By Frederick Fussi
A progressing nation ever since the creation of humankind required a clear positioning of its young population in order to guarantee the future of that nation.
A progressing nation ever since the creation of humankind required a clear positioning of its young population in order to guarantee the future of that nation.
The youth of Tanzania, as a fast growing young population constituting more than 35 per cent of the whole population, has an active role to play in the on-going process of writing the new Constitution.
Before venturing into what should be the young people’s position in the process of writing the new Constitution, the youth themselves should be made aware of their position.
The point is that the fact that the current young population and the next one will face the impact of this new Constitution, their participation is a prime opportunity for them to shape their future.
The position of the youth should take two forms if at all the aim is to shape the future. The first is: how best the youth should unite to shape the future without compromising the agenda for national building, and secondly, what form the post-constitutional agenda be, that will keep the youth focused, solidified and keen to see the shaped future is a reality.
The first aspect is tackled in summary form in this article, while the second one will hinge on what should be considered the view of the youth on the post-constitutional agenda that is connected to a fair distribution of our scarce resources.
On April 3, we witnessed the process of nominating representatives at the grassroots level, who will be representing fellow citizens from their localities in constitutional councils. These will be grassroots platforms responsible for scrutinising the first draft of the new Constitution.
According to an analysis conducted by a youth-led organisation, Tanzania Youth Vision Association (TYVA), based on guidelines of the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC), elected youth representatives from Tanzania Mainland were 3,429 (Tanzania Mainland 3,249 and Dar es Salaam 180) which is equal to 19 per cent of all representatives with the composition of elderly people, women, the youth and other people totaling 18,169 with Councillors altogether.In Zanzibar, elected youth representatives were 335, which is equal to 28 per cent of all representatives including Councillors.
The number and the percentage of youth representatives do not matter; rather, what matters more is how best the youth should turn their voice into a strong tool; to amplify the voice, and position their common agenda within a context of a united bloc rather than disjointed units, whatever percentage of their representation.
The 19-per cent and 27-per cent of the youth from streets and wards as well as shehia of Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar respectively will be representatives of the youth in the constitutional councils regulated by the CRC although there is also an opportunity for other youth to become united through youth-led NGOs.
But the question remains: what should be the common unifying perspective shaping views of the youth as they sit to scrutiny the first draft of the new constitution?
TYVA for the past two years (2011 and 2012) had coordinated a project known as “Ijue Katiba” (Understand your Constitution). It collected views of the youth from Arusha, Dodoma, Mwanza, Iringa, Kilimanjaro, Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam on the new Constitution and successfully presented them before the CRC at Karimjee Hall in Dar es Salaam on January 9 this year.
From the views of the youth presented before the CRC, TYVA has discovered a gap on what should be the youth’s position on the critical need for a unifying perspective that incorporates all views and make them focused for the future.
Having participated in the project generated by TYVA, with the experience of the same in the past two years, I have an obligation to propose the way forward on the unifying perspective that must help the youth understand what they stand for and why they should stand for it and for whose interest.
This will be the beginning of youth positioning themselves in the process and carrying forward their common agenda in the post-new Constitution era.
The unifying perspective that should bring all the youth together as we scrutiny the first draft of the new Constitution is to have an understanding that the new Constitution is an instrument that will be used by all Tanzanians to fairly regulate the distribution of their scarce resources among all people of the country without making some far better off than others.
Scare resources in this context should mean anything valuable given by nature that involves costs in obtaining them. We measure the value of scarce resources based on how hard its accessibility is.
For instance, money is not easily accessible and is thus a scarce resource. Therefore, the distribution of the treasure of Tanzania vested in scarce natural resources like mineral deposits, water, gas, oil and others should be translated into monetary value.
The Constitution as an instrument should direct the legislature, the executive and the judiciary to fairly distribute them among the people without making some better off and others worse off.
In the future, we can further deliberate on how the Constitution should be treated by the youth as an instrument of fair distribution of scarce resources among all Tanzanians without making some better off and others worse off.
The successful take off of this unifying perspective among the youth will give birth to the post-new Constitution agenda where the youth will live and aspire to see that the agenda of the future shaped by themselves come into a reality.
This article was also published in the most read news paper in Tanzania, The Citizen on Sunday 13 April 2013 with a title fair distribution of wealth a major concern for the youth.Click here to view it.
