CCM: We’re Searching for Union panacea

What does Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) need the most from the new constitution? A two-government Union structure might be top on the ruling party’s shopping list.

CCM has all along resisted yielding to public pressure on this along with several other issues such as the dual citizenship and public leaders’ ethics.

And so the CCM three-day institutional constitutional forum has, among others, resolved to stick to its gun about the Union structure.

This is despite a considerable number of Tanzanians attributing misgivings surrounding the 1964 blending of Tanganyika and Zanzibar in the existing structure.

The ruling party’s support to the two-tier Union remains unwavering mainly because it believes it has the capacity to improve it.

When asked why the ruling party prefers the status quo, Ideology and Publicity secretary Nape Nnauye told the Political Platform that CCM had finally found a panacea for the Union hiccups.

“We’ve analysed the Union’s wellbeing and realised that few issues make it unpopular. If we iron them out, the present Union structure will work wonders for us all,” Nnauye said on the sidelines of the CCM top organs meetings.

He said CCM was finding a lasting solution for getting rid of the deterrents for the two-tier Union structure to operate effectively, promising to disclose the panacea after the submissions. “Once we address these few bottlenecks, everyone will admit that the two-government Union is not bad at all,” he stressed.

The Union structure has placed CCM between a rock and hard surface after the Constitution Review Commission (CRC) proposal to depart from the status quo to a federal government structure.

The ruling party’s national chairman, President Jakaya Kikwete, gave members ample time to debate on the issue of national importance.

Mr Nnauye said CCM wanted members to come up with strong proposals during the two-day forum. To ensure each article of the draft constitution was scrutinised and debated extensively, the forum had to be extended for one day.

“We don’t want to overstep any section of the first draft constitution,” Mr Nnauye said in response to journalists who wanted to know why the forum had taken more than the scheduled time to conclude its business. Although there were some feeble dissenting voices during the closed door meeting, reports said the two-government Union structure was from the outset known that it will be there to stay.

Other issues

Mr Nnauye said the meeting wanted to come up with resolutions which would form a strong constitution for the nation. Some of the contentious issues which preoccupied the delegates, according to him, were on national ethics.

“Everyone would like to see national ethos guiding our dealings as leaders and individuals,” he said.

“Although the current Constitution is furnished with the ethics clause, the focus of CCM is on articulating and strengthening it,” Mr Nnauye said.

The dual citizenship, which has remained contentious for years now, also consumed the delegates time.

President Kikwete and the Foreign minister, Mr Bernard Membe, have been supporting debate and process which would see Tanzanians holding citizenship of another country without losing their nationality.