Mr. President, the faculty, staff, students, invited guests and the
public at large. Allow me to express my gratitude, for the cordial
welcome at your lovely campus. It is one of a kind, and If I could, I
would have stayed much longer to learn more on your success that I could
take back to our young people. The environment and the surroundings
are as beautiful as the people themselves. Along the way, I have met
great people with great hearts, and I thank you for that.
Likewise, receive greetings from the people of Tanzania. I was quite
impressed with your level of research, and the homework you have done
trying to know Tanzania, I was also particularly touched by some of you
in the audience that knew the geography of my country; and even trying
to challenge me . Mrs. Macquire, “People of Mto wa Mbu” are definitely
proud of you for being such a good Ambassador. We thank you, and
Tanzania needs more of you that will help in exposing it to the people
of America.
The Samford community, my journey has been long and tedious; I have
travelled through hills and valleys of trials and tribulations. However,
due to the need and challenges we face as a nation, physical fatigue
of travel would not stop me from marching forward. I am determined to
work with my countrymen to see our nation of Tanzania reach the
Promised Land.
Tanzania is a great and rich country, with rich culture and rich people
at heart. Her people have sent me on a study tour. They have sent me to
learn the secrets of your success as a society
Tanzania is one of the most blessed countries on the face of the earth.
It has abundance of natural wealth, and for those who understand the
world history, know that the best game parks are in Tanzania. It is the
place believed to be the cradle of mankind.
Tanzania is the home of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Serengeti national park,
Ngorongoro crater, and Olduvai Gorge where the first man is believed to
have lived. We have some of the world best beaches; our people are very
hospitable and extremely welcoming. I welcome all of you to Tanzania
For a long time, Africa has been known as a dark continent infested with
disease, poverty, starvation, illiteracy and never endings wars. This
might have been created in your minds with the images in your
televisions. I can’t blame you, because this is the truth you know
However, this is far from the reality. Africa and Tanzania in particular
is the new frontier. Tanzania is a country rich in natural resources
and only lacks human capital. It is a country with rich land and plenty
of water bodies
Many African leaders are believed to come to Washington and other
western capitals begging for handouts known as foreign aid. This has
created a notion in the minds of many that Africans are poor and lazy.
This is not the case.
Africa is transitioning from mismanagement, dictatorship and corruption
that have plagued the continent. Corruption is the main vice depriving
Tanzanians and other Africans a chance to a better education, better
healthcare and economic prosperity.
Well, I am not here to beg, because my country is rich. I know clearly
well that, foreign aid does not come cheaply. It comes with a condition
of signing up our sovereignty
I am not here for foreign aid, and CHADEMA party which I represent does
not believe on foreign AID. This is my party’s philosophy, and any sane
human being would not want to live off handouts, or going around
begging because foreign aid is only needed as short term relief for
countries coming out of calamities. Rwanda needed help to so it could
emerge out of the ruins of genocide. Once it did, it became less
interested on the foreign aid now a success economic story in Africa
Foreign aid is a form of slavery which creates a false sense of
entitlement. It confines a beggar into a psychological and mental prison
of his own creation, becoming incapable to make any meaningful
decision of his own. He does not think on how to get out of his
difficulties as long as he knows that, someone somewhere will help him.
CHADEMA party believes that all too often, foreign aid creates
dependency by the receiving country onto the giving country and winds up
in the pockets of corrupt rulers.
Foreign aid money are your taxes, your sweat which should work for your
benefit not for people sitting on their wealth. More important than
your dollars, are your brain trust, investments and technological
advantage. This is what we need to utilize our resources and also in
planning for years beyond our non-renewable resources
Our country rich in resources is being exploited by foreign entities,
while our President is busy trotting the world begging for mosquito
nets. With our resources, we can make our own mosquito nets without them
being donated to us. Chadema party which I represent is poised to
changed that, and the most important tool we need is the development of
human capital
We need our resources to benefit our people. We need to create jobs for
our people, we need to improve our health care, we need to improve our
education, our infrastructures, communication and economy as a whole.
And this is only possible if can with the wealth that we have all we
need is better education for our people
We are currently having inequitable trade, where far eastern countries
are exporting their poor populations to compete for jobs with our
citizens. They are even exporting to us their prisoners to work on our
roads yet millions of our young men have no jobs. This is not possible
in any civilize society, unfortunately, because our rulers have signed
contacts shrouded in secrecy whose contents are only known to them
Some of these individuals have turn to insult us as a nation. They are
now interfering on our sovereignty, publicly aligning themselves with
political parties. A whole ambassador standing on a political platform
to address a political rally, and has ignored the public call for him to
leave the country!
This is not the kind of trade we are looking for. We are looking for
partners that will work with us to develop our resources in order to
benefit our people; Partners that will bring to our country new skills,
and also create jobs for our graduates. We need your expertise so we
can turn our country into a bread basket of Africa. America is the
world’s land of milk and honey where everyone wants to be, that’s the
model we want to learn from
Well, we have come to realize, that if you feed us today with your milk
and honey, our meals for tomorrow may not be guaranteed. We instead
want to know how you made your country into a land of milk and honey so
we can be able to feed ourselves for unforeseeable future and also
feed the rest of the world. We have the potential but lack the
expertise, and the know how is what we need
Tanzania is not an island; it is part of the global community where all
humans have the liberty to visit whenever they want. Our boarders are
open for all, as long as our laws and culture are respected. All we need
is trade partnership that will guarantee fifty-fifty trade, in which
the country benefits equally with the investor.
The younger American generation, I am inviting you to visit Tanzania; I
am talking to you as the investors of tomorrow. Come and explore the
endless possibilities my country has for you. We need investors that
will bring into our country, a set of skills and creativity to turn our
hardwood into high quality, made in Tanzania products, as opposed to
bringing cheap furniture made of plywood while hauling away our valuable
timber
Chadema party believes on the free market economic philosophy in which
individual creativity is rewarded. We need your partnership in fostering
individual innovation within our people. We don’t need your tax money;
neither do we need your mosquito net donations, we need your skills.
We don’t need shoe boxes, we need to know how to make our own shoes. We need your technological know how
CHADEMA party’s priority number one is education! Priority number two is education and so is the priority number three.
We believe on education to be the only way for Tanzania to rise from the
abject poverty it is in today. We have no alternative but train our
young people who will in turn, employ their intellectual creativity into
full practice to enable Tanzania become an economic giant in a
continent long forgotten
Samford is one of the American’s finest educational institutions. It is
producing some of the world finest, from school teachers to the finest
lawyers. It is my hope that we see your institution open its doors to
our support and in preparing Tanzania’s aspiring scientists, teachers,
and accountants to become innovators.
In our effort to make our country a unique success story, I am
challenging you the young people to go out to the world, and open new
trails for others to follow. Tanzania has its doors open for you.
Thank you all for listening.
Dr Wilbrod Peter Slaa is the General Secretary of the Main Opposition
Party in Tanzania (CHADEMA).He came second during the 2010 Presidential
elections which President Kikwete won. Dr Slaa is expected to contest
in the year 2015 General elections.He is the number one critique of
President Kikwete's government.
machine za upimaji moyo, kifua, sukari, uzito, urefu n.k), Mashine za Oxygen, vifaa vya kuongezea maji na damu mwilini n.k .
