Benefits of coordinating government system in Tanzania

DAR ES SALAAM: TO jog your memory, President Samia Suluhu Hassan during her interview with BBC Swahili Anchor Salim Kikeke at the State house in Dar es Salaam August 2021, while marking her 100 days in office, responded to many issues including whether she had a dream or expected to become the President of Tanzania.

Her reply was a straight forward answer that, she never had any dream and so to say never imagined to be the President. In the course, she was also asked another question in the very same realm-that how difficult is it to lead a government?

She said it is difficult and it is not difficult at the same time! She emphatically described that when the government is “correctly coordinated” then it is much easier to operate and when it is fragmented you can imagine what will happen!

So how easy or difficult leading a government depends much on its coordination. In the same interview she explained her desires to have a coordinated government and in-actual fact she used the worlds “I am trying to build a coordinated government so we can work for the people and for the development of the country”. She informed the public and the world that her key task in the sixth government phase administration is to deal with a major challenge of uncoordinated government so as to have a coordinated government.

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Running uncoordinated government is an obstacle towards working for the people and the development of the country effectively and proactively.

Contextualizing, her reply on not having a dream to be the president might have been a humility response to the News Anchor for her previous positions and experience in past government regimes, eloquently manifest a full knowledge of understanding and what it takes to run the government.

This might have been the source of the likely expression “I am trying to build a coordinated government”. Listening to her you will note that she is so prepared and she knows exactly what really are her government’s administration problems and challenges, obstacles and the willingness to push national agenda’s properly and correctly.

This in my view is the tenet of her government philosophical strategy towards building a coordinated government in Tanzania. The benefit of coordinated government leads to better functioning of the government. The government that delivers its promise(s), strategic plans and ensures people’s prosperity.

A government that is caring and listening, that responds to people’s problems timely and proactively, that respects law and follows them, that identifies its weakness and capitalizes on strengthening systems and institutions, that optimizes resources and that reduces bureaucracies.

The government that is responsible enough and ready to respond to people’s needs without let up. It is smooth and all together work for the cause of the people and the nation. People in the government are not ashamed of each other and thus are bold with discipline and respect to tell one another points of corrections and mistakes to the greater advantage of their success.

A government that always focuses effectively and efficiently delivers according to plans and promises of its national discourse. In quick analysis, the term “coordinated” is a past tense of the word coordinate which signifies a process, an activity, in a broader sense from a principle of coordination; the term is part of planning in leadership and management, which signifies artistic arrangement. From Medieval Latin coordinātus, past participle of coordinare (“arrange together”), from Latin co- (“together”) + ordinare (“arrange”), equivalent to co- +‎ ordinate. Webster Dictionary also defines the term as the process of organizing people or groups so that they work together properly and well.

It can also be described as a harmonious functioning of parts for effective results. In a set theory in mathematics there are; set of natural numbers, set of whole numbers, set of integers, set of rational numbers, set of irrational numbers and set of real numbers all together are simply a collection of distinct objects forming a complete functional group and ultimately a system.

This is how a coordinated government can be pictured into perspective.

This is President Samia spoke of. It is true that when any administration lacks this value, then fragmentation is inevitable and failure to deliver efficiently and effectively would be the aftermaths of such a government, hence, littered with debris of broken convictions. The danger of not having a coordinated government is that it drains resources.

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Leaders always work in agonizing than organizing. Poor performance, lack of trust and at the very least cause disunity amongst others. Pillars of the government see each one working on its own since they claim to be independent, but at the end of the day, they meet somewhere for the smooth operations of the country.

Take for example a situation, where there is no smooth and direct connection between the central government and local government. This is seen through communication. How things are communicated from the central government to the local authority seems not connected in the framework of the local government environment.

For instance, an order may be given as the exemplification of implementation but at the local government lacks corresponding rules and principles to adjudicate it and vice versa.

Those who have direct administration with the people claim to be of fundamental importance than those who do not, yet all claim to serve the same people.

The Districts Executive Directors, Districts Administrative Secretaries, Regional Administrative Secretaries, Regional Commissioners, Counselors together with their corresponding offices and authorities at times do not see each and every one not reflecting the bigger picture of the government that they are serving.

This also goes to the central government, ministries with their respective offices, agencies, which do not work in union, above all with other dockets.

Every ministry seems to be independent and has no relationship with the other, at the same time they work to deliver services to the people as a component of the government.

They don’t think that success is for the government as a whole, but rather the unit and subsystems. This also goes to other institutions and the pillars of the government like the Legislature, Judiciary and Executive. Let’s not talk of other authorities such as the National Insurance Corporation of Tanzania (NIC), National Housing Corporation (NHC), Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) just to mention a few.

Education institutions and many others see each one operating independently and claim powers in themselves. Dangers of not having a coordinated government lead to irresponsibility, lack of self-control, being loose, fickle, dry as dust and in end loose collective responsibility, not being accountable to systems and institutions.

In end leads to dimming the people and being ‘big headed’ that if I fulfill what the appointing authority wants, then I am good and I have done the work of the government let alone the impact and conflict(s), it might be to the people.

Again, the government that fails to question itself and the framework of operations is definitely working in uncoordinated system. Its existence, legality and moral will be questionable.

It is therefore a systemic, philosophical, purposive danger that requires a coordinated effort, knowledge, philosophy and a clear defined government purpose to achieve it. The challenges of building a coordinated government are beyond normal instructions and it is not a simple task.

Promoting a coordinated government has to go deep down from the local government to the central government, government institution and the forward and backward linkages of such government entities, organs, subsystems and systems, all together require structuring of the entire administrative structure.

The writer is a Leadership and Management professional, political analyst and commentator based in Dar es Salaam and reachable via niyegirap@gmail.com +255718160307