By JENERALI ULIMWENGU

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When President Samia Suluhu took over the rudder of state after the sudden demise of John Pombe Magufuli last March, there was a sigh of relief in many quarters in the country as well as among our neighbours.

The cause of that sense of alleviation came from the lifting of a yoke of oppression that had been placed on the shoulders of many Tanzanians for the five years that the departed president had ruled the country through his increasingly dictatorial style that brooked no dissent.

Now, after a death that was both mourned and welcome, it looked like a new era was dawning on the country, and those who had the courage to say it did so.

Of course, we keep polite company, and, in the habitual hypocrisy of the political class, an appropriate funeral circus was enacted, even though the mise-en-scène was transparent enough for many to see through.

All round, it seemed Samia had started out on a proper footing, cheered by her people as a liberating mother, and by lionised by her neighbours as a new beacon of hope, dependable lighthouse to turn to for guidance in times when the seas become turbulent.

For some who had suffered tribulations under her predecessor, it seemed as if it were possible to think of Emma Lazarus and the old words on the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”

But, perhaps only the naturally lyrical and the impossibly optimistic could have been lulled into slumber by the arrival at the helm of the state ship of a lady whose quantity was yet unknown and whose mettle was untested. But for those who had been disappeared, shot and/or criminally dispossessed by her predecessor, there were few limits to what could be hoped for.

But hope is hope, and as some sage said, lost hope is the undertaker’s best friend. Soon the naysayers started getting proved right, as Samia settled into Magufuli mode. It started with something that I found odd, when the president, apparently unprovoked, let out that “the president never makes mistakes,” to which my natural retort was, of course, yes, presidents make mistakes, just like everybody else, only their mistakes, unlike ours, are the most costly to a country.

Still we hoped; maybe she slips here and there, and that is natural, because this is, literally, on-the-job learning, and she has time in her corner… so the hope lingers on, but signs have become more concerning.

When the president said that she was not going to deal with the issue of a new constitution because, she said, she was “fixing the economy first,”it was clear we were faced with a most basic problem: How does our president think she is going to fix the economy? What happened to the economy in these few months to need “fixing” so urgently that everything must wait in line? How does one “fix” such an economy if your people, at least a sizeable portion of them, are saying they are badly governed?

It was becoming clear that Samia was becoming Magufuli Redux, and fast. Unfortunately for her, the calls for a new constitution are snowballing, rather than quieting down.

The arrest of the opposition chief Freeman Mbowe when he was chairing his party’s discussion on the constitution, and charged with “terrorism” has not killed the debate. Instead, it has made it the single-most talked-about issue in the country today.

Matters have not been helped by Samia being led into a public discussion of Mbowe’s case when she could have avoided it. By suggesting in a BBC interview that she knew of Mbowe’s guilt in the case, she had jumped in at the deep end on sub judice rules. By suggesting that Mbowe’s accomplices had been sentenced while Mbowe had “fled,” she was stating something that no one else in Tanzania knew anything about; it was news.

So, when an official of Mbowe’s party stated that the Samia had “lied” about these “ convictions,” a governmental official called “registrar of political parties” Judge Mutungi, jumped to the defence of his employer, accusing the opposition leader of “lying” about Samia “lying”.

A strange set of circumstances. If Judge Mutungi had just kept mum, by now this “lie” by the president would have left many people’s minds, but by trying, a bit overzealously, to defend his boss, Mutungi may have overstepped his mark.

For one thing, I do not see how it is the registrar’s job to play umpire between politicians’ charges of “lying,” which would require an official with a sturdily calibrated “lieometer,” if you see what I mean.

Second, we have been here many times before, which should make us a bit inured to such claims or charges, and to take every one of them with the proverbial pinch of salt.

But, honestly, who could have lived in this country this past 12 months and somehow missed the extraordinary spectacle of individuals being convicted of terrorism by our courts, unless he were living in Cuckooland? Maybe Mutungi remembers this case, but I don’t.

So, pray do tell, who is lying?

Jenerali Ulimwengu is now on YouTube via jeneralionline tv. E-mail: [email protected]