The dust is finally settling down over the fuel crisis that engulfed the nation in the last two weeks, threatening to bring the country’s economy almost to a halt.
However, one thing is clear; Tanzania is not yet out of the woods if the debate that transpired in the House in Dodoma on Tuesday after January Makamba’s (Bumbuli MP, CCM) emergency motion is anything to go by.
Concluding his emergency motion before it successfully sailed through, Mr Makamba raised a very pertinent issue when he said the nation may succeed in forcing fuel importers to offload their products in the markets, but once the fuel was exhausted, concerned companies may stop further imports!
Mr Makamba’s point was that unless the government looked critically into the whole fuel industry, the problem experienced may recur but this time the country may not have alternative.
As noted by Mps and many Tanzanians, the fuel problem has once again exposed President Jakaya Kikwete administration’s weaknesses that stem from its leaders’ lack of seriousness and outright incompetency.
The problem also faulted its much vaunted unbridled liberalization policy that is fraught with corruption as well articulated during the debate in the House by Chadema opposition party’s youthful legislator, Mr John Mnyika who said he had evidence that government officials in fuel industry were involved in graft.
What is interesting about Mr Mnyika’s allegations is that the speaker in the House or any other member did not intervene to seek evidence on what he had just said as has been speakers/members repeated practices in the past whenever opposition Mps raised serious allegations against the government.
That the speaker did not intervene this time around speaks volumes about the credibility of Mnyika’s allegations in that the speaker feared that Mr Mnyika could have ended up putting the government in a more embarrassing situation.
A critical analysis of the fuel problem shows that much as fuel companies cannot escape blame for what they inflicted on Tanzanians, however, the government is equally not innocent.
The point is, before reducing fuel prices, the government through its agency, Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority, EWURA, ought to have made their homework by ensuring that the exercise would not end up hurting either part as suggested by one of the legislators who claimed to have spent two decades in fuel industry.
Without going into the intricacies of fuel industry, you cannot force an orange vendor who bought one orange for 50/- to sell the same at 40/-, it does not make business sense and that is where Ewura was supposed to have made their homework!
Personally I doubt Ewura did that as clearly noted by the fuel expert-cum-legislator who had made the point of giving free consultancy to the Minister for Energy and Minerals, Mr William Ngeleja ten days before Ewura reduced fuel prices.
However, having made their decision, Ewura remained mum leaving Tanzanians to suffer in silence over a problem they were very much responsible for.
As noted by Mr Makamba, the government through its ministry of energy and minerals will certainly have to organize a meeting with fuel companies and thrash out whatever differences exist between them before it is too late.
It is important for Mr Ngeleja and the Ewura chief executive officer, Mr Haruna Masebu to bear in mind that as long as they don’t have anything to fall back on should fuel companies decide that they no longer need to engage themselves in fuel business, they have no alternative but to play the ball with fuel companies.
As for the government and the ruling party, CCM, this is yet another lesson for them that they cannot have their cake and eat!
During the heated debate in the House in which for the first time, both CCM and opposition Mps spoke with one voice, the latter raised the issue of CCM having been funded by some fuel companies in the last elections, allegations that were never refuted.
It is our hope that both institutions may have learnt that if they want to be taken seriously by fuel companies and others, they will have to stop taking round their bowl for assistance!
Fortunately for the ruling party they can always take a leaf from the founding father of this nation, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere who could order anyone around simply because he had one important character, MORAL AUTHORITY!
After the fuel crisis, both the government and CCM will never be same! As the government broods over the just ended fuel crisis, it is important they told the nation what became of the Jairo saga! Surely the nation can no longer wait.
Attilio Tagalile
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