Dr Magufuli also expressed his commitment to transfer all government offices and institutions to Dodoma before the end of his first term in office. In his acceptance speech immediately after he was elected the new CCM National Chairman by all delegates of the party's national congress that was convened by his predecessor, Jakaya Kikwete, Dr Magufuli promised to weed out unethical practices in the party including corruption.
CCM is among the institutions that have proved to have rampant corruption and i witnessed that when I was traversing the country to seek guarantors during the intra-party presidential nominations,’’ he said, adding: “At some points I arrived in Iringa to have forms filled by guarantors but it was very unfortunate that all of the party members had been bought, forcing me to travel to the interior of the region.
’’ According to him, it has reached a time where money is a tool of acquiring leadership, saying he would not allow such a habit to continue from now on. Dr Magufuli also said the other priority would be improving efficiency within the party, saying that was the philosophy of the founders of the party.
“There was a time when Mwalimu Julius Nyerere used to say that a weak political party produces a weak government and my dream is to seeing our party fully supervising the government,’’ he said. Starting yesterday, Dr Magufuli said, all party leaders now would be bosses of the leaders in the executive insisting that those who were not ready to receive directives from the party leaders should prepare to quit.
He further promised to scrap the titles of leaders who were possessing more than one title within the party, saying it was unfair to have a single leader with concurrent titles. On the welfare of workers in the party, Dr Magufuli said he was not ready to see officials serving the party becoming beggars while CCM had many resources countrywide.
He directed all party leaders from the grassroots level to the national level to list all the wealth that belongs to the party for an assessment and see how they can produce revenue to the party. “A special task force will be formed to evaluate, assess and verify all assets owned by the party,’’ he insisted.
The new CCM National Chairperson also expressed his quest to increase the number of members of the party and ensuring that the current number that stands at 8.7 million was going up and that from now on all party members would be required to pay the 1,200 membership fee through Electronic Fiscal Devices (EFD) machines.
In his speech, Dr Magufuli was also irked by betrayal within the party which he said was denying the party some influential constituencies that are grabbed by the opposition due to betrayal.
“Sometimes you may find someone in our party is wearing a CCM uniform in the morning while in the evening he is with the opposition, that is why I want to axe such people,’’ he said, adding that it was better to live with a witchcraft within the party than living with a betrayer.’’
On his intention to ensure that the government was shifting from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma, Dr Magufuli said he was committed that is why he decided to express his optimism at a crucial CCM meeting.
If we have been able to accommodate all the delegates in Dodoma and all Members of Parliament (MPs) have been staying for months here, I believe we can be able to transfer our offices before the end my first term in office, he said.
He added that he would be the first to shift to Dodoma, adding that there was no way other top leaders including the vice-president, the prime minister could stay in Dar es Salaam. In another development, the CCM chairman turned down the request by the party’s Secretary General (SG), Mr Abdulrahman Kinana, to resign from the post.
Dr Magufuli read out the letter presented to him by Mr Kinana before the national congress, saying that he had received the letter but by virtue of his powers within the party he rejected his request. Instead, the CCM chairman said he decided to turn down the request even without asking him to continue serving as the party’s SG and his entire secretariat adding that if he will think it is important to change the team he would issue official communication.
“I understand that there are people who were flexing their political muscles to grab the positions in the secretariat but they will never see the light of the day,’’ he added. Earlier, Mr Kikwete declared Dr Magufuli to have been confirmed the new CCM chairman after garnering all votes. A total of 2,398 cast their votes and nobody voted against the new chairman, according to him.
Meanwhile, JUBILATION, pomp and colour showered upon the Dodoma Convention Centre here as Union President John Magufuli was yesterday elected to succeed Mr Jakaya Kikwete as CCM’s fifth national chairman.
At a colourful handing-over ceremony, the immediate former CCM chairman, who was in a jovial mood, was cheered by the crowd at the party’s national congress after garnering a landslide victory.
Chronologically, events started unfolding at the conference centre as early as 7:30 am in the morning when delegates started thronging the meeting’s venue ahead of the day’s big event. At around 10:35am, outgoing CCM Chairman, Mr Kikwete, arrived for the party’s congress, flanked by Dr Magufuli, the party’s Secretary General, Mr Abdulrahman Kinana, CCM Vice-Chairman (Mainland), Mr Philip Mangula, Zanzibar President Ali Mohamed Shein and former Union presidents Ali Hassan Mwinyi and Benjamin Mkapa.
At 10:36 am, delegates stood up to sing the national anthem, while earlier - at 10:10 am, a special song to bid Mr Kikwete farewell came from the famous TOT band. According to Mr Kinana, out of the 2,412 delegates, 2,398 were present during the meeting, an equivalent of 99 per cent. Members were also in a jovial mood for a better part of the day. They were holding placards, flags and chanting the party’s slogans.
Dressed in the party’s green and yellow colours, hundreds of CCM cadres started arriving at the convention centre as early as 7am. The ‘Sunday News’ witnessed long queues of people who had lined up to enter the conference room. Security personnel had beefed up surveillance inside and outside the premises of the conference hall.
Police were seen patrolling every corner of this new capital-designate. Wearing their jungle green uniforms that are used by officers from the anti-riot Field Force Unit (FFU), general duty uniforms that are used by normal officers and those in plain clothes, the police were seen aboard several vans patrolling this municipality below the scenic Mlimwa and Imagi hills to the west and east.
In his remarks, Mr Kinana assured delegates that there was no course for alarm as security was guaranteed, asking them to remain calm during and after the meeting. Mr Kikwete, who is outgoing CCM chairman and immediate former Union president, took more than two hours in leveraging and engaging the ruling party’s political gear, assuring the members that the party was stronger now than ever before.
He clearly defined and chartered the party’s political course; a path he insisted would realise the ruling party’s political future in the next general elections in a bid to realise its political dream and ambition. Just like a shepherd, and as a political leader, amid cheers from his party members, Mr Kikwete shown the supporters of the party the direction he was undertaking politically within the party before relinquishing power to his successor. The pomp and colour that yesterday characterised the CCM meeting has sent a powerful political message across the country.
It has also put CCM opponents on notice as they followed the live broadcasts from Dodoma. The event was beamed live by all local television stations and more that 70 radio stations across the country, according to Mr Nape Nnauye, the CCM Ideology and publicity secretary.
According to political commentators, the politics of succession within CCM by handing over power to each other should set a pace and standards for other parties to emulate. Later yesterday evening, after Dr Magufuli was endorsed by members to become the new CCM chairperson, jubilation engulfed the convention centre with party members chanting the party’s slogans in support of the new party leader.
A group of local artistes did several performances to entertain the delegates until 10 am as the conference room was burst into unprecedented joy.
Culled from Daily News
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