Dar es Salaam. The recent appointment of ailing Prof Mark Mwandosya as a Minister in the President’s Office is linked with the 2015 General Election, according to a cross-section of political analysts.They told The Citizen yesterday that President Jakaya Kikwete’s decision to appoint Prof Mwandosya was a strategy to capture the support of the ailing politician, who has a big following both in the Southern Highlands and Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM).
The soft spoken electrical engineer-turned-politician came third in CCM’s 2005 presidential nomination race, having been beaten at the game by Mr Kikwete and runner-up Dr Salim Ahmed Salim.
Though his health has been failing, Prof Mwandosya still enjoys enough political clout to reckon with.
There is also the possibility that Mr Kikwete is courting Prof Mwandosya in order to get a guarantee of his backing should the president have a preferred successor in 2015.
When asked yesterday to comment on President Kikwete’s choice of the ailing minister, Chief Secretary Ombeni Sefue responded that it was the prerogative of the Head of the State to appoint his assistants.
The people should not worry, he added, because “even if Prof Mwandosya were to attend various check-ups, he will not go with his office”.
Though Prof Mwandosya himself has not given a firm indication that he will run for the top office in 2015, there are those who argue that this appointment gives him an edge should he decide to go for it.
A political science lecturer at the University of Dar es Salaam, Mr Richard Mbunda, said this appointment would be a big plus for Mr Mwandosya if he were to take a shot at the presidency, his health notwithstanding. “Along with his record as a hardworking and a committed public servant, he will be better equipped than anyone else since he will have gained a lot of experience working as the president’s right hand man,” Mr Mbunda added.
Mr Mbunda played down suggestions that Prof Mwandosya would not have any work to do in his new docket. Rather, he said, Prof Mwandosya would be second in line to the Prime Minister and his role wouldl cut across all ministries and government operations in Parliament.
Mr Emmanuel Mallya, a doctoral student in Portugal, said the president’s decision to appoint Prof Mwandosya would help heal divisions within the party. He added: “Among the scenarios which I think the president considered prior to his decision was uniting the party ahead of 2015… if he had left out Prof Mwandosya, many CCM members and other people outside CCM would have been dissapointed… certainly, Mr KIkwete didn’t want to do such a thing.”
Similar comments came from Mr Hamad Salim, head of political science and public administration at the Open University of Tanzania, who suggested that the president, who is also the CCM national chairperson, was doing everything in his power to make sure that the party did not disintegrate in his hands.
“For now, he is afraid that the party might die in his hands,” Mr Salim said. “As a result, he is making sure that the groups are dissolved immediately, so as to strengthen party unity at large.”
According to Mr Salim, the president is fully aware that what matters come the 2015 will be party unity rather than individual strengths. And the president is also sensitive to the fact that 2015 election will be different from previous elections as there is no “leadership legacy” to fall back on. Elaborating, he said: “In 1995, the late father of the nation (Mwalimu Julius Nyerere) picked Mr (Benjamin) Mkapa because President Kikwete wasn’t mature enough. Mr Kikwete was mature and ready to take over in 2005, but things are very different now.”
Mr Mallya does not, however, rule out Prof Mwandosya from the contest for the top office, his current health status notwithstanding. He adds: “Even Prof Mwandosya himself says that he is getting stronger. When asked, he did not say that he would not contest. He said he is focusing on his health. What happens if his health stabilises before the nomination process?”
University of Dar es Salaam political science lecturer Alexander Makulilo declined to associate the appointment with the Kikwete succession. “I can’t predict whether or not the president is seeking his (Prof Mwandosya’s) backing for his (president’s) preferred candidate come 2015,” he said. “What I am sure of is that, in being the president’s right hand man, Prof Mwandosya would be a big factor in 2015 whether or not he vies for the presidency.”
Prof Mwandosya was flown to India for medical treatment at the end of last year. He then had surgery at Apollo Hospital and has been in and out of the country recuperating since then. The MP for Rungwe constituency since 2000, he has served as a minister in various dockets in the third and fourth phase governments.
Reported by Frank Kimboy and Alex Bitekeye
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