CCM on the spot over Govt's poor show

By Deogratias Kishombo

In the past four years, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) government has been facing many challenges in administration, leading to decline of its popularity.

Grand corruption, increasing poverty and students' loan scheme discrepancies are the factors that are likely to feature in the agenda of the party's critics.

The ruling party will need a guru who will rewrite and rearrange the notes of the already-infamous song 'Better Life for All Tanzanian� to make it appeal again to the ears of its listeners.

With only six years to go before the Millennium Development Goals are �realised�, Tanzania is far behind, and the programmed such as Poverty Reduction Strategy (Mkukuta) remain as mere rhetoric.

Some youths were say the estimate of growth of the economy in Tanzania is a 'myth'and are not realistic thus paper works since the situation is becoming worse everyday.

"The CCM government has no point to make in this menace. Most of the people have become poor because of the government" said Mr Alex Lukonge a graduate from the University of Dar es salaam, Bachelor of Commerce; he is now an entrepreneur with a consultancy unit.

Mr Lukonge believes that the leaders of the ruling party do not read the signs of the times and they were unaware of political trends thus most of the citizen understand issues.

"Everything is changing, environment, weather, people and so no, therefore CCM have failed to learn these, and we are not a people of 1940s" he added.

Loosing credibility

Recently the ruling party has been ashamed as the government officials and party's leaders were stoned, heckled and others were ridiculed by the people.

"Tarime [defeat in election] could be taken as a lesson to CCM, but they have no eyes neither hears," said Peterson Mkama, a handcraft trader in Kariakoo.

In Tarime by-election the country witnessed the ruling party losing to its political rival Chadema which retained the parliamentary seat.

A number if youths in Tarime openly opposed CCM saying that it has been fooling them for years and they were not ready to accept the lies anymore.

Boys, girls and adults carried placards in the street during by-election campaigns condemning the ruling party as the source of poverty.

Taking the people for a ride?

Another bomb which will cost the ruling party is a statement made by the Minister of Energy and minerals Hon. William Ngeleja during Busanda by election campaign.

He was quoted by local press saying that small miners in Katoro village who would not vote for the ruling party, they will be in danger of loosing their licence and will never be connected to the national grid.

This statement has interpreted as 'intimidation' for democracy

"Any serious politician can not argue like that, Ngeleja has missed the point. It is childish to convince an intelligent voter with such fun argument" said a journalist of a local press.

Students' loan

During Kikwete administration, students of higher leaning have been complaining against the procedure of securing loans from a Higher Education Students Loan Board (HESLB) making the administration less popular to students.

The majority of students and graduates have raised their concerns on how the government has been doing to implement these loans under loan board.

"[Former President Benjamin] Mkapa was somehow serious in the issue of education, and we saw some of improvements in the third phase government but now everything is zigzag" said Muganyizi Syllvester a third year student at Tanzania Institute of Accountancy.

When asked if he trusted the government, he said �No please, I think we need changes.�

Poverty status

According to Inter Press Services News Agency Tanzania is one of Africa�s biggest recipients of development aid with almost 40 percent of the current 2008/09 budget funded by outside donors.

Foreign aid agencies are willing to invest into the country because of its political stability, attempts to crack down on corruption and sound fiscal reforms.

Economic growth in Tanzania, the third-biggest gold producer in Africa, reached about seven percent a year since 2001. Yet, the country remains one of the poorest in the world.

The United Nations Human Development Index, which measures a range of social and economic indicators, ranks Tanzania 159 out of 177 nations.

Poverty continues to be rife because progress in spreading Tanzania's economic benefits has been uneven and many of the poorest citizens have seen little or no improvement in their quality of life, explained Dar es Salaam-based World Bank economist Paolo Zacchia as quoted by IPS.

Worst off are rural areas that are often cut off from services and other types of support, he said.

The household survey shows that Tanzania is not on track to achieving many of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), said Zacchia, which are a set of eight global benchmarks to curb poverty and hunger, increase maternal health, reduce child mortality, fight the spread of deadly diseases such as HIV, malaria and tuberculosis, create gender equality and environmental sustainability, all by 2015.

"The findings [of the survey] call in the question of the effectiveness of government policies to fight poverty and the international aid behind it," said Zacchia.

Unemployment rate

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) says that unemployment and underemployment rates in Tanzania have increased over the past decade at a time when the economic growth rate almost doubled.

Urban unemployment rates attained levels of over 20 per cent and youth unemployment attained over 40

Various cities have attracted most productive unemployed youths from villages who have stormed in town and venturing in petty trade.

But unfortunately, the government has failed to create a good environment for these young boys and thus they have become robbers and bandits in the street. Due to this situation, they have been affected, they blame the government and no body can convince them to vote for CCM.

The ILO however, suggests that the creation of employment by the government should be at the centre of all development projects so as to enable Tanzania achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).