By JENERALI ULIMWENGU

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Ali Hassan Mwinyi, who passed away recently, was a simple, unpretentious man who made a mark on the country he led for a decade after taking over from a man who had not wanted him for successor. At the time of stepping down, Julius Nyerere had wanted Salim Ahmed Salim to succeed him but was defeated by a Zanzibari cabal he had no appetite to fight with, prioritising Union interests instead.

This, coupled with the way he had become Zanzibar’s third president and the Union’s vice-president, confirmed Mwinyi as the man who occupied the country’s two top political positions purely by political accident or serendipity.

It started in 1984, when the vice-president of the Union and president of Zanzibar, Aboud Jumbe Mwinyi, was dethroned from those two positions by Julius Nyerere after the latter had found him doing something that Nyerere considered treasonable: As president of Zanzibar, he was “caught” consulting with a Ghanaian constitutional attorney with a view to crafting a constitutional dispensation allowing for greater freedom for Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous part of the Union.

Read: ‘Mzee Rukhsa’ opened doors for media, democracy

In effect, Jumbe was at that time seeking to have a constitutional dispensation which would allow for a three-tier government of the Union: A government for Tanganyika, a government for Zanzibar and a Union government for a federation of the two.

This was what caused a major crisis in the Union, leading to a seismic session of the ruling CCM’s decision to get rid of Jumbe at the behest of Nyerere amid a major falling out between Tanzania’s first president and his closest subordinate thus far. It is important to remember that Jumbe had taken over in Zanzibar after the assassination of the first president of Zanzibar and first vice-president of the Union, Abeid Amani Karume, in 1972.

The accession of Jumbe to the presidency of Zanzibar had eased relations between the two sides of the Union, with Nyerere appearing to have happier working ties with Jumbe after some rather tense tussles with Karume, an authoritarian former merchant sailor, who ruled over Zanzibar with an iron rod, causing hundreds of prominent Zanzibaris to flee to the Arab Gulf mostly, and elsewhere.

Jumbe’s arrival thawed relations and he and Nyerere enjoyed some kind of honeymoon that ended in 1984, when Jumbe’s constitutional gamble was called out by Nyerere.

But the same proposal was revisited by chief justice Francis Nyalali in 1992, and in 1996 it was brought up by senior judge Rober Kisanga but was again rejected, and in 2014 it was resurrected by Judge Joseph Warioba and again rejected. It is an idea that has been rejected constantly but has been coming back to haunt the body-politic of the country.

Mwinyi was the beneficiary of Jumbe’s 1984 fall, a master of resilience and survival. In 1977, he had been forced to resign as Home minister (responsible for the police) after over-enthusiastic officers had roughed up, and even killed, tens of suspects in the Lake region on suspicion of having killed people investigated for murdering “witches”.

After his resignation, Mwinyi was appointed ambassador to Cairo, from where he was brought back to succeed Jumbe after the “fouling of the air” in Zanzibar, from where he moved on to edge Salim out of a presidential slot in the Union promised by Nyerere.

So, this unassuming man with the mild manners of a good neighbour became the quintessential comeback bloke, with little to distinguish him from the next person except his humility and folksy bonhomie. This rendered him advisable, and all his advisers speak of his approachability as well as a listening ear.

Read: Mwinyi: The statesman who helped rebuild EAC

It was on his watch that Tanzania made strides – since then all but reversed – in the democratisation process and the opening up of the media.

However, Mwinyi’s largely positive legacy will be remembered alongside some flies in the ointment, such as when he allowed himself to tangle with the thorny issues relating to Loliondo – where Gulf Arab interests collided with national conservationist priorities and Maasai livelihoods and the membership of Zanzibar in the Organisation of Islamic Conference – going against the secular ethos of the country.

There was a time Mwinyi was swayed by those close to him who wanted him to go against the grain in certain matters where his predecessor would not allow him to stray too far, like when it appeared he was contemplating amending the Constitution to scrap presidential term limits. He never vocalised his views about this but seeing it broached by people too close to him, the guess was not too hard. It was all stopped when Nyerere – very much the man in charge – stepped in and made them shut up.

Mwinyi was a good man with his heart in the right place. He saw the suffering of his people and wanted to lighten it, at some stage even intervening to ensure the availability of, of all things, beer, and him being a Muslim teetotaller – just to make it easier for his imbibing citizens!

He may have had his faults, we know – who doesn’t? – but he cut a figure of a Mswahili gentleman you would have wanted for a neighbour on your street.

Rest in eternal peace, Mwinyi.