President Benjamin Mkapa has called on Tanzanians to be bold, brave and earnest, and to provide a fresh burst of energy to enable the economy to take off.

Tanzania, he said, is like “an aircraft on the runway. We are facing the right direction, and we are moving towards it. But we are not taking off.

“In the interest of our children and the future of our county, in this era of globalisation, we must now take off.”

Delivering a State of the Nation address to parliament in Dodoma, Mkapa expressed his deep impatience with the status quo and urged his fellow citizens to accelerate the pace of development.

Noting that he has less than two years remaining in his term of office before the next national elections, he presented the main features of a vision of the way forward over the next 20 months:

• The attitude and mind-set of public sector employees must change to facilitate and empower citizens for self-development.
• A strong national capacity for monitoring and regulating a market economy must be built.
• The rights of the weaker members of society must be revisited, including the informal sector (he included “the right to resources and capital including their own labour, as well as land, as an empowerment process to join the economic mainstream of the nation”).
• Priority must be accorded to the export sector, including the necessity to add value through processing, and attracting industrial investments.
• The obstacles that stand in the way of those Tanzanians who are willing and ready to self-develop must be addressed.

He called on all parties in parliament to support him in giving priority to these issues during his remaining months in office, and to partner the government in implementation.

He asked two important things from Members of Parliament. He said parliament must lead the country in changing into higher gear to accelerate the development process, reminding them of the counsel of Tanzania’s founding father, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere that “we must run while others walk”.

He said he is tired of always hearing Tanzania referred to as “one of the most poor countries” and said it is possible to shed “this obnoxious epithet, but not at our present speed.”

He noted the political successes of the country which has changed its top leadership peacefully three times through the ballot box, but he said that the economy remains a challenge.

“The time has now come for us to use good policies and good leadership to increase the availability of financial capital.”

Mkapa, who is the current chairperson of the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC), stressed that the government has no miracle of its own, but could participate in a national miracle by “working together… working hard, and being innovative, and by accepting the duty to self-develop as individuals and as communities.

“The notion that the duty of Government is to give, and the duty of the people is to say, thank you, can only lead to futility.”

He said Tanzanians should be proud of their achievements and although they are not accustomed to praising their own successes, they must learn to do so because “it is no longer enough to succeed. Others must know of your successes.

“The present and future competition in a globalising world demand that a country advertises itself, and be widely recognised and identified with something. The world has now turned into the proverbial world where everyone who stretches the skin on a drum pulls to his own side.

“In these times, even countries advertise themselves like consumer products, and therefore brand themselves, acquiring a trademark. It is time as Tanzanians that we are recognised for certain reasons or attributes.”

He called on Tanzanians to “criticize respectfully, where criticisms is due; and praise fervently where praise is due.” And he defended his national poverty reduction strategy which he said did not promise to put money in people’s pockets, but promised to create opportunities.

Mkapa will not have been surprised that, immediately following his lengthy and wide-ranging address, the main opposition political party attacked him for not giving sufficient attention to the role of agriculture and agricultural outputs in developing the economy, and for failing to mention corruption. (SARDC) Southern African News Features offers a reliable source of regional information and analysis on the Southern African Development Community, and is provided as a service to the SADC region.

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SANF is produced by the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC), which has monitored regional developments since 1985