By JENERALI ULIMWENGU

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It is becoming clearer and clearer that President Samia Suluhu Hassan has serious issues with the parades she organises, by raining on them constantly.

When a commander sets out to do a parade, one of the major worries should be whether the weather will hold and there will be no rain. In some cases, meteorological reports are consulted, to be in a state of preparedness, in case it pours.

So, it is a no-brainer when the person mounting a parade is the same one who is busy raining on very activity they wish to keep dry.

More than two years ago, when she came to the top of the country’s leadership, Samia presented to her people the policy of “Four R’s”, which stood for among other things, reconciliation. It was a message of hope that her predecessor would have had nothing with, and I for one applauded.

The choice of the R’s was an admission—never verbalised in public, but all too clear to us—that she agreed with those that had seen her predecessor, John Magufuli as a negative factor she had to try and move away from as fast as possible.

Read: ULIMWENGU: Political sycophancy is old, let’s cut it out

She indeed took measures to show that this was the case, including opening up the political spaces that Magufuli had closed down hermetically, and for a time some of us believed in the “Four R’s” and Samia’s good faith.

Now I find that the faith we had allowed ourselves may have been based on wishful thinking rather than the realities on the ground.

For one thing, Samia seems so changeable that one can never be sure what she is going to do next, and whether her earlier statements are anything to go by when trying to foretell the future.

She makes such frequent changes in her government that one wonders if she herself keeps track of those changes. One reason could be that she has allowed so many advisers into her confidence that the last one to talk to her will be the one listened to.

Now, this past week she displayed a singular lack of governance stability when she allowed her police force to disrupt an innocuous meeting of the main Opposition party gathered to observe International Youth Day.

The manner in which the police broke up the meeting and manhandled senior officials of the said party point to one of two things: either Samia approves of police brutality in disrupting activities planned by the Opposition, or her police force do not give a hoot what she may think. She cannot have it both ways: either she authorised that brutality or the police don’t care what she may think.

The way to see which is which should be wide open soon as people across the country, and in the international community, await her action against a clearly rogue element within the police.

No one should think that people have forgotten what happened in 2019 and 2020, when Samia’s predecessor, Magufuli had his way as far as winning the elections was concerned. Is she planning a repeat?

But then, maybe I am failing to take in the taciturn demeanour the Tanzanians are capable of: Hiding and keeping mum in circumstances such as this, and mumbling their displeasure in whispers, and then leaving everything to God. And, maybe because of this, our rulers have come to the conclusion that our people are incapable of violent reaction to what is done to them.

Let me warn whoever may be inclined to think this way: The human is an elastic animal, and can be pulled this and that way for long periods of time without showing angry refusal; but when the last straw is loaded and the back breaks, there is no knowing what the consequence will be: I always see a Sierra Leone, a people so meek and charitable, and smiling and courteous to the point of someone apologising for inadvertently placing their foot under yours!

But behold what they did to each other when they said, no more, without even knowing what it was no more about! It had become a hellish melee without cause or effect, and only killing was on the mind, and how to be creative in the ways of killing, to provide maximum entertainment value.

I followed up on the Sierra Leone issues after the British and Nigerians had restored some sanity, and I found out that after a year it was business as usual again… the same corruption, the same venality, the same arrogant, couldn’t-care less nonchalance.

Shocked at the seemingly insensitiveness to their recent past history, I was quickly told that the perpetrators of the causes of the past mayhem never experienced the results of their malefaction: they left with the first planes when the eruption happened, and come back on the last planes after peace had been re- established.

In Mbeya, our police bosses practised hooliganism and thuggery with impunity, I fear. The consequences of this raining on Samia’s parade is likely to be expensive.