By ELSIE EYAKUZE

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People sleep. The media doesn’t. I was minding my business the other week — on March 21 to be precise — when I got hailed. “Mama Samia is talking about the media. Says y’all get your marching orders from Unesco.”

It was very confusing and I was two eyeballs deep into my Putin obsession and gave it no mind. Since these days our president’s every utterance is available online for me to comb through at leisure, I made a mental note to come back to it and went on to find out more about the potential instigator of World War III.

It turns out that President Samia Suluhu did indeed make some remarks during her response to the Task Force on Constitutional Something or Other headed by one Prof Rwekaza Mukandala.

In a beautifully orchestrated event, the task force presented their findings to the President and she, as is her habit, took notes. I am not so naive as to think she didn’t at least read the executive summary beforehand or get a briefing, which tickles me because, just a few days prior to that event, she stonewalled BBC Africa’s Salim Kikeke when he asked her about the growing outcry about a new constitution.

Storm out

It was a pleasure to watch two Kiswahili speakers sparring and, unlike the late president Benjamin Mkapa, President Samia didn’t storm out of a BBC interview. Brava!

Some context: Tanzanians have been discussing a new constitution for several years. The one we have now is dated 1977, with a significant software upgrade circa 1985, I believe. It is super old for a modernising post-Ujamaa state.

A new constitution-making process was started in the last couple years of president Jakaya Kikwete’s second term only to stall magnificently after the submission of the Warioba version and then pap! Tanzania found itself in the middle of a general election.

President John Magufuli, man of the people that he was, declared his disinterest in “democracy” and refused to revisit the constitution issue because he was busy building very short bridges in Dar es Salaam and disenfranchising pregnant minors.

Fast forward to March 2022 and a task force has a report to present to President Samia. I’m not going to address the constitution and democracy today, we’ll visit those topics in the next few years.

Nothing is going to happen before 2025, and I’m amazed that fellow pundits and activists are amazed by this. Haven’t they been listening closely to President Samia to get a sense of how she rolls? She speaks soft and low but, folks, there is always a mic around and she doesn’t stutter.

Here is what she had to say to and about the media. It starts pretty well and, at the 38th minute, she asks for them to support civic education as well as community radio stations to provide crucial information in local languages.

As she referred to the media, a man stood up and bowed, and I was taken aback somewhat. Everyone she referred to in that meeting stood… and bowed. What is this now?

Between elections

Anyway, the real drama starts at the 54th minute. In essence she said that during the “normal” years, that is the years between elections, there isn’t much of a relationship between the media and political parties. But one year before the elections, Unesco apparently scoops up the media and political parties to tell us what our views are, our issues, platforms and areas of focus.

The gentleman stood and bowed again as she told him that sometime during this year she would have a consultative meeting with him to assess their “progress.”

This man turned out to be Deogratius Balile, managing director of Jamhuri Media Ltd and chairman of the Tanzania Editors’ Forum.

So, that happened. There is a lot going on here. Seeing the chairman of the Tanzania Editor’s Forum bow to an elected official who is the prime servant of the people felt wrong to my very bones.

Also, the Fourth Estate, by its very nature, cannot be coordinated beyond a certain threshold, nor can it be instructed by the state on how to carry out its duties.

Third, this is President Samia’s second year as head of state. The media is all over the conversations among and between political parties, including hers, very intensely so. That an astute politician would inform the media of her opinion of it, considering 2025 is only a hop and a skip away, surprised me.

Sugar Baby

Finally, how did I not know about this Unesco racket with the pre-election indoctrination sessions? Is there a blacklist somewhere, am I on it?

I totally want to be a Unesco Sugar Baby, what with the free food and lodging to make the brainwashing go down, but I have trouble with authority and obedience and being told what my opinion is by someone else is that the impediment? Heh.

From the first word uttered to graffiti on the walls of ancient Rome to the drummers of news between African villages to the public debates on social media platforms, we are the media and we will always be here, listening and, perhaps more importantly, hearing our leaders at every public utterance… until the end of time.

Elsie Eyakuze is a consultant and blogger for The Mikocheni Report: E-mail: [email protected]