Patriotism key to economic gain, youths told
AS the country marked the 59th year of the Union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar, the youth have been challenged to take advantage of various opportunities emerging in the amalgamation to achieve economic and national development in general.
Speaking during the symposium to mark the anniversary of the Union held in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday, a cross-section of the commentators challenged the youth to grab the opportunities arising in the Union, insisting that they uphold patriotism and morals traits that have made the marriage to be strong and stable.
Commenting, the former Zanzibar Finance and Planning Minister, Ambassador Mohamed Ramia Abdiwawa underlined that for the union to be strong, the youth must be patriotic and adhere to moral teachings proposed by the founders citing Mwalimu Julius Nyerere of Tanganyika and Abeid Aman Karume of Zanzibar.
“We should use the morals and patriotism taught by our founding fathers, the late Julius Kambarage Nyerere (of Tanganyika) and his Zanzibari’s counterpart, the late Sheikh Abeid Aman Karume in bringing development,” he pointed out.
Adding: “Patriotism and selfishness do not go in the same line … our leaders the late Karume and Mwalimu Nyerere showed from the beginning that they are patriots even before the independence and revolution of Zanzibar .. since they were in the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) and The Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP) they joined together for the benefit of their people”.
“When I was the minister of finance in 1981-1984, I remember being sent several times to see how we could help Tanzania Mainland, at that time there was a shortage of foreign currency, and we helped… and that came to be the same with us in Zanzibar during the 1970s when there were few scholars, we needed scholars from Tanzania Mainland… thus Zanzibar also benefited in that field of education,” he emphasised.
In particular, he added that the late father of the nation, Mwl Nyerere and the late Karume taught patriotism practically, where in practice the patriotism went further to benefit some other countries in Africa, especially during the Southern African Liberation Struggles. For his part, the Chairman of the Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation, Joseph Butiku also implored the youth to be patriotic and stop imitating inappropriate morals.
“Morality is a behaviour that explains who you are, based on your history and how you live today …Don’t live someone else’s morals that you don’t understand because you will become a fool,” Mr Butiku unveiled.
Similarly, the Chairman of the Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation asked the youth to develop the habit of understanding their history and culture and interpret them into today’s life.
