likes of CNN journalist Riz Khan and BBC’s Tim Sebastian in Hard Talk.
It is a mark of competence to face journalists and accept criticism. Besides, the invitation of a Peruvian economist, Professor Hernando De Soto to study the informal sector in Tanzania was not well-received by some Tanzanian scholars who thought they could do the same job.
Whether we agree with Mkapa or not, let his demise help us reflect on the standards and issues for which he stood. As journalists, academics and other professionals how committed are we to carrying out our tasks? How do we keep on reading, researching and writing?
How are the values of professional integrity guiding our operations? How are we reconciling our local needs with international ones? How are we promoting intellectual freedom and respecting critical minds? Mkapa is the second former president of Tanzania to pass away.
I remember him announcing the death of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere in 1999. Truth be told: Death is a fact of life and it observes no protocols. It is what one is and what one does that determine what people will remember.
Mkapa learnt a lot from Nyerere and I am pretty sure he appreciated Nyerere’s definition of a university as an institution of higher learning where people’s minds are trained to think critically, analyse issues and solve problems at the highest level. Mkapa was able to lead Tanzania and he understood what that meant.
It needs guts to imagine wearing the shoes of the likes of Mkapa and Nyerere. It was Nyerere who equated State House with a holy place and not a marketplace where every Dick, Tom and Harry think they can enjoy a paid five-year holiday by sitting around, doing nothing and waiting for the next term.
It is worrying when so many people aspire to be our presidents. It’s because they don’t know what it takes to be president, occupy the State House and most importantly lead the people. They end up insulting the minds of the citizens and foreigners. I have written to bid farewell to Mkapa and not to please or debase anyone else.
Had Mkapa not passed on, I would have loved to shake hands with him the fourth time at least during the 25th Anniversary of SAUT (1998-2023). I believe, he would have once again loved to be at the university he really cared about.
In Mkapa’s life and works, we can see God’s gift to him but also Mkapa’s gift to God. This would suffice to give us confidence and reason enough to strive and give our own gift to God.
Thank you for your Life and Purpose, Ndugu Ben Mkapa: Rest in Peace! @Dr George Mutalemwa is Executive Secretary of the Association of Catholic Universities and Higher Institutes of Africa and Madagascar St. Augustine University of Tanzania, 0756058511
