Friday, 26 March 2021

26 Facts you probably didn't know About Africa !


1. Gambia has only one university.
2. Equatorial Guinea is Africa’s only Spanish-speaking country.
3. South Africa is the most visited African country.
4. Nigeria has the richest Black people in
Africa.
5. Samuel Eto’o is the highest paid Footballer of all time, he received about £350,000 weekly in Russia in 2011.
6. A person from Botswana is called a
Motswana, the plural is Batswana.
7. A person from Lesotho is called a Mosotho.
8. A person from Niger is called a Nigerien. A person from Burkina Faso is called a Burkinabe.
9. Nigeria has won more football cups than England.
10. Zimbabwe’s President, Robert Gabriel Mugabe is the world’s most educated President with 7 degrees, two of them are Masters.
11. Al-Ahly of Egypt is the richest club in
Africa.
12. Didier Drogba is Chelsea’s highest goal scorer in European competition.
13. Johannesburg, South Africa is the most visited city in Africa.
14. Zinedine Zidane wanted to play for
Algeria, but the selector rejected him, saying they are already many players like him in the team.
15. President Jacob Zuma was once a referee
in prison.
16. President Robert Mugabe was jailed for 11 years for fighting for freedom.
17. President Robert Mugabe is Africa’s oldest Head of State and the world’s second oldest Head of State. He was born 1924.
18. The Seychellois are the most educated Africans. Seychelles’ literacy rates (Adult: 92%, Youth: 99%)
Zimbabwe is 2nd (Adult: 91.2%, Youth: 99%).
19. Rwanda is a better country for gender equality than England and USA.
20. With one hundred and ten Ministers and Deputy Ministers, and not counting other appointees under the executive, Ghana, under President Akufo-Addo, holds the record of the biggest government in the world.
21. Somalia got its first ATM on October 7,2014.
22. South Africa has the most Grammy Award winners in Africa.
23. Ethiopia has the most airports in Africa.
24. Ethiopia’s economy is growing faster than China's.
25. Eritrea’s President, Isaiah Afwerki is the least richest President in Africa.
26. Ethiopia is Africa’s oldest independent country.

Thursday, 25 March 2021

‘We’ve invested so much in Nigeria’ — Yoruba elders disown Igboho over secession bid


‘We’ve invested so much in Nigeria’ — Yoruba elders disown Igboho over secession bid
March 24
21:282021


Kunle Olajide, secretary-general of Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE), says Sunday Adeyemo, a Yoruba youth leader popularly known as Sunday Igboho, does not represent the Yoruba people in his call for secession.


Igboho had recently said Yoruba is no longer part of Nigeria, calling on people of the ethnic group residing in the north to go back home.

Speaking with TheCable on Wednesday, Olajide said Nigeria would be stronger if it remained as a unit.

He said the Yoruba people had invested so much in Nigeria’s formation and unity, and it would be unwise for them to seek secession.

Olajide said: “It is his (Igboho’s) personal desire but the present circumstances in our nation do not favour and will not make it achievable, and the fact that Yorubas have invested so much in the unity of this country and in the making of Nigeria. The tribe cannot choose to opt out without any adequate plans.

“I am not aware that the Yoruba nation or citizenship has given a mandate to anybody to desire their extinction from this country. So it is not a decision that can be taken by an individual or a group of individuals.

“Anybody who is familiar with the history of Nigeria will know that we have been together for over 100 years, even before the British came and we have Yorubas all over the country just as we have other Nigerians everywhere.“It is not something that you can declare by fiat. In any case, our diversity in this country and our population are our strengths. Fragmentation and dismemberment of this country cannot be in the best interest of anybody.”

‘YORUBA ARE ANGRY’

Olajide said the Yoruba people are angry over the “ethnocentric nature” of the Muhammadu Buhari administration.

He, however, noted that the ethnic group remains part of the country.

“Yes, all of us, especially the Yoruba nation, are angry about the ethnocentric nature of the present administration that appears grossly insensitive to the cries of maginalisation from all parts of this country. Whatever the hidden agenda it is, the agenda is bound to fail,” he said.

“But we are still part of this federal government that we are so much against because of the way it is being run. The vice-president is a Yoruba man, we have ministers and governors so I don’t think anybody can ignore those Yoruba leaders and go ahead to make a pronouncement that is not in the interest of Yoruba nation and Nigeria in general.”

Olajide urged Igboho “and some of those who believe in him to exercise patience”.

‘IGBOHO CAN’T SPEAK FOR YORUBA’Igboho had also said Yoruba monarchs and elders were behind him in his quest for secession.

But the YCE secretary-general said there was no platform where the traditional rulers met with Igboho.

Olajide maintained that while Igboho has a right to pursue whatever objective he desires as a “full grown adult”, he cannot speak for the entire Yoruba people.

“Igboho is a full grown adult, he is not a teenager so it will be wrong to believe that he does not know the country he is in,” he said.“I have spoken to him once or twice on the telephone but he is completely free to make his decision. But to make it on behalf of the entire Yoruba is what I seriously fault, it is not in order.

“I read his stories in the media and saw him on the television and social media but I am not aware that any such meeting has been held.”

EXCLUSIVE: Businessman files N55 million suit against MTN for barring his line


The Uyo based claimant says he lost 'millions' by being barred by MTN for four months.

A businessman, Sylvanus Ukpong, has sued telecommunication giant, MTN, for barring his line.

Mr Ukpong, in the writ of summons filed at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja,on March 12, 2021, noted that MTN, by its action, blocked him from accessing partners and potential customers.

In the court documents exclusively obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, the claimant told the court that his Civil Construction and Agro-Allied Company based in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, relied largely on telephone calls to stay in touch with business partners and solve business-related challenges.

He said the action of the network provider, had therefore, cost him millions of naira in the last four months.

He prayed for, among others, in his suit, an order directing the defendant, MTN, to unblock his line with immediate effect.

He also urged the court to award general damages of N50 million in his favour and against MTN, and another N5 million to cover for filing and prosecution of the suit.

‘How it happened’

He stated he had been using the MTN postpaid line 0803-746-6663 since 2008 and, was enjoying his “solemn relationship” with the network provider until early November 2020 when he was barred from making calls.

He was initially paying up to N100,000 as his monthly call credit to MTN Nigeria, and later reduced it N40,000, Mr Ukpong said while recalling his long-standing patronage of the network provider.

But he said in early November 2020, he was barred from making calls over an alleged N31,560 airtime bill incurred in October, a bill he said had been off-set by his recharge card vendor, Ime Esema, whom he made electronic bank transfer to.

You Want War? Read This! By Babafemi Ojudu



I joined The Guardian newspapers in 1985 and was made to report for The Guardian Express, the staple’s afternoon paper. My daily chore took me to every nook and corner of Lagos and its environ. 

One of the most troubling assignment I was saddled with at this  early period of my career as a journalist was to report on the refugee camp in Oru Ijebu, Ogun State.

There camped, were those who escaped the war in Liberia.

I mingled with the refugees, listened to their stories and observed their lives from morning to night. After spending two days in that camp I returned to Lagos humbled, and my perspective on war changed for ever. 

The Liberians fled their homes and arrived Nigeria on rickety boats from Monrovia. Some made the tortuous journey by road. 
The authorities could not find any decent  accommodation for this hordes of people displaced by war.

They were taken to the premises of a primary school in Oru. There in the Oru Camp was no water, no electricity, no toilet, no medicare. The camp was devoid of any facility. Almost all of the rooms, which were hitherto classrooms,  in the school where the people found accommodation had no windows. There were no bed but mattresses as flat and as thin as a carton.

Refugees are refugees because they are displaced and are provided minimal survival kits. This I could relate with. In the context of Nigeria, they were burdens on a state whose resources were stretched thin from the austerity of that era. 

What was shocking was the moment I began to interact with, and interrogate them . You would have thought they were ordinary citizens, jetsam and flotsam of society. That was not so. I found  that  the people I encountered were not ordinary beings. They were the elites. 

Many of them were elites in the Liberia of yester years. Some were serving judges, academics, business men and women, top civil servants before the war broke out. 

These were big men and women who now woke up in windowless classrooms in Oru, go to the bush to defecate, search for nearby brooks to fetch water for drinking and cooking . What do they have as there kitchens ? The traditional three stones on which   pans and pots are delicately placed to cook whatever is available .

I saw people who had lived in affluence dashed to the bush in search of wild cocoyam to cook and eat for survival. 

I saw husbands who could not account for their wives. I saw mothers  who abandoned their children and fled when they saw death starring them in the face. I saw young Liberians girls who were barely teenagers and once born of privilege take to prostitution in the neighboring Ijebu villages for survival.

I saw human misery and I said to myself how I wish  this people had not romanticized war but speak for peace before things degenerated.

We went through the Civil War in Nigeria and we are still regaled with stories of how three million people were killed. Two weeks ago at the Civil War memorial in Umuahia I saw the photographs of numerous children wasted by kwashiorkor . All for what? 
 
History books and numerous  memoirs of the the dramatis personae of the Nigeria Civil war are replete with stories of human misery. Yet urchins across the country and selfish elders daily beat the drum of war.  To what end?

Yes it is true that our federation may not be perfect, yes it is true that there is still much to be done to offer hope of a better life to our people , yes it is true that some people are feeling short changed, yes it is true that our affairs could be better managed but is war the solution? 

Some feel breaking up Nigeria is the solution but have they given thought to the fall out of this, the consequences?

How many countries that fought wars emerged as a better country as Rwanda did in less than 25 years after monumental loses? In Kigali the stench of death still hang high over this tiny oasis in the Sub-Sahara wasteland of civil wars that stretched from Congo to Uganda to Angola. One dare say Africa is still suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorders of those conflicts. We paid a terrible price for not striving for peace instead of war. 

How many years ago now has Somalia been battling to get its act together again, and achieve respectability in the comity of nations? It is now an infestation of warlords, just recently an international super star who escaped the misery and was on the mend back to give back to her homeland was bombed while visiting in Mogadishu! On 29th December, 79 persons just wiped out in an instant by terrorists. What a waste!

A friend told me a couple of days ago that Rwanda wouldn’t have become what it is today if it had not gone to war. I asked if Rwanda is as populous as we are and as complex as our nation is. Who told him there will still be a country after a war in Nigeria. Who told him the injustices in Nigeria will not be replicated in the small enclave he is canvassing for ? Here was a fellow who a couple of months ago complained bitterly to me that the best of what comes to Yorubaland in the Nigeria nation goes to people from Ogun State. After we have quit Nigeria will Ekiti, Ijesa, Ilaje etc also want to quit Oduduwa country in protest of a perceived Egba and Ijebu domination? In any case, didn’t we fight this war in 1967? Is it El Dorado since?

I never knew we were so divided until a friend told me he is from Anambra and I told him I had thought he was from Enugu State and he harshly rebuked me. “Do I look like Wawa people?”, he said in anger. So there is this kind of schism too among the Igbo who one could have thought are one. The North is her own potpourri. A land of minorities, we will have a massive jostle for dominance starting in the Middle Belt and society crumble in quick succession without this bandage called Nigeria. 

If the Libyans will reflect on their fate today, they would have  preferred life under the dictator Muamar Ghadaffi to the chaos in that country today. Similarly Iraq would have been better under an aging and fading Sadam Hussein than the fractious bandits of today.

We should ask ourselves if the bloody war in Syria ever resolved the differences between the factions in that country  after many years of blood letting and destruction?

Let those who want war realize and know that the only people who benefit from this process are the manufacturers of weapons of destruction. When they unleash them on us from Ukraine, Russia, South Africa and America, we would have become victims, onlookers and canon fodders . 

The hyenas are gathering and they are seeing Nigeria as the next theatre. They are feeding us with poison in form of FAKE NEWS and their local accomplices, the disgruntled politicians are egging on the narratives of division across the land. We must stand up to them. 

When they succeed at stampeding us into war we shall see that bombs and bullets do not differentiate betwen Muslims and Christians, Igbos and Yoruba , Bachamas and Junkuns. It does not spare pastors and Imams, not academics and farmers and neither is it a respecter of GOs and prophets. Being a CAN or MURIC activists will not be your insurance for safety then. War is brutish, and non-discriminatory. 

If you survive the blitzkrieg then you will make your way to Benin, Togo and Ghana . There the plastic bowl will replace your chinaware when  you queue for your daily ration of a meal.

Come to think of it how many of us Nigerians will those countries be able to take. It will be an unimaginable humanitarian disaster never seen before in the history of man. 

Two hundred million Nigerians spilling across Africa will cause a serious destabilization in the region. New wars will start because of it, and the “Anago” as we are derisively called by our neighbours will be the mincemeat served for supper. 

Everyone, all of us, will be the loser. Then it will be too late to reason. Let that reasoning start today. Before you get trigger happy, do you have any other home but home? Think. 

Senator Babafemi Ojudu, writes from Abuja

Agbo Paul: Convention: As PDP bids farewell to Secondus-led NWC in December


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In spite of what some political watchers may describe as internal contestations within the ranks of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the centrifugal and centripetal forces in Africa’s largest opposition political party appear to be moving towards steering the ship to stability.

The PDP has strived to remain democratic in its operations, and not a few persons are anxious of what the future holds for a party that has enjoyed political dominance in Nigeria for 16 years as she prepares to enter a new phase in its struggle towards wrestling power from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

With an Elective National Convention in sight probably in November or early December in Abuja, the coast may have been cleared. Analysts learnt that it is an elective National Convention that will usher in a new crop of leaders for Nigeria’s main opposition party regardless of the colours that may have tainted it in recent times.

Forces within the party, it was learnt, objected to the idea of a Caretaker Committee to run the party should the tenure of the current leadership come to an end in December.

They draw their argument from the position of the PDP constitution which stated in Chapter 1 Section 7 (3)(c ): “The Party shall pursue its aims and objectives by adhering to the policy of the rotation and zoning of Party and Public elective offices in pursuance of the principles of equity, justice and fairness.”

Therefore, as the tenure of the current National Working Committee (NWC) of the party draws to an end, it is fit and proper for the party to organise a national convention to pick its new leaders according to the dictates of the constitution of the party.

“We don’t want what the APC has found itself to befall us; a caretaker committee is an invitation to disaster, and PDP is a democratic party where people ascend to leadership positions through popular vote and not someone setting up a caretaker committee. It is not in our genes,” said a chieftain of the party who craved anonymity.

To avoid the ripples created by the continued use of caretaker committee in the governing APC which many have described as an aberration, the PDP is trying to avoid any situation that will warrant any form of ad hoc management system of the party ahead of the 2023 general elections considered crucial for the party.

In preparations for the convention, the PDP is said to have planned to set up two important committees: the Zoning committee and the Constitutional Amendment Committee. The two committees are to streamline its preparations towards a rancour free convention at the end of the year.

This is slated for April at its first National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting.

It was gathered that the zoning of positions in the NWC has been the root of the seemingly power struggle between the gladiators of the party, especially at the regional and state levels.

It is believed that the general opinion of the party members is that the zoning committee will zone all the 13 positions of the NWC to the six geopolitical zones in the country that is: North West, North East, North Central, South East, South South and South West.

In the last convention, the PDP did not zone its NWC positions to the six geopolitical zones; it rather zoned the positions to north and south, a situation, it was gathered, the party wants to change in the next convention. The PDP is not known for zoning its leadership positions to north and south of the country, going by its record.

It is believed that the bulk of the work in the preparations leading to the convention lies in the zoning committee which will have a micro-zoning formula in sharing of positions among the states of the federation.

Political pundits have it that gladiators in the various regions and states will try to exert their political shrewdness in grabbing perceived juicy posts for themselves and their cronies. Of course, a clash of interests cannot be ruled out.

The constitutional amendment committee is expected to amend some sections of the constitution of the party, but details of the clauses in the constitution to be amended were not given. However, whatever the tumult, the PDP is known to put its acts together seven to eight months before its national convention.

As members jostle for positions ahead of the convention, many expect the national chairman, Prince Secondus, having served the party meritoriously for 12 years at the national headquarters, to bow out at the end of December. Feelers, however, reveal that he may opt for another role within the PDP.

A Rivers State citizen, Secondus was the National Organising Secretary for four years from 2007-2011 and Deputy National Chairman from 2012-2016 (he acted as National Chairman for some months after the then-National Chairman, Alhaji Adamu Muazu resigned). From 2016-2017, the party was practically comatose until he emerged as national chairman of the party at the National Convention of December 9-10, 2017). This makes it 12 years he has been in the PDP, NWC. Bayelsa State remains the only state in the South South that has never produced a national officer of the party.

The South-South Geopolitical zone have a sharing formula in which all the six states in the zone are grouped into division, such that, Division A comprise of Rivers and Bayelsa; Division B have Cross River and Akwa Ibom; while Division C have Edo and Delta. Political watchers have opined that the zoning committee of the party may consider for Balyesa State any position zoned to Division A, this is; Rivers and Bayelsa states to ensure equity and a sense of belonging for party faithful in the state. Rivers State is not the only state in the region; there are five other states in the south south zone.

The South-West Geopolitical Zone also have a sharing formula where all the six states in the zone are grouped into Division, the Lagos/Ogun Division is one, the Osun/Oyo Division is another while the third is Ondo/Ekiti. The current positions in the zone are being occupied by Ekiti which holds the office of the National Treasurer, while Ogun occupies the office of the Deputy National Chairman. It is also expected that whatever position given to the zone will be zoned to Lagos and possibly Ondo.

In the same vein, the North-West Zone have its states grouped into Kaduna and Katsina as group A, Jigawa and Kano as group B, while Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara is group C. The current holders of the office in the Zone are Katsina holding the office of the National Secretary, while Kebbi occupies the office of the National Women’s Leader. This is also expected to be rotated in the spirit of equity, justice and fairness.

Also, the North-East is divided into Gombe and Bauchi as one Zone, Taraba and Adamawa and Zone two, while Borno and Yobe is Zone three. Current holders are Bauchi for the office of the Deputy National Chairman, North and Yobe for the office of the National Auditor. Also, it is expected that whatever position given to the North-East Zone will be rotated to Borno and Gombe.

In the case of North Central, the zone equally has three sections with Plateau and Benue as Section A, Nasarawa, FCT and Kogi and Section B while Niger and Kwara is Section C. The zone currently have three positions share by, Niger for the National Financial Secretary, Kogi holds the office of the National Publicity Secretary while Benue occupies the office of the Deputy National Secretary.

And lastly, the South-East have a totally different arrangement mainly because it has five states in the Zone and they shared position between the states in amicable manner. The current office holders in the zone are Abia holding the office of the National Organising Secretary, and Enugu holding the office of the National Youth Leader. Currently, Imo State and Anambra does not have any national position zoned to it.

More so, after the first NEC meeting next month, the party plans to call another NEC meeting in July which is to approve the zoning arrangement as recommended by the zoning committee. The second NEC meeting is also expected to announce the National Convention Planning Committee and subcommittees as well.

The NEC is expected to adopt the report of the zoning committees or amend it and adopt it as the standard procedure for electing its party officers.

Also some sources within the PDP have hinted that former President Goodluck Jonathan is among the party heavyweights pencilled down to chair the national convention. But the party is not foreclosing the idea of picking another party heavyweight to chair the convention should Jonathan turn down the request or is engaged with other things.

Meanwhile, only recently the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the PDP added its voice to assuring a peaceful transition in the party. It said it would ensure that the National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, and members of the NWC serve out their tenure.

In a communiqué signed by its Secretary, Senator Adolphus Wabara, the BoT said that the party would do everything necessary to take over power from the APC in 2023.

“The Board of Trustees will ensure that a fluent and uninterrupted operation of all the organs of the party, particularly the National Working Committee (NWC), remains in place leading up to a successful convention in December 2021,” the BoT said.

The convention is elective where people will campaign and be voted for as they did in the last convention. The PDP is known for its democratic tendency of choosing its leaders without minimal rancour.

The choice of Abuja as the venue of the convention is a plus for the local economy of the capital city that has endured an economic meltdown caused by the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic.

Nigeria’s capital city Abuja is one of the most impacted cities from the pandemic with the hospitality industry having cut down on staff size due to low patronage.

A PDP convention in Abuja will mean a lot to so many businesses from hotels to the food vendors, from printing to logistics, from event management to transportation and others. All are expected to cash in on the frenzy to make brisk business.
Agbo Paul is a political analyst, and writes from Abuja, Nigeria. He can be reached via e-mail: agbogood@yahoo.com

Wednesday, 24 March 2021

Gunmen kidnap 4 in FCT, demand N200 million ransom


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Unknown gunmen on Wednesday, abducted four residents of Kiyi town in Kuje Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

An older brother to one of the victims told Daily Trust that the kidnappers contacted the family and demanded N50 million for each victim.

He said the contact was made immediately after the abduction.

According to him: “The kidnappers called once, asked for N50 million ransom for one person.

“When they raided the houses, they did not carry any property, except a cooking pot, probably to be cooking in the bush,”

When contacted by DAILY POST, the FCT Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, ASP Miriam Yusuf, confirmed the incident.

According to her, the FCT Police Command has launched operation to ensure the abductees are rescued.

“4 persons at Kiyi village of Kuje we have launched an operation to rescue the victims and apprehend the fleeing suspects”, she added.

The Legacy of Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere

Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, the founding President of TanzaniaMwalimu Julius Nyerere, the founding President of Tanzania 
Tanzania's first President, Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, is considered one of Africa's most influential leaders. He was a statesman, liberator, pan-Africanist, a Mwalimu and among Catholics – candidate for sainthood.

Paul Samasumo – Vatican City

Professor Father Juvenalis Baitu is the former Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA) and is now involved in the establishment of a new university in Bukoba, Tanzania.

Professor Baitu is someone who knows Julius Nyerere both personally and as someone who has studied the work and life of Nyerere.

In your own words, who really was Julius Nyerere, and what makes him stand out?

Simplicity. Julius Nyerere was the first President of Tanzania who insisted on being called a Mwalimu –teacher. He declined titles, privileges and enjoyed the simple life even as President of Tanzania. When he retired, he went back to his small village to live a simple life –attending Holy Mass every day.

Talk to us about his Catholic faith

As President, Nyerere would participate in the Holy Mass wherever he was, and during Mass, he would prefer to mix with the people in the pews. He regularly went to Holy Communion and declined police escorts, sirens. If he had to line up to receive Holy Communion – he would do just that.

By the time, he died (in 1999) Nyerere did not seem to have a mansion, or even money stashed away in Switzerland. We do not see that kind of President in Africa nowadays or for that matter elsewhere in the world?

That model of leader or presidents were people consumed with the idea of contributing to the development of the people they were leading. Perhaps our modern leaders in Africa have forgotten about that.

One of the achievements of Nyerere was toning down ethnicity in Tanzania. Tanzania has KiSwahili as a national language. Nyerere used this to unify the people of Tanzania.

As you may know, Tanzania has 120 tribes –big tribes, let alone subtribes. So to lead a country of that nature…. (Nyerere) needed a medium through which he could communicate his ideas of what Tanganyika (as it was known at independence) needed to become. So, the language was extremely important (for Nyerere), and he succeeded in that. KiSwahili united us (Tanzanians), and it brought us together as a people.

Is that being lost today, as we see more and more emphasis on the English language?

From the late 1980s, people who spoke KiSwahili began to think: If I speak Swahili, I am lower than others who speak English. (We have seen) the coming of more English Medium type of schools. Parents who could afford it started sending their children to schools in Kenya and Uganda. Now we have a situation where the current generation can hardly speak a line of Swahili without binging in English words and expressions. Mwalimu (Nyerere) himself was a model. He had proficiency in KiSwahili and competence in the English language. Now we have, in Tanzania, a generation that speaks neither KiSwahili nor English fluently.

Isn't that a danger in that we could see, in Tanzania, the emergence of tribalism or the negative ethnicity that has caused so much suffering elsewhere in Africa?

Absolutely. I agree with you on that.

As a professor, an academic, you observe African leadership styles. You are a student of Julius Nyerere's leadership style. Where does Africa lose it and we end up with Presidents who change constitutions in order to stay in power beyond their given mandates? Where do we go wrong?

We go wrong, particularly at the point when we fail to understand who we are and what we should become for our people as leaders. We think that once in power, we now have access to the means of production and distribution, and we forget the people we lead. We worked hard for independence (from colonialism) but have ultimately succumbed to propositions that come with free markets – free markets for whom? Our political leaders gather all the wealth, but the majority of the people they govern remain poor.

Julius Nyerere tried to bring people together through his philosophy of Ujamaa ("familyhood" beyond blood relations; a "communitarian" understanding of African society that promoted social change, self-reliance and egalitarianism). However, Ujamaa had and still has its critics. Ultimately, some critics say it was just a version of Socialism or Marxism–Leninism and was coercive in the application. In the end, it impoverished the people of Tanzania. What would be your comment?

My comment is that Nyerere was neither a Communist nor a Capitalist. He was in the middle. Ujamaa was about the way we Africans have organised ourselves traditionally. Mwalimu intended to bring people together through the language of KiSwahili. He also wanted people to come together in slightly bigger communities or villages so that they could access services, such as clean water, from a central point. But yes, mistakes were made, and the model (Ujamaa) had challenges. Critics are there, but ultimately they do not see what has come of that (Ujamaa): Electrification of communities, schools in central places, the growth of small towns and the road networks (we now have). At that time, bringing people together seemed like something imposed on the people, and people think Ujamaa failed. Actually, with hindsight, we now see the point (of what Nyerere was trying to achieve). More and more, we see what Nyerere had in mind though he did not live to see the appreciation (of what we now see).

Nyerere has also been criticised for the One Party State that anyway, most African countries had. To this day, TANU and its successor the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party have governed Tanzania without interruption.

The idea of One-Party States, at the time, was that of an African Palaver where we talk and talk until we agree (on a way forward). This is what used to happen traditionally. In Africa, today, we have many political parties, but the differences in ideology or party manifestos are rather thin. There are many parties, but fundamentally, they are the same.

African leaders of those days, Nkrumah, Nyerere, Kaunda and others believed in pan-Africanism. Is this also something we have lost in Africa?

This (loss) is contributing to tearing us apart because though the value of pan-Africanism remains (as) Africans (we) are victims of processes beyond ourselves. We are following systems that do not work for us. However, not all hope is lost. We have the African Union (AU), ECOWAS, SADCC and other economic bodies (where Africans are) collaborating on the economic front.

We must always remember that Imperialism did not go to sleep after African countries became independent. It continues with a different face. Now, we need a new wake-up call to continually liberate Africa.

The cause for the beatification of Julius Nyerere: How far is this cause, do you know?

Yes, I know. He (Nyerere) is a Servant of God. The process is on, but it takes time. We are praying that at a given time; he will be beatified. However, some forces are against this (beatification) process. In a way, this is good because Nyerere should not just walk through the process as if he were an angel. (In fact) the critics of Nyerere's beatification provoke more witnesses and testimonies of what and who Nyerere was –and what he stood for.

Even if it was not for the beatification, Nyerere is becoming more significant with hindsight. He is more appreciated now (than ever before), not just in Tanzania but in Africa as a whole.