With the Tanzanian presidential elections fast approaching in October 2015, a game of political positioning,maneuvering and witch hunt to eliminate competition from a potential female front runner is unfolding.
Prof. Anna Tibaijuka, the Minister for Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development is being put under pressure to resign or be sacked from Government with the aim of weakening her politically ahead of the October 2015 elections.She is being linked to the ongoing Tegeta Escrow Account Controversy because of a donation she received on behalf of a charitable organization she founded – the Barbro Johansson Girls’ Education Trust (Joha Trust) that advocates for quality girls’ education in Tanzania and Africa and operates model secondary schools for poor girls, mostly orphans.
The Joha Trust board of trustees through the chairman Mr Salmon Odunga, a retired Permanent Secretary, and the patron Ambassador Paul Rupia , also a retired Head of the Tanzania Civil Service during the Mwinyi Administration, has reacted angrily to claims that Tibaijuka received the Escrow money un?procedurally and scoffed at calls for her resignation from Government.
In a press statement signed by the two officials, the Trust is appealing to President Kikwete to reject calls to sack Tibaijuka since no law has been broken and that the money donated by a local businessman has been
utilized properly for furtherance of girls education.“It is our hope that his Excellency the President will assess this matter with wisdom and care in view of its far? reaching implications,’’ the statement says.
Controversy arose after a prominent Tanzanian businessman James Rugemalira of VIP Enginerring and Marketing , who sold his shares in the Tegeta Power Plant, made a donation of US$ 1 million to Joha Trust. The funds were received by Tibaijuka on behalf of the board transparently through a bank account that she was instructed to open at Rugemalira’s Mkombozi Bank as condition for the grant. Rugemalira indicated he would not be bothered with interbank transfers. Tibaijuka did not use any funds for personal gain confirmed the statement of the Board of Trustees.
However, her detractors are arguing that by receiving the money she contravened the Leadership Code of Ethics Act that states that any gift whose value is more than US$ 33 must be surrendered by the receiving official to his/her employer.
The board maintains that the donation was given to the school and it was never a personal gift to Tibaijuka and therefore the question of breaking the law does not arise.
The Joha Trust board is adamant that it is a common practice in Tanzania for leaders to receive donations on behalf of their respective communities, charities or the needy, be it in cash or kind. There has never been a case before where this was questioned. Why should the Tibaijuka donation be treated differently and selectively they argue. The kind of controversy generated is therefore being interpreted as nothing more than political opportunism, malice and propaganda fueled especially from her own ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) members who fear her in the internecine party nomination process. They say the move to censure Tibaijuka and punish people selectively for common practice would also dampen the spirit of the trustees and many other leaders who struggle to mobilize resources for development in a young nation.
The board says in the absence of a law to guide voluntary donations, they do not question the source of funds. It’s our custom to receive donations in good faith, be they large or small, cash or in kind,’’ said the Trust in the statement.After the bank had assured that Rugemalira had paid all taxes for his funds, they say they received his donation happily and with gratitude.“Until the government informs us that the funds were illicit, we remain grateful to Rugemalira for his generous support to our cause of girls education”.
They say since the founding of the Trust, Joha has never interpreted a donation given to a trustee on its behalf as a personal gift to the trustee.“It would be an unfortunate precedent to interpret donations received by public officials for onward transmission to their respective constituencies or stakeholders as their personal gifts,’’ said the statement.
Tibaijuka, who is currently the Minister for Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development in Tanzania, is the first African woman ever elected by the UN General Assembly as Under?Secretary?General of a United Nations programme. She is the former Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Development Programme known as UN?HABITAT, the organization she run for ten years between 2000 to 2010 and raised it from obscurity to great prominence and financial stability. Architect of slum upgrading programmes in a number of Africa countries, she also founded the World Urban Forum a premier UN conference on cities and sustainable urbanization. Her carrier at the UN culminated with her winning the 2009
Gothernburg Award for Sustainable Development that is equated to a “Nobel Prize in the Environment”. She was also Director General of the United Nations Office at Nairobi – UNON? between 2006 to 2009. In that capacity she skillfully managed the behind the scenes peace process in Kenya during the Kofi Annan negotiations after the 2008 post?election violence. It should be remembered that in 2004, by then, the British Prime Minister, choose Professor Anna Tibaijuka as a member of 17 prominent people to form the Commission for Africa to define challenges facing Africa and to provide a clear recommendations on how to support the changes to reduce poverty. Her excellent performance on the Commission is always recalled and quoted.
As minister of lands, she has turned around a ministry that was marred with corruption and mismanagement in a maze that forms the Tanzanian bureaucracy. She is credited for her visionary and steadfast leadership style forging strategic policies to secure long term public interests in large scale land allocations for foreign
investors. Since coming to office she introduced the policy of land for equity deals, whereby the government would retain at least a 25 per cent share in expansive land based investments such as farms and forests. She was invited to present this new land tenure vision for Africa into the 2013 G8 preparatory meetings held at Lancester House in London by Prime Minister David Cameron.
Although Tibaijuka has not yet declared her candidature, if women can have a chance, she is considered by many as a front runner to replace President Kikwete who retires next year. Her opponents fear her because they feel since she returned into the country from the UN, her political carrier has progressed meteorically. In the 2010 elections she contested and defeated a former Minister for CCM parliamentary seat primaries and thereafter went through unopposed. Subsequently, President Jakaya Kikwete is said to have favored and promoted her to top positions not only in his cabinet but more important in the ruling Party hierarchy. Although a non party cadre, Kikwete nominated Tibaijuka for election into the powerful Central Committee of CCM by the National Executive Committee. She won with a landslide despite being a novice. It would seem that success has now come to haunt her and is the main factor behind the current vendetta against her.
Prior to her political and United Nations portfolios, Tibaijuka was a Professor of Economics at the University ofDar es Salaam and is the author of various books and research papers.She was an active member of the civil society and in 1994 she founded the Tanzanian National Women’s Council, BAWATA, an independent non?party affiliated organization fighting for women’s economic and social rights.
In 1996 she founded Barbro Johannson Girls’ Education Trust (Joha Trust) that advocates for quality girls’ education in Tanzania and Africa and operates a model secondary school for poor girls, mostly orphans.This is the organization now at the centre of the current controversy that is threatening to mar her political standing and an outstanding international reputation.
By
Nicholas Mararo
Nuvision Media Ltd, Kenya
17 December 2014
