When the specially designed aircraft that American presidents use, christened Air Force One, enters Tanzanian air space this afternoon, coming from the direction of South Africa, it would crown the moment the people of this country have anxiously been waiting for.
Passenger Number One on this particular big jet’s manifest would of course be Democrat Barack Hussein Obama Junior, the 44th President of the United States whose election to the highest office of the world’s only superpower, was greeted with much excitement in Africa.
On that election night in November 2008, Africa applauded as results of the election that year showed that Obama, of both African and Americandescent, had won the polls, becoming the first African- American to assume tenancy of the White House, US seat of power.
Obama, whose father, Barack Hussein Obama Sr, hailed from Kenya’s Nyanza Province; Kogelo Village to be exact, went on to win a second term after his resounding re-election four years later.
The ‘nearest-prediction’ to the American Civil Rights Activist Martin Luther King Junior’s famous ‘I have a dream’ speech of August 28, 1963, in which he ‘saw’ a black person occupying the highest office of the American land, probably inferring to a black American person, Obama all the same lived to MLK Junior’s dream that little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.
True to MLK Junior’s dream, the America people transcended racial and colour barriers and voted for ‘content of character’ as opposed to the ‘colour of one’s skin’ in the 2008 and 2012 US presidential elections. Africa buzzed with excitement to see ‘one of their own’ becoming the president of the world’s superpower. President Obama is visiting Africa for the first time, the socalled ‘land of his ancestry’.
It is gratifying to see that his closest advisers have chosen Tanzania among South Africa and Senegal for his maiden tour of the continent. For one thing, the White House trip planners did not pick Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania for fun or randomly by a toss of the coin. The three African countries were chosen on proven merit, which is a great honour for Tanzania and speaks volumes about the three countries.
South Africa is Africa’s economic powerhouse in its own right, with its high-tech industrial domination, mining superiority and massive agricultural production, deservedly earning the tag of the ‘Land of Milk and Honey’ in addition to its more popular political tag as the ‘Land of Nelson Mandela’.
The so-called ‘Rainbow Nation’, owing to its equal treatment of all races, a sharp departure from the lengthy apartheid era that officially ended on Liberation Day in 1994, is seen as a role model in interracial harmony in the world.
It is also a model for modern-day democracy in the continent and beyond. Tanzania and Senegal are citadels of political stability, peace, democracy, human rights and good governance in Africa. In fact the latter is the only survivor of the wind of coups and counter coups masterminded by the men in uniform (who became military rulers) that rocked West Africa from the mid-1960s.
Coincidentally, the struggles for liberation and independence in the three nations were led by three of Africa’s most celebrated statesmen; Nelson Rohlilala Mandela in South Africa, Leopold Sedar Senghor in Senegal and Julius Kambarage Nyerere in Tanzania. It is the same statesmen who presided over a period of transition to greater democracy in their countries. Tanzania has even got several other pluses.
The founding father of this nation, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, led a crusade for the liberation of southern African countries that still wallowed in colonial and apartheid rule domination, including South Africa itself, Mozambique, Angola, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South West Africa (now Namibia).
On the economic and social fronts, Tanzania embarked on major reforms aiming at transforming for the better all major means of production, including industries, both light and heavy, agriculture, mining, animal husbandry and fishing. The government of Tanzania has embarked on a deliberate programme to create jobs, empower the youths and ensure that all its people get access to better health care and education.
Led by President Jakaya Kikwete, the Fourth-Phase Government of the United Republic of Tanzania has embarked on a deliberate people’s empowerment programme aimed at ensuring gainful employment for all able-bodied Tanzanians, mostly youths. Tanzania is a role model for peace in Africa. It has enjoyed uninterrupted peace and tranquility for most of its postindependence life.
In fact this country is admired all over the world for its great feat of maintaining national harmony despite having more than 100 tribes. Tribalism exists only in the dictionary or joke books in Tanzania! We are a truly non-aligned country and did not take sides during the unfortunate years of the Cold War and the Berlin Wall. No wonder, joining the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) was one of the first international diplomacy acts by the first phase government of then Tanganyika.
It is against this background that Tanzania has won the admiration of the world, attracting heads of state and government, a number of whom have visited in person to savour the ‘experience’.
It is against this background, too, that three sitting American presidents, William (Bill) Jefferson Clinton, George Walker Bush and now Obama chose to visit Tanzania for this or that purpose but all attracted to the country’s proven good governance standards, good human rights record, political pluralism and zero-tolerance to corruption.
The government of Tanzania, in its four phases so far, deserves special mention for this feat, which is by no means a small one. It is a big feat. It is a big up for Julius Kambarage Nyerere, Ali Hassan Mwinyi, Benjamin William Mkapa and, now, Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete. Barack Hussein Obama will come and go. It is a whirlwind tour. But it is an occasion, which will bring the world’s attention to Tanzania and firmly entrench the country in the world map.
By GABBY MGAYA, Tanzania Daily News
