Just How Tribalism, Nepotism Kill Competency In Africa

By Adonis Byemelwa*

On June,6, President Samia appointed a good number of leaders in Local government departments, thanks to the unprecedented reshuffle at the District and Regional levels. The Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania entitles The Head of State to appoint ministers, board members, District Executive directors, and regional and district commissioners, the list might be innumerable in this think piece.

Following the appointments, social media remained awash with congratulatory remarks on various political leaders who landed prestigious positions. The so-called felicitation, which leaves people’s tongues wagging, was due to the appointments of brethren, kith, and kind of ‘bigwigs’ in the ruling machinery to land lucrative jobs. The blessed range from Godfrey Nnauye, Justice Kijazi, Shauri Selenda Msuya, Reuben Chongolo, Sauid Majaliwa John Nchimbi to Ruth Magufuli, the list looks long, to mention but a few, due to editorial space.

Political pundits insinuate that the incessant reshuffle and re-appointment of well-known kith and kins is an ongoing process to set strongholds for the 2025 elections, as the local government is always used as a benchmark to winning the General Election. The appointed leaders will be given two major mammoth tasks: to push for the CCM landslide victory alongside maintaining the elites’ status quo Yusuph Makamba, The Former Tanzania ruling party, CCM, General Secretary and longtime politician defended nepotism by saying, it is not strange for a driver to have his many other children drivers-passing through father’s footsteps. Makamba has many of his children enjoying plum jobs in politics.

If my civics knowledge is anything to go by, nepotism is the habit of people utilizing their positions to favor those of their kin. Their tribal colleagues, their relatives of their spouses even more. Their children are given positions that they cannot manage in some ways, only to create jobs for them or to function as their protectors. This is very serious in Tanzania’s politics.

Common sense forces one to ponder over the meaning of self-employment sung by top political leaders whose children enjoy appointments. One would also think of the difficulties endured by university graduates to queue for job opportunities, all to be told in the end that chances are slim. Slim in the sense that, the available job slots are shelved for a few members of the elites’ families.

The slimness of job opportunities in the name of presidential appointments reminisces my late teacher educator, Mr Soudy Rashid Khalfan who schooled with President Benjamin Mkapa at a village Primary school. In the 200s, the then head of State had made a tour of Mtwara Teachers College, oblivious of the presence of his primary schoolmate. The tutor made several abortive attempts to see the top leader, thanks to the presence of shrewd security detail that thwarted means of stalling the set protocol.  In the end, Mkapa saw Khalfan and allowed his guards to him closer to vent out feelings.

According to the tutor, after a brief nit-nut and bizarre tee-tee- with the President, he asked him for a lucrative appointment saying, Mzee Mkapa nikumbuke ‘katika ufalme wako’, loosely translated as, please consider me in your appointments and Mkapa retorted ‘mpo wengi’, means I meet so many of your type.  Khalfan retired at Mtwara Teachers College as a normal tutor, Mkapa completed his phase, so far, by appointing several other people for reasons best known to himself.

Nepotism is a crime against humanity. It robs people of equal opportunities to advance in life and undermines the legitimate interests of individuals. Nepotism robs nations of valuable resources to develop their economy. It compromises the rule of law and causes citizens to lose faith in the values of democracy and in government institutions.

The Hard Talk Interview of 28 July 2021 between the BBC's Sarah Montague and Malawi's President encourages questions about Chakwera's authenticity as a leader. The period in the interview devoted to Chakwera's family appointments particularly reveals a political leader who lacks authenticity.

Montague broached the issue of nepotism, although she didn't explicitly use the term, by first citing passages from Chakwera's inaugural address as President of Malawi in July 2020: "I challenge those in parliament to act professionally, to set a good example. The time of giving free handouts is passed." Later in the interview, Montague quoted Chakwera from an address he had made in Malawi's parliament in 2019, criticizing the then-ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) over ethnicism and nepotism:

"If there's a vacancy at a foreign embassy that requires a professional and career diplomat, the DPP will send someone unqualified whose only credential is being related to someone at State House by tribe or blood, because it is a chance for someone to steal from Malawians."

Chakwera clearly understood in 2019 that ethnicism and nepotism were problems in the Malawian government. Montague asked Chakwera whether his appointment of his daughter, Violet, as a diplomat to Brussels, was a good example. Chakwera denied that this was true but failed to clarify the matter. Earlier in the month of the interview, several Malawian news publications, among them those citing the President's Press Secretary Brian Banda, reported otherwise

Whatever the case regarding Violet's alleged appointment to a post in Brussels, the BBC released a story in early January 2022, confirming that Chakwera's daughter had been appointed at the Malawi High Commission in London as the First Secretary responsible for investments. It seems that even if Violet was "not going as a Third Secretary to a mission in Belgium" at the time of the Hard Talk interview, she was always going to be taking up a diplomatic position somewhere.

Favoritism reduces the attractiveness of the state to attract investors. It decimates the credibility of the state in order to ensure peace, prosperity, security, and stability for its citizens. It is simply disgusting, when leaders use positions to benefit people of their own kin, especially if they are not even qualified. When every lucrative position is awarded to elites’ children, regardless of qualifications, it is corruption. Full stop.

However, it will also be wrong to reject their rightful applications simply because they are CCM politicians’ relatives. If many children from former Presidents, Mkapa, Kikwete Membe (Tanzania’s former foreign minister), and Lugola’s (Former home affairs minister) families vie for Parliamentary primaries under the ruling party by jumping the queue it will be wrong. It is normally a case of corruption if leaders use the information, they have in advance to give an unfair advantage to their kin-be it in the form of advance notice or tip, preferential treatment, or denying or distorting the information to others.

On a lighter note, it is not uncommon to find people in positions they are not capable of, without appropriate qualifications, given higher privileges than others, or awarded contracts that they cannot manage. Sometimes they have sufficient qualifications but they do not pass through the same system and are given without due process.  Africa had suffered many losses because of this stupidity.

In what came to be known as the Lugumi scandal, the Tanzanian Police Force in 2011 contracted Lugumi Enterprises Ltd to install 108 fingerprint machines in police stations across the country at a price of Tsh37 billion ($17.3 million). The contractor received Tsh34 billion ($ 15.8 million) of which only 18 units were installed, while only eight were functioning.

Alarmed by the Controller and Auditor General’s report, the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) demanded to see the contract document but the police did not make it available to the lawmakers, saying it should be in the hands of the Home Affairs Ministry. Sources privy to PPRA told reporters that involvement in the tender process was limited to publishing in the government gazette the outcome of the tender, while section 2 (2) of the Public Procurement Act of 2011 to Section 2 (4) instructs defense and national security organs to comply with this Act subject to section 2, subsections (3) and (4). To say the least, the Lugumi contract is a damning indictment of nepotism hills, if citing examples could trigger sedition but the Lugumi contract was awarded to an in-law of the Head of State, all to end up in shame. This is the tip of the iceberg among many other despicable corruption scandals.

It is disheartening that many competent people have been driven out of work, or frustrated to futility because of nepotism. In addition, employing relatives is always biased and any action against them means a break of even more important relationships outside work. I will never be forgiven by my brother who did not get a teaching at the interview I was chairing! And when we employ them even without positions of authority, their superiors are afraid of dealing with them as others. Imagine of Tanzania’s Prime Minister probing into corruption scandals at the Ministry of Tourism and Natural Resources, when the minister responsible for the docket is an in-law of the Head of State! This would sound ridiculous, isn’t it?

The expose by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists on the decades-long avers that nepotism practices by the former Angolan President Dos Santos favoured his daughter which earned her the title of the richest woman in Africa with a wealth of over U$3 billion; the imprisonment of his son for diverting oil revenues from Angola’s sovereign wealth fund; and how the current President of Angola, Joao Lourenco is trying to rebuild the trust of the nation and to ensure that government resources are rightful returned and used to develop the country for the benefit of all citizens.

According to Transparency International, Mobuto Sese Seko (Joseph-Desire Mobutu; 14 October 1930 – 7 September 1997) embezzled over U$5 billion from DRC, ranking him as the third-most corrupt leader since 1984 and the most corrupt African leader, who awarded his close relatives and fellow members of the Ngbandi tribe with high positions in the military and government. He sold the nation’s rich natural resources while the people live in poverty, and he groomed his eldest son to succeed him as president, but fate had it differently.

Developed nations are also not immune from nepotism. It was very much thinking whether some of our leaders were following the fiasco at the World Bank in yesteryear, when Paul Wolfowitz, as President was a capable manager, I guess. Nobody accused him of squandering money or not doing his job. His commitment to Africa was commendable. But the mistake he made of promoting and giving a high pay to his girlfriend (maybe actually his wife without marriage papers) was totally intolerable. Nobody said this lady was incapable but the action cost him his reputation and his job.

To avoid nepotism and corruption, leaders should not overstay their welcome. The Constitution must be respected as the Supreme Law that protects all citizens. Trust is a fundamental pillar and the most constructive factor in mutual relationships as it puts an end to chronic suspicion in society.

It is time we stopped justifying nepotism as an act of human nature – that as long as the selected individual fulfills the qualification, we consider nepotism an acceptable act. Justifications for nepotism can influence how a country perceives it. The arrangement of strategic networking by corrupt governments to protect their status; and the exploitation of national resources and wealth for personal gain thru introducing policies that favour personal interests by those in power must be condemned.

*Adonis Byemelwa is a master’s in International Relations Graduate, teacher, author, and columnist and was formerly a sub-editor with Tanzania’s English Newspaper, The Citizen. Hyperlink, adonisbyeme@yahoo.com.+2555884436