Tanzanian government has finally embarked on the longstanding self-imposed decision to shift its activities from the coastal metropolis of Dar es Salaam to the geographically central Dodoma municipality.
The shift was proposed in the mid-1960s by a Member of Parliament (MP), the late Joseph Nyerere … the proposal was taken up with alacrity in 1973 by the ruling party of the day, the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) and was given substance in 1974 when the Capital Development Authority (CDA) was established, statutorily charged with implementing the shift as appropriate!
However, that otherwise noble decision has never taken concrete shape on the ground – more than melodramatically going through the motions of undertaking the shift, so to speak!
That’s basically why the government has largely been operating from Dar es Salaam, 300 miles away from Dodoma! Never mind that one of the three traditional pillars of government, the Legislature (read ‘Union Parliament’), has been conducting National Assembly sessions in Dodoma for about a generation now.
But, the parliament still also conducts some of its official activities, like parliamentary committee sittings in Dar es Salaam. The same cannot be said for the other two other pillars – the Judiciary and the Executive – both of which are for all practical purposes still entrenched in Dar, virtually the de facto capital!
The two pillars operate from Dodoma generally regarding matters associated with the Legislature. Hence, the Prime Minister and Cabinet Ministers – all part and parcel of the Executive – and the Attorney-General (part and parcel of the Judiciary) find themselves having to ‘follow’ the Legislature in the de jure capital Dodoma! The president, too, travels to Dodoma to inaugurate the ‘next’ Parliament or to personally perform some tasks relating to legislative matters.
The foregoing scenarios may have to finally change during the remaining period of Dr John Pombe Magufuli’s tenure at State House, into which he was formally sworn for a five-year term on November 5, 2015.
In less than a year in the Highest Office in the Land, President Magufuli firmly put down his foot, unequivocally directing that the government he leads must hit the road for Dodoma, bag and baggage.
That just as soon prompted other government leaders into action, scurrying to pack up and shift to Dodoma – led in that by the Prime Minister’s Office, ably steered by Premier Kassim Majaliwa … and the rest is ‘History-in-the-Making,’ so to speak.
We are all witness to the government stiffly stirring itself into action as it seeks to accomplish in four short years of Dr Magufuli’s presidency what the past governments under Presidents Jakaya Kikwete (2005- 15), Benjamin Mkapa (1995- 2005) and Ally Hassan Mwinyi (1985-95) were unable, unready or unwilling to accomplish in a generation of their reign.