Former Prime Minister Frederick Sumaye yesterday threatened to quit Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) should the party nominate a candidate tainted by corruption in the 2015 General Election.
Mr Sumaye took a swipe at his immediate successor, Mr Edward Lowassa, who also served as Premier before he was forced to resign in 2008 after being implicated in the Richmond scandal, accusing the latter of politics of deception ahead of 2015 polls.
According to the former Premier, the Kikwete succession politics have turned nasty—shaped mainly by corruption, divisions and a media campaign targeting those seen as potential candidates.
Mr Sumaye, who was one of CCM’s top three candidates in the 2005 presidential race but lost to Mr Kikwete, warned his party that it would lose the next election if it picks a corrupt candidate.
Yesterday’s press conference came a day after Mr Lowassa, one of those said to be eyeing the presidency, lambasted the current leadership for allegedly not being bold enough. Mr Lowassa declared himself fit and ready for the top job.
But in what appeared to be a swipe at Mr Lowassa, Mr Sumaye accused the immediate former PM of misleading the public that he was behind a water project in Shinyanga. Mr Sumaye was the Prime Minister when Mr Lowassa served as minister for Water and Livestock Development in the third phase regime.
Mr Sumaye was referring to a story that appeared in Mwananchi to the effect that it was only President Kikwete, the then minister for Foreign Affairs, and Mr Mohamed Seif Khatib, the minister in the Vice President’s Office, who supported the project as other cabinet members lined up against it.
He accused the former PM of not telling the truth and revealing secrets of Cabinet meetings, which is considered a criminal offence. “Maybe he decided to talk about it in public knowing it is not true and no punishment can be laid on him for not telling the truth,” he said.
The project to pump water from Lake Victoria to Shinyanga was a government initiative that was started by the then minister for Water, Dr Pius Ng’wandu, and later taken over by Musa Nkhangaa.
According to Mr Sumaye, it was former President Benjamin Mkapa who kicked off the project when he declared that Shinyanga would get water from Lake Victoria at all cost. “If he claims the project was his initiative, why didn’t he push it further to Dodoma or other places when he became the prime minister and had more powers?” Mr Sumaye wondered.
He also warned Tanzania against withdrawing from the East African Community, saying it would be a big mistake at this time when other countries are pulling together in regional federations.
Addressing journalists in Dar es Salaam yesterday, Mr Sumaye also wondered why the government had failed to name leaders who have stashed billions of money in Switzerland despite the Swiss government’s willingness to assist in tracing the offshore accounts. “Why can’t the government act, once and for all, to clear this controversy that has existed for years now?” he asked. source The citizen
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